About Us

Leadership Team

History

Services

The Future

The History of LNWR

The London & North Western Railway Company (“LNWR”) was created when the government privatised the railway in 1995.  At that time, Pete Waterman bought 50% of 'Flying Scotsman Enterprises' which ran all the steam specials on the old BR network and in doing so gave him a 50% share of the world’s most famous steam loco - 4472 Flying Scotsman. Shortly thereafter, he purchased the first BR Company to be sold which was the Special Train Unit. This unit was under the wing of what would become EWS, and for the first year of it was operated as a shadow franchise.  From this, LNWR was established as a company that would offer the new private world of railways a different method of engineering and servicing.

Chris Green, the then Director of InterCity, had expressed a desire to see other forms of heritage traction on the network and since Pete’s Trust had a Class 46 Locomotive - Ixion - Pete thought this would be an ideal project to engineer in that it would challenge LNWR since the technical hurdles were significant. Consequently, LNWR was able to use this loco, its restoration and subsequent registration as an exercise in gaining confidence and demonstrating the skills that would enable it to undertake the regular maintenance of Railtrack registered vehicles.  This acquisition of new skills and levels of competence were essential elements in what was then a new railway world.

LNWR's first commercial job was a landmark one and not just because it was the first major engineering project in the newly privatised railway, but more because of the complexities it presented.  The company had 12 weeks to convert 6 Mark II coaches into a Walt Disney Exhibition Train for the promotion of their animated cartoon film, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". They were not only to be built consistent with the period depicted in the film, but it also had to go through stringent engineering scrutiny and be passed fit to run on Network Rail as well as having to conform to some very rigorous Railtrack station rules. The result was a milestone in that it was the first time that all the sectors of the railway had worked together to enable a private operator - Walt Disney - to achieve a mobile circus. The problems that were overcome are now legendary. Many of the commercial practices that we see in the railway today were ironed out with this project. The train was hugely successful commercially but it also highlighted to the railway the potential commercial value of its stations - something upon which the Network Rail places major importance today. This job was immediately followed by a commission to build the Northern Belle train for the Orient Express.

Within two years, LNWR, which was based in Crewe, had become synonymous with quality hallmarks of the then railway industry including ISO 9002 and it had pretty much established itself as the leader in the independent maintenance sector. Recognising this total quality approach, the Company was invited to a meeting by the then Chairman of Railtrack who suggested that it might like to take on the Crewe South Carriage Shed, and thereby offer an alternative maintenance strategy to the TOC’s.  By moving private maintenance to the South Yard, Railtrack saw that it could have a major facility for private railway operators and within 2 years, the site had increased the traffic in the Crewe area by 40% with 90% of private trains being maintained there. A major expansion plan saw the depot become the most up to date and modern facility on the network at that time.

Subsequently, LNWR went on to build new depots at Leeds and Rugby, maintaining the Freightliner fleet for heavy haul and intermodal.  When the Virgin Voyageur fleet had problems, Crewe was used as the emergency engineering facility and it was then awarded the contract to maintain the fleet for the new Chester services.

In 2005, Pete divided the operation in two by demerging the heavy engineering to form LNWR Heritage Co Limited which would concentrate on this area, complemented by highly structured training. This part of the operation had been running an apprenticeship scheme since the mid 1990’s. In 2009, after a £6 million upgrade, Pete sold LNWR to Arriva, which was subsequently acquired by DB Schenker.

At the time of the de-merger in 2005, the General Manager, Steve Latham was given the task of building the LNWR Heritage Co Limited into a railway engineering company that could bring the heritage railway movement into the 21^st century.  Since then, the company has grown into the largest business of its kind in this sector and one which has customers stretched across the United Kingdom.  It has introduced many new procedures within this movement and although its customers are predominantly heritage based, because of its proven engineering skills it also has customers on the modern railway. To facilitate this growth, the workforce has grown from a small handful of artisans to number in excess of 50 today.

LNWR Heritage Co Limited does not solely focus on locomotives. We treat our work on coaches with equal importance and see them as a major part of our business, be it routine maintenance or full refurbishments. This is evidenced in a current project where we are looking at a new proposal from the private railways for the full refurbishment of a number of Mark I's, which are showing their age and require proper attention.

In the last 10 years of building boilers, lots of working practices have changed. 10 years ago, LNWR Heritage Co Limited made a bold decision not simply to patch but to instead to replace and now, we are the leaders in this technology.

We recommend a visit to our works in Crewe to see the fruition of our vision.