A grant for £168,369 has been awarded to Tyseley Locomotive Works via the European Regional Development fund by the City of Birmingham.

The funding will support the expansion of the locomotive works, creating further employment as demand increases for heritage engineering design, manufacture and skills in repair.

Currently, Tyseley Locomotives Works are undergoing an extraordinary demand for the services it provides within the heritage rail sector including design, manufacture, repair and maintenance. The Works are currently booked up right through to the end of 2024 and are now moving forward with a staggered expansion of its facilities and increased staff in order to keep up with demand.

Owned by Vintage Trains Charitable Trust, Tyseley Locomotive Works is located at the original Great Western Railway locomotive depot at Tyseley. The depot is very special as it has remained operational since 1908 and marks the very last of such significant size from the steam era and will now play a part in its current development which will see more than 1,000 people employed.

A brand new carriage works will be built by Tyseley Locomotive Trust and will see a further 10 full-time new staff members employed under a £340,000 project which will be match funded by VTCT using reserves from a recently launched donor scheme called the Patrons Club. At present, the Locomotive Works turns over approximately £1.4 million each year and employs 19 full-time and 31 part-time positions alongside 155 active volunteers.

In February, Tyseley Locomotive Works appointed Springfield Steel Building Limited of Hull with the job of constructing a further 1,550 sq metres of commercial floor space which will house stage two of its carriage works project allowing more commercial work to be taken on. Stage one of the expansion is currently in use as a single carriage repair shop. Stage three will bring further expansion in the future which will support additional maintenance facilities and will include original carriage lifting jacks from Great Western Railways Old Oak Common depot.

Further future announcements will reveal more stages yet to be progressed as part of the depot’s transformational upgrades which will be funded via the Tyseley Depot Master Plan which will see the facilities improved for engineering, operations, and community participation alongside being the home for the Tyseley collection.

Vintage Trains Charitable Trust has acquired Metropolitan Railway Carriage & Wagon Co which will become the brand which promotes the carriage works and will perpetuate the renowned name which previously built railway carriages in Birmingham which were exported around the world including four of its Pullman Cars which were manufactured in 1960.

The building work of stage two of the project will be finished by the 30th of April 2023 and fitting out will take place through the following months.

Tyseley Locomotive Works Chairman, Michael Whitehouse, said: “We are delighted that this support from the City of Birmingham’s ERDF fund will enable us to increase employment and skills training for a new generation of engineers, at the heart of the Tyseley community, which has a long and proud history of railway engineering excellence.”

Ashfaq Ashraf, Principal Business Officer for the City’s Business Enterprise and Innovation team said: “We are pleased to be able to support Tyseley Locomotive Works to continue its engineering growth and employ more people in Tyseley.”