RN Diesel Engine Co. Ltd.

Company History Part 1

The history of the Russell Newbery® companies, Part 1 - The Manchester Years

Compiled from articles written by Ian McKim Thompson with additional material on the Grand Union boats collected by Andrew Laycock

Although the RN Diesel Engine Co Ltd have a comprehensive set of historical records relating to Russell Newbery, the collection is by no means complete. Mainly this is as a result of a decision of the Sterling Group to throw away the early records. This may have occurred due to accountants pressure to reduce the cost of storage, or simply because the then management thought the records not worth keeping. Thus we now have no real feeling for the everyday market issues, financial crises or commercial tribulations of the early years.

Early Manchester Days

Frederick Henry Royce, one half of the founding partnership of the world famous Rolls Royce company, plays a major part in the shaping of the future style of the Russell Newbery concerns.

Known as Henry, he was born on 27 March 1863 in East Anglia, and had a tragically deprived childhood. His first work experience was as an apprentice at the Great Northern Railway works in Peterborough. Later he moved to Greenwood and Batley, engineers of Leeds. Here he learnt toolmaking skills, showing exceptional dedication and determination, and acquired expert knowledge of the developing field of electricity. He was soon in charge of theatre, factory and street lighting in the City of Liverpool. In 1884 he set up his own business, F H Royce and Company, later this became Royce and Company of Manchester. Ploughing all the profits back, Royce became the leading producer of dynamos, motors, winches and cranes. Their electric crane became legendary for its longevity and reliability and was exported throughout the world. With a large order book, the company prospered. In 1901 they opened a new factory, designed by Henry, on the new Trafford Park Industrial Estate.

It was to this firm of excellence with its superb electrical and mechanical engineering that the newly appointed premium apprentices Frederick Russell and William Aubrey Newbery arrived in 1900. Such apprenticeships were lengthy and thorough, those at Royce would have been no exception. Henry Royce decided that his company should produce motor cars, the first was completed in 1904. Contemporary and later accounts agree that the key to the immediate success of the vehicle lay with Henry's thoroughness and attention to the smallest detail which produced the superlative qualities of the product. This attitude that we at RN Diesel Engine Co. Ltd. constantly bear in mind today. Henry Royce gave great care to the ignition coil and noise, two areas which were the bane of existing motor cars of the day. He boldly prophesied that quality of workmanship, attention to detail and accuracy of engineering technique would produce the finest cars. He reckoned that such activities were more important then revolutionary innovation. Improvement and care were his motto, coupled with dedication and determination.

It is reasonable to assume the young apprentices Frederick Russell and William Newbery must have been influenced by the prevailing working atmosphere at Trafford park. Henry Royce was undoubtedly a taskmaster, with almost a fanatical zeal, but he drove no one harder than himself. Sometimes he did not leave the works for three days and nights, snatching a few hours sleep on a bench. He could do every man's job better than the man himself. Henry stubbornly resisted any cheapening of his products despite intense price pressure due to recession and international competition. Perfection and diversification remained his bywords. When the Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls met Henry Royce in May 1904 at Manchester, he is quoted as saying "I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of Mr. Royce and in him I found the man I have been looking for for years". Of course this meeting lead to the formation of the world famous partnership which became a such a household name across the globe. Ivan Evernden, one time chief project engineer at Rolls Royce Motors Limited, once said of Henry Royce "I not only admired him, I was one of the few people who were genuinely fond of him... Henry Royce ruled the lives of the people around him, claimed their body and soul, even when they were asleep".

Altrincham - The Early Years

On completion of their apprenticeships, Frederick Russell and William Newbery setup their own business, the Russell Newbery Company. In 1909 they opened a works at Altrincham, now a suburb of Manchester, it was then a small provincial Cheshire town. Frederick's father underwrote the firm to the tune of £11,000, equivalent to over one million pounds today. The company was established to produce lighting sets and generators for country houses and estates, a sizeable market before the advent of the national electricity grid. It is hardly surprising with the two owners having been imbued with some of the best electrical and mechanical skills and knowledge in the world that the two owners established a sound reputation for quality. Russell Newbery produced their own engines, but at first these were petrol and petrol/paraffin units. They were reliable, but lack the durability that the later diesel engines would bring to the market.

It was just the engines that were developing - generators were becoming bigger and more sophisticated. The earliest diesel engines were developed before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. However, these were predominately two stroke units, often now called semi-diesels. They used hot bulb starting, with the iron cylinder head being heated to red hot by a paraffin blow lamp or by igniting starting cartridges to produce the hot spot needed to fire the compressed fuel. Larger units had compressed air starting, whilst smaller lighter engines were started by hand or foot, usually by spring loaded handle on the flywheel. Many an inexperienced wrist or ankle suffered! By the 1920s , semi-diesels produced by firms such as Bolinder, Kromhout, Petter, and Gardner, were powerful and reliable and saw applications in industrial, transport and marine environments.

Altrincham - The Middle Years

Russell Newbery never manufactured their own semi diesel, but by the late 1920s they were experimenting and developing a high speed (for the time) single cylinder engine to power the smaller generators then in production. Many applications for private electricity supply in rural areas of the United Kingdom still existed. This new diesel engine was code named "RD1" - probably for "Russell Diesel One". It was the very first diesel engine produced by the Altrincham Works. The first unit assembled was coupled to a generator set to provide the works with electricity.

For reasons that are not clear, William Newbery left the firm around 1920.

