J&H McLaren & Co.

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J&H McLaren manufactured traction engines, stationary engines and later, diesel engines in Hunslet, Leeds, England.

McLaren traction engine of 1882 s/n127 reg HO 5618

[edit] Steam Engines

The company was founded in 1876 by John and Henry McLaren. They had both been apprenticed to Black, Hawthorn & Co of Gateshead, builders of railway locomotive and marine engines. The new Midland Engine Works was situated on Jack Lane in Hunslet, Leeds within sight of many of the great engineering companies of Leeds, e.g. Hudswell Clarke, Hunslet Engine Co., Manning Wardle, John Fowler & Co. and Kitson & Co.

The company rapidly developed a range of traction engines, road rollers, ploughing engines, agricultural implements and stationary engines. One of their forgotten achievements is the invention (see British Patent 763 of 1880) of the traction-centre engine, for driving steam-powered fairground roundabouts. This is often wrongly attributed to Savage of Kings Lynn.

In the 1890s McLarens developed a range of vertical triple-expansion engines for the new industry of electricity generation. The zenith of this effort was a pair of 3000 i.h.p. engines for Leeds Corporation’s Whitehall Road Power Station.^[1]

After the turn of the century the company introduced a tractor for direct haulage and a range of powerful direct ploughing engines. The largest of these, rated 125 i.h.p, was fitted with superheater, feedwater heater and fully lagged cylinders. This provided a very efficient engine, which won many awards both at home and abroad. Other minor products were, showman engines, crane engines, portable engines, railway locomotives and Darby Diggers.

McLarens had a good overseas market with over 50% of goods exported. They had local offices in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and South America with smaller representation in Hungary, Germany and Italy. The last of the traction engines was exported to South Africa in 1938 and is preserved in Johannesburg.

[edit] Steam Engine Model Range

• Stationary engines (Portable Engines)
• Traction engines
• Ploughing engines

[edit] Preserved Steam Engines

• Several Machines are preserved overseas, due to popularity in export markets.
• The Last machine built was exported to South Africa, and is preserved in Johannesburg
• A Pair of Fowler ploughing engines were converted to diesel power by J&H McLaren for use on Dredging works. - (see Fowler list for details)

Known engines built by J&H McLaren Ltd in preservation. (TER 2008 lists 47)

view • talk • edit Engine No.	Name	Build Date	Type	Weight	Power nhp	Reg No.	Owner	Image	Other info
McLaren no. 60	Seana Mac	1879	TE	? ton	6 nhp	MI 2317	Owner ? in Kinsale ROI		Oldest known survivor.[2]
McLaren no. 112	Empress of India	1881	TE	?	?	KL 2126	Science Museum		In storage at Wroughton. [3]
McLaren no. 127	-	1882	TE	-	? nhp	HO 5618	S. Arrowsmith		At Cromford Steam Rally 2008
McLaren no. 767	-	1904	TE (rebuilt from incomplete engine)	? ton	? nhp	-	Engine is in South Africa.		Rebuilt in South Africa.[4]
McLaren no. 1038	-	1909	TE	? ton	8 nhp	CT 4212	V. & C. Whitwell, Leeds	to add	at Duncombe Park Steam Rally 2009
McLaren no. 1181	King Harry	1912	TE Road Loco	18 ton	8 nhp	BF 4595	Owner		At GDSF 2008
McLaren no. 1244	The Emerald	1911	TE Road Loco	? ton	8 nhp	-	Howth Castle National Museum of Transport[5]		(in OG list of engines in Museums)
McLaren no. 1332	Gigantic	1911	Road Locomotive	?	10 nhp	DS 7128	A. Warwick, ?		Seen at Old Warden 2009
McLaren no. 1421	Captain Scott	1913	Road Loco	11 ton	8 nhp	B 7518	J. Blagg, Whitwell	to add	at Sheffield Steam and Vintage Rally 2009
McLaren no. 1497	?	1917	TE type DCC	? ton	5 nhp	-	Glynns of Carlow, ROI		Repatriated from Patagonia to Ireland in 2004[6]
McLaren no. 1837	Bluebell	1936	ST	?	4 nhp	AAM 801	R. Coulson, ? (family owned since 1959)	To Add	At Old Warden 2009. Youngest known survivor.[7]
McLaren no. 1234	"Name"	date built	type	weight ?	power ?	Reg no. ?	Owner ?

[edit] Diesel Engines

During the First World War, McLarens inevitably became involved in the war effort. The works were particularly noted for producing a collet chuck for holding shells during turning. For his efforts during the war, John McLaren was knighted, but unfortunately his reward was short lived, for he died in 1920.

After the First World War, McLarens built a cable-ploughing windlass, initially powered by a Dorman petrol engine but a diesel engine was sought. In 1926 the company entered into an agreement with the German Company Benz to manufacture diesel engines. These were the first automotive type diesel engines produced in volume in Britain, and as a result were in the forefront of the use of diesel engines for road, rail, and agricultural purposes. Examples include the first diesel powered railway locomotive, built by Hudswell Clarke in Leeds and powered by a McLaren built diesel. The first diesel powered commercial vehicles in Britain were made by Richard Garrett & Sons of Leiston in 1928, and Kerr Stuart of Stoke-on-Trent, again powered by McLaren built diesels.

In addition, McLarens built Britain's first diesel powered road roller in 1927 using their own engine.

A complete range of diesel engines was designed up to around 400 h.p. and these were very widely used for industrial applications, one particularly successful use was in standby power sets.

In 1943, the business was sold by the family to the Associated British Oil Engine Company and this was initially very successful. A major contract with the USSR for diesel-generator sets resulted in the number of employees increasing tenfold and new buildings acquired. In December 1945, McLaren tool over the remains of Kitson & Co. and with it their Airedale Works. Unfortunately these glory years did not last. In 1957, the take over of the Brush A.B.O.E. Group by Hawker Siddeley saw the Leeds production facility fade away and the main works closed in January 1959.

McLaren Motor Ploughing Windlass They built a stationary ploughing engine, consisting of a large petrol-paraffin engine of 40 hp mounted on a steel chassis, with 4 steel wheels for transport. A large winch drum was vertically mounted at the back, fitted with 400yds of cable. They were used in pairs sited at each side of the field, with a balance plough pulled between them across the field.

[edit] Diesel Engine Models

[edit] References / sources

• Classic Farm Tractors, by M.Williams

[edit] External links

• Steam rally photos

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at J&H McLaren & Co.. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.