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Carlisle's Crane Makers: The Cowans Sheldon Story (Nostalgia Road)

Category: Transport

In 1846, just prior to the opening of the Lancaster & Carlisle railway, four enterprising engineers opened a small railway engineering works on the outskirts of Carlisle. Optimistically the four young men, all former apprentices of the great railway pioneer George Stephenson, described their factory at Woodbank as a 'locomotive works'.

Although no locomotives were built by the company of Cowans Sheldon, it did go on to become one of the most important railway and marine engineering firms in the world. Its claim to fame was the manufacture of a wide range of cranes from railway breakdown cranes to dockside and floating cranes for maritime applications.

The Carlisle-based firm also made railway turntables, traversers, water columns, and even the steel work for the local market hall. Now, leading transport historian Professor Earnshaw records the company's birth, growth and consolidation, followed by its eventual takeover, demise and recent regeneration.

This book will appeal not only to residents of the Border City and Cumbria, but to railway, maritime and mechanical engineering enthusiasts worldwide.

 ©2008 Colourpoint Books