‘Assembly of diesel locomotives’ at Vulcan foundry on 23 February 1962, based on information on leaders at the beginning of film, no titles on the film. Black and white film rushes (no edits, raw camera footage), no sound. The film starts with an outdoor sequence showing a EU06 class electric locomotive built for the Polish State Railway PKP pulled by a Pickfords road truck. A banner on the locomotive reads ‘300 Volts DC 2800 HP locomotive for Polish State Railways built by Associated Electrical Industries Limited, The English Electric Co. Ltd, Vulcan Foundry. The locomotive is taken away, transported by road. The rest of the footage on the reel is filmed inside Vulcan Works at Newton-Le-Willow. Footage shows wide range of metal work on diesel engines, several shells of locomotives are being worked being built at the same time, assembled diesel engines are transported across the works on a gantry crane to be fitted in locomotive body, wide shots of the works are taken from the crane. Footage also shows making and assembly of larger and smaller parts, assembly of engine parts, the different activities, specialist workers and machines at work (soldering, calibrating, cutting metal, machining). The film also features safety signs (large ‘Protect your eyes’ message on the gantry crane) and personal protective equipment worn by the workers.

Information on leader 1 (handwritten): Vulcan No. 9 assembly of diesel locos (handwritten on leader). Information on leader 2 (printed from previous negative element, likely the original rushes): ‘NR Inds Engineering. Vulcan Foundry 23/02/1962’. Total duration: approximately 14 minutes

The Vulcan Foundry was originally opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company. It initially produced girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. From about 1834, the Vulcan Foundry started building steam locomotives, and from 1835 started exporting locomotives internationally, production for international exports remained an important activity of the company until its closure in 2002. From 1929, the works started working on diesel and electric engines. In 1955 it became a member of the English Electric Group of Companies and started manufacturing English Electric diesel engines, including the prototype Deltic, fitted with two Napier engines, and the subsequent order of Deltics/Class 55 locomotives for British Railways. The works continued other diesel and electric engines for BR and foreign railways. In 1968, English Electric became part of GEC, so did Vulcan Foundry.

This film was used for training of workers at Vulcan Foundry in the 1960s.

The film can be considered alongside other objects in our collection such as the Deltic proptotype (‘Deltic' Co-Co 3300HP, 1955, 1963-80), a sectioned Deltic diesel engine (1989-7252), the GEC Traction Archive (GEC) and oral history recordings in the National Archive of Railway Oral History.