ABSTRACT
The managerial strategies of the London and North-Western Railway Company (LNWR) in its Works, along with the workers' responses to these were, however, only a small part of the men of Crewe's experience of work. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries the notion of skill obviously changed its context and meaning. This was especially true in the context of the engineering industry as a whole, and for the Crewe Works where technology and methods of management were always advancing. Building a locomotive was a complex, multi-staged process, a factor which is well illustrated by the numerous different trades which were employed in loco building from the Works' establishment. Principally there were three different skilled trades involved in foundry work, the task of casting moulded objects from molten metal. These were the furnaceman, who prepared, heated and tapped the cupola furnace which was generally used in all sections of founding; the moulder, and the patternmaker.
