ABSTRACT
The North British Locomotive Company was formed in 1903 through the merger of three established locomotive builders in Glasgow: Neilson, Reid and Company; Dubs and Company; Sharp, Stewart and Company. All were already large, employing respectively 3,410, 2,423 and 1,737 men and boys in September 1902. The amalgamation dominated British locomotive manufacturers. Before 1914 its labour force was about one-half of all labour in the industry, and about one-third if the workshops of the railway companies are included. For over fifty years, until it delivered its last model to Nyasaland in 1958 the North British was a major manufacturer of steam locomotives, producing about thirty per cent of British output in the later 1920s and an even higher proportion after the Second World War. The major part of production went overseas.
