Does anyone know where the works was, in Stockton, where this metre gauge 3000 volt dc loco was built?
Date was around 1954. The loco was designed by Metrovic, but all the parts and assembly were done by Beyer-Peacock Ltd of Stockton. For its size it was quite a powerful machine and was intended for the Rede Mineira de Viacao system in Brazil. Maximum speed was 50mph and the four dc motors had a combined power of 1072 hp. What happened to this company?
Images and details courtesy of Fred Starr.
Picture Stockton Archive 
I remember going with my father to an open day. I think he worked there.
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I started at MetroVickers Beyer Peacock Stockton in 1953. Initially as an apprentice fitter & turner but finished in the drawing office and qualified as a draughtsman. I left to work in the drawing offices of F. Hills & sons in Norton Road , Stockton.
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Beyer-Peacock ,Gorton,Manchester had long had a very good reputation for the quality of their products. The Metro-Vick Co-Bo locos built at Stockton unfortunately suffered from the chronic unreliability of the Crossley diesel engines they were fitted with. The actual build quality was better than some other diesel loco classes built in the late 1950s. However, as a small and unsuccessful class their life was always going to be short and they barely lasted longer than some of the steam engines they were supposed to replace. They would also not have won any prizes for exterior design. In 1958-59 they could be seen around our area on trial runs to Leeds or Newcastle with a rake of empty carriages.
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Metropolitan Vickers engineering works was located to the south of the Thornaby-Eaglescliffe railway at Bowesfield Junction. A single line connected the works adjacent to Bowesfield signal box. The most well known of their locomotives was the Type 2 Co-Bo, the only class of engine taken on by British Railways with a different number of wheels at each end. They proved to be very unreliable. One has reached preservation but after many years is not in a drivable state yet.
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Rather a good article on the below link on this company. They built 8000 locomotives during 1854 and 1966. What a shame Stockton cannot boast such engineering companies these days.
http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/beyer,_peacock_and_company
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It was opposite Manor House Farm on Yarm Road. The entrance was where Sculptor Crescent is today. You can see the factory as it was in 1949 here:
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw024097 (bottom right, just)
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw024098
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All before your time Fred. Metro Vickers took over the Le Tourneau factory on Yarm Road to produce Engines and lasted around eleven years before suddenly leaving, I think the major company went into administration. It is now Visqueen who took over in the early sixties.
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The Bowesfield works closed in 1966
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Beyer peacock co, joined metrovic ( metropolitan/ vickers ) and opened a factory Bowesfield works, on yarm road ( Visqueen site ). It opened in 1947. They built electric loco
for various countries. I.e Australia.
Link. Bowesfield works, wikipedia
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Was it built in Stockton-on-Tees OR in Stockton, USA?
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Just checked on the web, the mechanical parts were built in Stockton on Tees.
Here’s a link to the web page,
http://locomotiveperformance.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/metrovick-3000v-for-brazil-rmv-and-rvpsc.html
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Beyer, Peacock & Co. also built the 10 British Rail Class 82, 25 kV AC electric locomotives to a Metropolitan-Vickers design, the 101 BR Class 35 diesel hydraulic locomotives, and, the last of all built, BR Class 25/3 diesel-electrics. They also collaborated with Metropolitan Vickers in building the Western Australia Government Railways X class, diesel electric locomotives, and the New South Wales 46 class, 1500 V DC electric locomotives at Bowesfield Works, Stockton-on-Tees. Metro-Vic factory was almost opposite the old Nico plant where Jackson Solicitors are now. Check Wikipedia.
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I have heard of the Australian Locomotive link in relation to the Loco’s supplied to British Rail which, had unreliable engines. the sole survivor now in preservation has, I believe, an Ausie sourced engine. These were more heavily relied on and the Australians had found a way to make them more servicable engines.
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Wikipedia has an answer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowesfield_Works
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I think that the works involved in the building of this loco was situated on Yarm Road. The company transferred to Manchester (Metro-Cammell I believe). The factory became British Visqueen and would have situated roughly where the Premier Inn is, opposite Warburtons bakery, which used to be Jacksons back in the 1950/60s.
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It was Metropolitan Vickers Beyer Peacock [or Metrovicks as we used to call it] They assembled loco’s there it was where British Visqueen was opposite the slaughterhouse Yarm Road.
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The metro-vickers works was what became the British Visqueen factory on yarm road. Most of it has been demolished and new housing built on the site.
The same factory built the ill fated co-bo’s for British railways.
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Metrovicks Beyer Peacock site was taken over by Visqueen and was subsequently developed as private housing. Situated between the railway and the A66, more or less opposite the Eagle hotel travelling south between Stockton and Yarm. My dad was a foreman there until his death in 1958
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I worked on the loco’s as a sheet metal worker up till 1953 the foreman was called Gerry Flack and charge hand Harry Hayton. I left to go to Ashmores new site which was close to the Metro Vicks site. Some years later 1986 I emigrated to Perth W Australia and saw these loco’s still in service. The name plate on the side of the loco’s was Metro Vickers Stockton 1953 they lasted about 3 years till the railway was electrified. One loco was taken to the railway museum in Perth and was still there when I returned to England 2016.
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The Metro-Vickers/Beyer Peacock (MV/BP) factory was on Yarm Road onthe boundary of Stockton and Eaglescliffe. I believe that the postal address was Eaglescliffe. As an aside the 1 mile post, thought to be the first railway mile post marker in the World, was discovered in the late 1960s on the boundary of this factory.
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