Derby Works

Early days

Around 1840, the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Railway set up workshops to the rear of Derby station. Although the Midland Counties had an engine house at Nottingham, the main facilities for all three lines appear to have been, initially at least, those at Derby. That for the Birmingham and Derby was next to its line, near London Road. It was about 140 feet (43 m) long and 43 feet (13 m) wide, with three lines and three wide archways at its entrance, supporting a water tank. In one corner was a smithy. The Midland Counties' shed was rectangular and about 800 feet (240 m) long to the north of the site. Adjacent to it were water and coke facilities, and locomotive repair workshops. The North Midland's became a full repair facility, with a smithy, lathes and other machine tools. These were associated with what is believed to be the first Roundhouse, designed by Francis Thompson. On each side of it, in a vee, were workshops for locomotive and rolling stock repair.

In 1841, problems were becoming apparent with the heat of the exhaust gases through the fireboxes of the locomotives, and the North Midland works assisted George Stephenson in the design of his Long Boiler locomotive In the same year, the Midland Counties locomotive Bee (formerly Ariel) was fitted with Samuel Hills Smoke Consuming Apparatus in an attempt to conform to the Government's insistence that they should consume their own smoke. This experimentation was carried on with the use of a brick arch in the firebox to use the cheaper coal instead of coke, but it was initially unsuccessful.

Recent history

In 1964 British Railways established the British Rail Research Division, which reported directly to the British Railways Board (BRB). It was the first to move into the new Railway Technical Centre on London Road opposite the old LMS research building, followed by the BRB Department of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering (DM&EE).

In 1969 the workshops were turned into the BR subsidiary British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) which also had its headquarters in the Railway Technical Centre.

In 1990 the closure of BREL Derby locomotive works was announced. The locomotive works was mostly demolished, part of the plant was used for bogie production by Bombardier Transportation (Bombardier Derby Pride Park); though identified as a primary production site by Bombardier in 2001, in 2004 it was announced that the bogie plant was to close due to overcapacity in the European rail industry.

The works site, along with the land formerly occupied by Chaddesden sidings and the gas works, was renamed Pride Park, part of which is occupied by the Derby County Football Club's Pride Park Stadium.

The Roundhouse

After determined campaigning by heritage groups, the original North Midland roundhouse, with the original Midland Railway offices and the original Midland Counties workshop, was spared. (The Birmingham and Derby's workshops had been demolished around 1870.) Though Grade II listed, they became more and more derelict. There was talk for a while of Waterman Railways taking them over. However, in 2006 it was bought from the city council for £1 by Derby College, which planned to spend £36 million to restore it for use as a college campus, with grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the East Midlands Development Agency. The campus opened to students in September 2009. Tours of the Roundhouse are available throughout the year.

Although the locomotive works is no more, railway work is carried on elsewhere in the city by a number of private companies. The Litchurch Lane Carriage Works builds electric multiple units under its present owner Alstom.