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Private company

Manning, Wardle and Company

Defunct British locomotive manufacturer

Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

  • Industrylocomotive manufacturing1
  • HeadquartersLeeds1
  • Founded inLeeds1
  • Legal formjoint-stock company1

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Loco Sharpthorne
Photo: Mjroots, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.2

Products and brands

  • CGR 0-4-0ST 1873
  • Manning Wardle I class
  • Manning Wardle K class
  • Manning Wardle L class
  • Manning Wardle O class
  • Manning Wardle Q class
  • Manning Wardle works no. 2018 “Littleton”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 21
  • Manning Wardle works no. 50
  • Manning Wardle works no. 178
  • Manning Wardle works no. 434 “Pioneer”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 442 “Little Bess”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 517
  • Manning Wardle K class locomotive works no. 641 “Sharpthorn”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 890
  • Manning Wardle works no. 1210 “Sir Berkeley”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 1361 “Yeo”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 1363 “Taw”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 1362 “Exe”
  • Manning Wardle works no. 1555
  • Manning Wardle works no. 2042 “Lew”

Listed on Wikidata.1

Ready to run models:

In 2018 Minerva Model Railways produced the K Class 0-6-0ST in O gauge.

In 2024 Rapido Trains UK announced the productions of the L Class 0-6-0ST in OO gauge.

Kits

Read the full text

CSP Models brass kits Littleton No 4/5 0-6-0ST in OO/EM/P4 gauge.

CSP Models brass kit Warwickshire 0-6-0ST in OO/EM/P4 gauge.

CSP Models brass kit Q Class 0-6-0ST in OO/EM/P4 gauge.

CSP Models brass kit Burwarton/Cleobury 0-6-0ST in OO/EM/P4 gauge

From Wikipedia’s article on Manning Wardle, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Acquisitions

Following closure in 1926 after producing more than 2,000 steam locomotives, much of the site was taken over by Hunslet Engine Co., with some parts going to the diesel engine manufacturer, McClaren. The company's intellectual property rights, goodwill, drawings and patterns initially passed Kitson & Co., thence to Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn in 1938 and finally to Hunslet Engine Company in 1960. Kitson & Co. made twenty-three locos of Manning Wardle design until the firm's withdrawal from locomotive manufacture and Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn produced a further five in 1940–41, all T class 0-6-0ST's for Stewarts & Lloyds. The surviving drawings are now held at Statfold Barn Railway Museum, near Tamworth.

The trademark name Manning Wardle is owned by a company formed in 1999 to preserve the name for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, which from 1898 to 1935 operated what have become some of the company's most famous products, narrow gauge 2-6-2T engines: Exe, Taw, Yeo and later Lew.

From Wikipedia’s article on Manning Wardle, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1927Dissolved Dissolved1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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