Worcester Engine Works Company
Worcester Engine Works Company was a British railway engineering firm founded in Worcester on 4 August 1864. It operated for about nine years and built steam locomotives for several British and European railways. The company went into voluntary liquidation on 22 June 1872 and was fully dissolved by May 1874. The factory site in Worcester still exists as a Grade II listed building.
The Great Western Railway carriage works in Worcester burned down in 1864, so the company’s founders moved locomotive work to Shrub Hill Road, near Worcester Shrub Hill station. Local businessmen led by Alexander Clunes Sheriff started the new works to keep unemployed workers employed.
In its first three years the business was profitable, taking orders from the North Staffordshire Railway, Great Eastern Railway and Bristol & Exeter Railway, plus a few locomotives for contractors. Two contractor locomotives even ran on the Lwów-Czerniowce-Jassy Railway in Austria-Hungary.
After 1867 the economic panic reduced orders, and lavish spending on buildings caused losses. A small profit came in 1869 with a contract for 15 locomotives for the Nicolas Railway in Russia, but after that there were no further orders. The shareholders decided on voluntary liquidation in 1872, completed by 1874. The Worcester premises remain a Grade II listed building.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:25 (CET).