LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Tamworth

Joseph Wright and Sons

Joseph Wright started a carriage works in London and from January 1836 he was leasing fifty-six coaches to the London & Greenwich Railway, which was all their passenger stock. In August 1837 he built coaches for the London & Southampton Railway and in the following year, the London & Birmingham Railway. In 1844, following an order to repair several coaches from the recently formed Midland Railway, Joseph decided to move his business closer to Birmingham. Thus in April 1845 he purchased six acres of meadowland outside the small village of Saltley. This was adjacent to where the Saltley Viaduct crossed the Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal and the Midland Railway. Under the name ‘Joseph Wright & Sons’, he constructed a new carriage works on this site and closed his London workshop. As the business expanded, a further forty-two acres of adjacent land was leased for the construction of a new larger works. These opened in 1853 and the original site was leased to the London & North Western Railway for use as a carriage repair shop. The Midland Railway opened Saltley Station next to the new carriage works in October 1854 and in the same year the first Saltley Engine Shed was erected a little further to the south. In 1855, Joseph Wright left the business in the hands of his sons and he died in 1859. Needing share capital to continue expanding the company, it was registered as a limited liability company in March 1862 under the name: ‘Metropolitan Railway Carriage & Wagon Company Limited’.

Robert Ferris

Ref: misc_indust355 R Ferris An advert for Joseph Wright & Sons, Railway Carriage and Waggon Builder's, Saltley Works, Birmingham

Ref: misc_indust356 R Ferris Map showing the location of the original Saltley station and Messrs Joseph Wright & Sons works

Ref: misc_indust357 HMRS A four-wheel standard gauge passenger brake van built by Joseph Wright & Sons for the Birkenhead service

Ref: misc_indust358 GWR West Midland Railway four-wheel standard gauge Composite Coach No 134 built by Joseph Wright & Sons

Ref: misc_indust359 GWR A standard gauge First Class carriage built for the Chester & Birkenhead Railway by Joseph Wright & Sons

Ref: misc_indust360 GWR A standard gauge First Class carriage built for the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway by Joseph Wright & Sons