The RD1 was a heavily constructed single cylinder totally enclosed vertical four-stroke power unit built to Lloyds's specification. It was designed to run at 1000 rpm when it delivered 9 BHP. Compare this to the Bolinder semi-diesel that revved at 450 rpm. From its introduction in 1929, the RD1 was an immediate success. It was easily incorporated into a power pack with generator, radiator and heavy duty steel frame. It soon became a popular seller.

Probably most of the later stages of the development of the RD1 were in the hands of Jack Bradbury, who was then the company chief engineer and designer. Jack was a capable engineer and by 1930 had produced multi-cylinder developments of the original single-cylinder unit. Two, three and four cylinder models known respectively as "D2", "D3" and "D4" were manufactured.

The RN Diesel Engine Company

With the development of the "D" series engines, a separate company was formed to manufacture and market the engines. This was the "RN Diesel Engine Company". It operated in parallel with Russell Newbery and Company, who continued to produced generator sets, both firms using the Altrincham works. Neither company was limited by guarantee, even though some contemporary and later sources inaccurately include "Ltd." in the company names. (It is an offence under the Companies Act to include the word "Limited" when companies are not limited by guarantee.)

During the 1930s the diesel engines were marketed under the RN Diesels name. However, in January 1940, the two companies merged to form "Russell Newbery and Company Limited", a true limited company. The registered address was in Altrincham, the letter head stating "Altrincham, Cheshire, near Manchester".

Marine Units

During the early 1930s, the Grand Union Canal Company formulated an ambitious canal improvement scheme. This included an expansion of their carrying subsidiary, Associated Canal Carriers, which was renamed the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company Limited (GUCCCL). The first GUCCCL boat orders were placed in 1934, this consisted of four pairs of narrowboats (7 foot beam). (A pair is one motor boat equipped with an engine and an unpowered "butty" boat towed by the motor boat). Harland and Wolff Ltd. of Woolwich provided two pairs of iron composite boats (iron hull sides and elm bottom); Edward G. Woods of Brentford built one wooden pair; whilst Walkers of Rickmansworth built three pairs of wooden boats. Originally Walkers were to only have provided one pair, but this was increased to three when Nursers of Braunston were unable to complete their single pair order.

These twelve boats were the first of what became known as the Star class. They were 71 feet 6 inches in length, draw 3 foot 9 inches when loaded and the holds were 4 feet 2 inches deep. The six motor boats were fitted with a marine version of the Russell Newbery "D2" engine, the "DM2", at a cost of £216 per unit. A pair of boats were able to load around 55 tons of cargo (25 in the motor and 30 in the butty). The "DM2" engine producing 18 BHP was able to propel the loaded pair at a top speed of six knots, a total combined weight of around 85 tons. Since these boats had an increased freeboard compared to earlier narrowboats, their range of operation included tidal rivers such as the Thames and Trent as well as the still-water canals.

Walkers of Rickmansworth delivered the first pair, Arcturus (motor) and Sirius (butty) in October 1934. The launch of the final pair of the initial twelve boats, Antares and Spica, at Walkers during February 1935 was filmed by Gaumont British News.

Even before the initial order was complete, in January 1935 the GUCCCL placed more orders. They were obviously enamoured with the water-cooled powerful and reliable "DM2" engines. However, RN were unable to meet this demand, either because of orders for their own stock electrical equipment and industrial demands, or the fact that the Altrincham Works were inadequate to meet the order. The National Oil Engine Company at Ashton under Lyme just a few miles from Altrincham had considerable capacity. After negotiations to circumvent the problem, RN licensed National to build their own two-cylinder D series under license, this became known as the National 2DM. So the January 1935 GUCCCL order broke down as follows:

• 24 iron/elm composite pairs from Harland and Wolff at £1275 per pair, National engines
• 12 iron/elm composite pairs from Yarwoods of Northwich at £1250 per pair, Russell Newbery engines
• 6 wooden (oak/elm) pairs from Walkers at £790 per pair, Russell Newbery engines

In May 1935, the GUCCCL ordered yet more boats, thus:

• 18 steel/elm composite pairs from Harland and Wolff at £1276 per pair, National engines
• 8 all steel pairs with Vee bottoms from Yarwoods at £1301 per pair, Russell Newbery engines
• 12 wooden (oak/elm) pairs from Walkers at £1128 per pair, National engines
• 2 wooden (oak/elm) pairs from Woods at £1006 per pair, National engines

Thereafter, all new GUCCCL motor boats of the Star class and the slightly larger Town class were ordered with National 2DM engines. However, six motors were fitted with RN DM2 units. Thus a total of 38 GUCCCL motor boats were originally fitted with Altrincham built DM2 engines whilst those fitted with Nationals eventually numbered 141.

More details and subsequent history of the RN powered GUCC boats.

Altrincham Works Site

The original Russell Newbery works at Altrincham still stands and is now occupied by Travis Perkins. On Saturday 5th April 2003, The Russell Newbery Register and the RN Diesel Engine Co. Ltd. actioned a long held desire to have a suitable commemoration of the historial importance of the works. The prime mover behind the idea was David Thirlby, stepson of Frederick Russell. Lady Carol Stamp, eldest granddaughter of Frederick Russell, unvieled a commerative plaque, the inscription is as follows:

The Altrincham Plaque (photographed before fixing to the building).

Back to history index

This page updated 31 January 2004.