How it started
Background
Born in 1814, Andrew Barclay was only 25 years of age when he set up a partnership with Thomas McCulloch to manufacture mill shafts in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland. Several years later, Barclay chose to branch out on his own to manufacture his patented gas lamps. During 1847, he set up workshops specializing in the manufacture of winding engines for the local coal mining industry. However, the money from the sale of a patent granted to the company's gas lamp design was never paid, leading to sequestration of the company during the following year.
By 1859, Barclay had recovered from this setback and his newly formed company produced its first steam locomotive. Sometime around 1871, Barclay set up a second locomotive building business known as Barclays & Co, which he had set up for his younger brother, John, and his four son, yet this business remained closely associated with Andrew Barclay. Neither company enjoyed good fortunes, as they were both declared bankrupt in 1874 and 1882 respectively. Four years after this latest collapse, Andrew Barclay's business was relaunched as Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. Later on, Barclays & Co was also revived. During 1892, the firm became a private limited company as Andrew Barclay Sons & Co., Ltd. Just two years later, Andrew was removed from control of the company which bore his name by its shareholders, after which he sued the company for unpaid wages, a matter which was settled out of court five years later.
During 1930, the company purchased a rival engine making business, John Cochrane (Barrhead) Ltd. In 1963, it acquired the goodwill of the North British Locomotive Company, Glasgow.
In 1972, the company was acquired by the Leeds-based Hunslet Group of companies and its name was changed in 1989 to Hunslet-Barclay Ltd. As such, it operated six ex-British Rail Class 20 diesels to provide motive power for weed-killing trains used on the national rail network. Its manufacturing output in this period included eight additional centre trailer cars for the Glasgow Subway, which were delivered in 1992.
Twenty-first century
From Wikipedia’s article on Andrew Barclay Sons & Co., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2