"The Railway Foundry" was one of the group of Leeds locomotive manufacturers to grow out of the plant of E B Wilson, which included Hunslet, Manning Wardle and Kitson. HC locos were rugged, well-designed products though most were for industrial operators at home and abroad. They entered the internal combustion loco market fairly early, and teamed up with Bostock & Bramley to make use of their "SSS" (Synchro-Self-Shift) gearbox range. After the Second World War their mines loco range, combining a Gardner engine, Fluid coupling and SSS box were generally preferred to their Hunslet competitors. On standard gauge they responded to the challenge of Sentinel 2 years earlier than Hunslet, but their marketing or pricing must have been poorer as they struggled to sell the few locos they built. Their last s.g. diesel loco was finished in 1971, and the goodwill and designs later passed to Hunslet.
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Ashdown | Grace | Claire |