Drewry Car Co.

The Drewry Car Co was a railway locomotive and railcar sales organisation for most of its life. Only at the start and the end of its life did it build its own products, relying on sub-contractors for the rest of its time. It was quite separate from the lorry-builder, Shelvoke and Drewry, but it is believed that James Sidney Drewry was involved with both companies.

History
Drewry railcar used in Argentine Comodoro Rivadavia Railway in the 1940s.
A Baguley-Drewry inspection car (right) on the 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway in Wales
NZR RM class (88 seater) under restoration

Drewry & Sons ran a motor and cycle repair business in Herne Hill, London, and started building BSA engined inspection railcars. A ready market was found in South America, Africa, and India. Drewry Car Co Ltd was registered on 27 November 1906. In 1908 BSA (of motor-cycle fame) took over building the railcars in Small Heath, Birmingham. In 1911 building was taken over by Baguley Cars, Burton-on-Trent. From 1930 a lot of Drewry locomotives were built by English Electric companies.

In 1962 Drewry acquired a controlling interest in what had become E E Baguley Ltd, and formed Baguley-Drewry Ltd in 1962, thus once again building its own locomotives, in Burton-on-Trent. The company closed in 1984.

Output

Shunting locomotives

Railcars

References
  1. Here & There Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 307 May 1963 page 4
  2. WAGR Takes Delivery of First Diesels for Shunting: Road Engines to Come Railway Transportation January 1954 page 16
  3. Here & There Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 701 March 1996 page 96
  4. Tasmanian Government Railways 75HP Bogie Rail Motor Locomotive, Railway Carriage & Wagon Review issue 410 October 1926 page 326
  5. Tasmania's New Diesel Railcars Port Pirie Recorder 26 September 1939 page 2
  6. Christmas Island Light Railways issue 29 Spring 1969 pages 6
  7. Locomotives of the Southern Railway. Part 1, Railway Corresponce and Travel Society, 1975.

Sources
  • "The Drewry Car Company:1906-1970". Industrial Railway Record. Industrial Railway Society (40). 1972.
  • Marsden, Colin J., (2003) The Diesel Shunter, Oxford Publishing, ISBN 0-86093-579-5
  • The Railway Products of Baguley-Drewry Ltd and Its Predecessors, Civil, A, and Etherington, R, (2008), The Industrial Railway Society, ISBN 978-1-901556-44-5
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