Burn & Co Ltd
Burn & Co Ltd
Contents
Early History
An engineer company in Howrah was started in 1871 by a retired Colonel Archibald Swinton. The first record of the company was in 1809 when Alexander Burn became head of the company along with a Mr Currie and called ‘Burn & Currie’. Currie left in 1831 and the company became ‘Alexander Burn & Co’, later contracted to ‘Burn & Co’. ‘Burn & Co Ltd’ was formed in 1895 to acquire and carry on as a going concern the business of ‘Burn & Co’ [1].
By the early 1900’s the company had its head office at 12 Mission Row, Calcutta, a site in Howrah known as the Howrah Iron Works and offices in Bombay, Raneegee, Jubblepore, Rangoon, Singapore and Straits Settlement. Its UK based company was ‘Burn, Craddock & Co’ with offices in London and Glasgow [1].
Wagon Manufacturing
The Howrah Iron Works became a major railway contactor from the very beginning of railways in India in the 1850’s. With the rapid expansion of Railways, Burn & Company started manufacturing Railway rolling stock at Howrah to cater to the increasing demand. [2] [3]
By 1930 the works covered an area of 35 acres (14ha), a Warehouse of 18,000 sq.feet(1700 sq.mtr) and several departments – Rolling Stock, Bridge Building, Permanent Way, Shipbuilding, Foundry and General Engineering. A broad gauge(BG) siding ran through the Warehouse and linked the site to both the East Indian Railway(EIR) and Bengal Nagpur Railway(BNR) and to two jetties on the Hooghly River [1].
‘Burn & Co’ produced both passenger carriages and wagons for many Indian mainline railways. By 1896 they were manufacturing coal tubs for collieries. From 1912 they produced their own design of railway motor trolley, fitted with a 4hp air cooled engine capable of carrying six passengers at 30mph(50kph) [1].
Other Businesses
‘Burn & Co’ also owned large factories at Jubbulpore and several at Raneegunge which supplied tiles, bricks, stoneware, pipes and refectories; and a brickworks at Durgapur. They were Managing Agents for the ‘Indian Iron & Steel Co.’. It was also a civil engineering company and built many public buildings and factories. It built the Calcutta Tramway system and most of Calcutta’s drainage system [1].
Railway Construction and Operation
The Deogarh Railway first opened in 1882 and was constructed on the metre gauge(MG) and worked by Messers Burn & Co Ltd of Calcutta up to 30 June 1911. It was acquired by the State and incorporated with the East Indian Railway(EIR) on the 1 July 1911 and converted to the broad gauge(BG) on 13 Sep 1913 [4].
Later Developments
Martin, Burn & Company In 1946 ‘Burn & Co Ltd’ merged with ‘Martin & Company’ to form ‘Martin, Burn & Company’ [5]
Burn Standard Company Limited In 1975 ‘Burn & Co Ltd’ merged with the ‘Indian Standard Wagon Co Ltd ‘(founded in 1918, at Burnpur) to become the ’Burn Standard Company Limited’ and developed excellence in manufacturing Railway wagons, forged components, springs etc. [6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compiled by Simon Darvill. Published by ‘The Industrial Railway Society’ 2013. ISBN 978 1 901556 82-7. Available at http://irsshop.co.uk/India. Reference: Entry WB40 page ....
- ↑ Google Books "Business and Politics in India by Stanley A. Kochanek";Retrieved 4 Aug 2017
- ↑ Google Books "Private Investment in India, 1900-1939 by Amiya Kumar Bagchi";Retrieved 4 Aug 2017
- ↑ “Administration Report on Railways 1918” page 54, pdf page 62. ‘’Note Deoghur is incorrect spelling’’;Retrieved 4 Aug 2017
- ↑ Wikipedia "Martin, Burn & Company";Retrieved 4 Aug 2017
- ↑ "Burn Standard Company History";Retrieved 4 Aug 2017
