THE LARGEST RAILWAY WORKS IN THE WORLD.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1809, 8 December 1879, Page 3

THE LARGEST RAILWAY WORKS IN THE WORLD.

The members of the Iron and Steel InsfiInto have been holding their annual meeting at Liverpool. One afternoon a special train, provide free of cost by the directors of tho London and North-Western Railway Company, convoyed a very large party of tho members to Crowe, where they were shown over the magnificent works of the company, and whore both tho Bessemer and the Siemens-Martin processes of steel manufacture arc carried on. Tho Crewe works are said to bo the largest railway works in the world. They wore established in 18-13, for the purpose of repairing tho locomotive engines, carriages and waggons required for the Grand Junction Railway, afterwards absorbed iu the more extensive NorthWestern ; machinery for the manufacture of rails was added in 1853, and in 1857, on amalgamation of tho northern with the north-eastern divisions, the Crewe works became tho centre of tho locomotive and carriage departments of tho northern division of the line. In 1801 works were erected for the manufacture of Bessemer steel, and in 1809 or 1870 an open hearth stool-making plant was added, which has since been largely need in tho production of steel for locomotive purposes. Upwards of 2000 locomotives have been made at the Crowe works, and as many as 118 in one year. No other works in tho country have made and used steel so extensively for railway purposes. The works, as a whol", cover an area of 27 acres, and employ over 5000 hands. After tho members had been entertained to a very excellent luncheon by tho railway company, they wore shown the Bessemer steel converting-house, where four five-ton converting vessels were seen in operation. The pig iron is first melted in an ordinary cupola, to which the air is supplied by a Roots blower, whence it is run into one of tho converting vessels; the air is supplied to the converting vessels by a pair of horizontal blowing engines of 450 horse power, by Hick and Co., Bolton. The cogging mills, lire rolling mills, plate mills, merchant mills, mills for rolling spring steel, &o , were examined with interest ; the more so that there are, perhaps, no works that can boast of greater perfection in their mechanical arrangements. From tho rail works and tho points and crossing department tho visitors were conducted by a staff of officials to the boiler shop, which is 350 ft. long and 107fb. wide. Here they saw locomotive and stationery boilers being made of steel. The party were afterwards conducted in succession through the boiler shop, smithy, the flinging shop, the plate stores, the boiler fitting shop, tho engine repairing shops, and the steel forging department, whore they saw the plate and large angle mills, and tho upright thirtyton duplex steam hammer, the tire and wheel shop, the iron forge, the paint shop, the brats and iron foundry, the millwright’s shop, tho pattern shop, and the saw-mills ; and they finally were pulled up through the wheel forge and tho spring smithy in the locomotive erecting wheel and fitting shops.