100 Years of Rail Crossings

摘要

This second meeting of the New Year was well attended by some 50 members and. The venue was Edgar Allen Ltd works at Bathgate and the technical presentation was a joint effort by Mike Westoby technical manager and Billy Johnston, chief methods engineer. Mike introduced the paper with a short history of the Company... William Edgar Allen started the company in 1867 as a steel producer and by the end of the Century as railways and tramways developed, the company began to be involved in the manufacture of switches and crossings. As time went by the company produced its first austenitic manganese steel trackwork, which was a network of points and crossings for Sheffield Tramways. It then went on to become a public company and acquired the Company of Askham Bro's & Wilson before moving to the Meadowhall site and becoming Edgar Allen Engineering & Co Trackwork Dept. Through the 1900's the company produced manganese and general steel castings and was a supplier to naval craft and a wide range of military equipment. By the 1960's it began to develop the standard crossing in conjunction with British Rail and in 1968 it was awarded a contract to supply manganese steel crossings.