Engineering Business Papers

This material is held atInstitution of Mechanical Engineers Archive

Scope and Content

Covers a wide range of companies, active in different aspects of mechanical engineering including, shipbuilding, aeronautical and locomotive.

Includes company records for Coalbrookdale, CA Parsons, Vickers, WH Allen, Longridge, National Automobile Safety Belt Association, Hoover, London & Birmingham Railway and Liverpool and Manchester Railway, amongst others.

Also of note: collection of post-war planning documents (Second World War) and photograph albums for Anglo-American PLC, tin dredging mines (previously, Anglo-Oriental (Malaya) Ltd); design work and papers relating to "Miss England III"; original subscription document for Worcester Shrewsbury and Crewe Union Railway Company; and Maudslay, Sons and Field marine chart, 1815-1863.

Featured companies:

  • Association of Railway Locomotive Engineers
  • British Electrical and Allied Industries Research Association (BEAIRA)
  • Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company
  • Maudslay, Sons and Field
  • TB Jordan, Son and Meihe
  • John I Thornycroft & Company
  • Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company (LMR)
  • Longridge and Company
  • Guy Leslie Murray
  • Nicolls Mathews and Company
  • Coalbrookdale Company
  • HM Dockyard, Sheerness
  • CA Parsons and Company
  • London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS)
  • Samuel Walker and Company
  • Worcester Shrewsbury and Crewe Union Railway Company
  • Jones and Potts
  • WH Allen, Sons and Co
  • Woodside Iron Works
  • Heenan and Froude
  • Grangesberg-Oxclosund Railway
  • British Leyland Group
  • Anglo-American PLC
  • Air Transport Association of America
  • Joseph Lucas Limited
  • Southern Railway Company (SR)
  • Combustion Steam Generators Limited
  • John I Thornycroft and Company
  • London and North Western Railway (LNWR)
  • South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR)
  • Hejaz Railway
  • EB Wilson
  • J Stone and Company 36 - J Stone and Company
  • London and North Western Railway Company (LNWR)
  • Greenwood and Batley Company
  • J and N Phillips and Company
  • National Automobile Safety Belt Association
  • 'Practical Mechanics' Journal'
  • Hoover Company
  • Bryan Donkin Company
  • Vickers Limited
  • FFCC Nacionales de Colombia
  • London and Birmingham Railway
  • Hunslet Engine Company
  • Jonathan Hulls
  • British Internal Combustion Engines Research Institute (BICERI)
  • Messrs Howard & Kent
  • American railway companies: drawings
  • Great Indian Peninsula Railway
  • Imperial Railways of Japan
  • Robey and Company
  • CJ Fowell
  • Charles Burrell and Sons
  • London and North Eastern Railway (LNER)
  • Power Jets
  • Hudswell, Clarke & Co
  • London, Chatham and Dover Railway
  • Great Western Railway (GWR)
  • Avonside Engine Company

Administrative / Biographical History

The collection comprises of discreet collections related to engineering companies or engineers working life and includes, official papers, minutes and letters.

Arrangement

Below the collection level, each discreet collection is arranged by creator and entered as a sub-fonds/collection. Within this, collections are arranged as they would be if they stood alone, depending on material.

Access Information

Other Finding Aids

Custodial History

Originally catalogued at IMS the collection has been re-catalogued and divided into PER (personal papers) and BUS (business papers). Larger IMS collections will be allocated their own ref no eg George and Robert Stephenson's papers have been removed from IMS, collated and will be re-catalogued as STE. This work is ongoing throughout 2014-2015. Additionally, previously all our collections were divided by type eg museum objects, drawings etc but they will now be collated into relevant collections; George Stephenson's railway token will be collated into STE. Notes on the catalogue will record this process. The aim being to make collections more discoverable.