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Blackstone & Co Ltd

Blackstones original company building Broad Street, Stamford
Industry	Agricultural engineering, diesel engines
Fate	Sold to MAN SE
Predecessor	Rutland Ironworks
Successor	Mirrlees Blackstone
Founded	29 January 1889 (1889-01-29)
Founder	Edward Christopher Blackstone
Headquarters	Blackstones, Ryhall Road, Stamford, Lincolnshire, Stamford , England
Key people	Edward Christopher Blackstone Thomas Ashby[1]
Products	Diesel engines
Parent	Lister Hawker Siddeley MAN Diesel

Blackstones Works, Ryhall Road, Stamford

Blackstone & Co. was a farm implement maker at Stamford, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

History

Edward Christopher Blackstone was born in 1851.^[2] In 1877 he became a partner in Jeffery and Blackstone^[3] This company became the limited company Blackstone & Co on 29 January 1889.

Diesel engines

In 1896 they built lamp start oil engines.
^[4] By 1912 they had developed a new internal combustion engine that ran on vaporising oil and was fired by a spark. It did not need a hot bulb like most engines of the time. By 1919 they had mounted a 25 hp 3-cylinder version in a crawler tractor, which they built till 1925.

By 1929 they were building diesel engines for the Agricultural & General Engineers (AGE) group. Richard Garrett & Sons assembled some of these tractors. They were similar to an International 15/30. AGE collapsed in 1932.

Mergers

Lister Blackstone sign at the Anson Engine Museum with collection of engines

AGE collapsed in 1932, after which Blackstone & Co. continued as an engine builder and was taken over by R A Lister and Company in 1937 to form Lister Blackstone.^[5]

Associated British Oil Engine Company

The Associated British Oil Engine Company (ABOE) was a British engineering company. In 1945 Mirrlees, Bickerton and Day joined the group.

Hawker Siddeley

R A Lister & Company was taken over by the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1965 and, in a later re-organisation, Lister became Lister Petter and Blackstone became Mirrlees Blackstone.

Mirrlees Blackstone Limited

Scale model of a Mirrlees Blackstone ESL8 Mk 2 diesel engine at Anson

Mirrlees Blackstone Limited was formed on 1 June 1969 by the merger of Mirrlees National Limited (formerly Mirrlees, Bickerton and Day) and Blackstone & Company Limited. All were, at the time, members of the Hawker Siddeley Group.^[6]

Alsthom

In 1988, General Electric Company plc merged its Paxman (engines), Ruston and Mirrlees Blackstone diesels businesses with the Alsthom division of Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE) to form GEC-Alsthom. In 2000, Alstom sold its diesel engine businesses (Ruston, Paxman, and Mirrlees Blackstone) to MAN Group.^[7]

Closure

Mirrlees Blackstone were bought by MAN Diesel, along with the diesel businesses of the collapsed GEC, although little remains. The Stockport factory has been partly demolished and replaced with a new office and warehouse facility which still serves the aftermarket for spares and servicing of Lister Blackstone engines under the MAN Diesel & Turbo tagline. The Blackstone name lives on with the Blackstones F.C..

Products

A 1932 Aveling and Porter Road Roller type DC, fitted with a single cylinder Blackstone engine

• Diesel engines


• Marine diesel engines


• Shell casing during First World War


• Stationary engine


• Farming Equipment and engines for tractors


• Potato digger


• Swath Turner and Collector

British Rail products

A British Rail Class 10 diesel locomotive, fitted with a Blackstone diesel engine.

Blackstone supplied a number of diesel engines for British Rail locomotives but these were largely unsuccessful and were not adopted.

• In the 1980s, four of the well-established Paxman Valenta-engined HST trainset power cars were re-engined with Mirrlees Blackstone MB190 engines for trials. These were unsuccessful and Valenta engines were reinstalled. Eventually, in the 2000s, the fleet was re-engined with MTU V16 4000 engines.


• The handful of British Rail Class D3/5 used the Blackstone ER6T


• The Class 10 was a small number (150 vs 900) of the widespread Class 08 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunter, in which a Blackstone ER6T engine was fitted instead an English Electric 6KT. They were withdrawn early.


• 
  Class 30 Type 2 locomotives were built with a Mirrlees Blackstone JVS12T but all were rebuilt as the British Rail Class Class 31 with the English Electric 12SVT, as also used in the Class 37.


• The projected Type 3 freight Class 38 of the 1980s was considered for use of a Mirrlees MB275T. Four of the refurbished Class 37/9 at this period were rebuilt with the engine as a trial, two more used the Ruston RK270T as a comparison. In the end, the Class 38 was cancelled in favour of the Class 60.


• 
  Class 60 heavy freight Type 5 locomotives of the 1980s replaced the projected Class 38. Like the 38, these used the Mirrlees MB275T engine. (Contract of 109 MB275 engines received by Mirrlees). These 8 cylinder engines, compared to the more common V12 or V16 engines in this power range, were hoped to show lower operating costs owing to their simplicity.

The Stamford East railway station serviced the companies works.

Blackstone potato digger

The Anson Engine Museum in Poynton, Cheshire collection. Blackstone oil engine

A restored Blackstone Swath Turner and Collector No. 2C (a.k.a. kicker, tedder) at Woolpit Steam Rally 2009, Suffolk, England; a reaper-binder partly visible on the left

Previous employees

• John (Jack) Henry Pick who was the founder of The Pick Motor Company previously worked for Blackstones.


• Harry Watson (OBE), Managing Director, Mirrlees Blackstone (Stockport) Ltd; Managing Director, Mirrlees Blackstone (Stamford) Ltd. He was mentioned in The Queen 1991 Birthday Honours list.

Examples of Blackstone engines can be seen at the Anson Engine Museum near Manchester. The former Stamford Museum in Stamford, Lincolnshire, also had a Blackstone engine on display, and held an archive relating to the company.

References

• Nick Baldwin, Classic Tractors of the World,
  ISBN 978-0-7537-1446-1
  

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blackstone & Co.

• 
  Paxman History pages - Description of all AGE group companies


• Grace's Guide