Forging into the future

But it is diversification and bold investment in spite of the growing economic crisis, rather than the rich heritage left by its pioneering founder, that is helping the company remain an industry leader 125 years on. Dave Horsley reports.

IN 1911, industrial pioneer Henry Williams paced the floor of his engineering works in Darlington, overseeing the manufacture of switch levers, points, cranks and joints that would help make Britain’s railways the envy of the world.

Nearly a century later, Howard Dilley paces the same workshop floor, his ears protected from the thundering beat of a forge hammer, newly installed at a cost of £600,000.

It is a ritual he may repeat two or three times that day.

Henry Williams has been a major engineering supplier to the UK’s railway network since 1883 and has been based in Darlington – the historical home of the railways – for the past 98.

Its aforementioned founder developed the first springloaded switch lever for railway points at a small works in Polmadie, Glasgow.

Previously, all switches had been held in position by a weighted lever, but vibrations from the track often caused the lever to jump.

Having made his mark on a rapidly expanding industry, Mr Williams went on to invent the two-way switch lever, thus further improving the mechanism’s safety. These, and his subsequent inventions, may not be claimed to have driven the development of the railways, but they certainly kept it on the rails.

In 1920, the company opened its first overseas manufacturing facility in Calcutta and was instrumental in the development of the Indian railway, employing more than 4,000 people in the subcontinent by 1946, when this arm of the company was sold to GKN.

125 years on, Henry Williams Ltd remains heavily involved in the design, manufacture and installation of railway infrastructure – it recently completed a £1.4m upgrade of the rail system serving the Ferrybridge power station, in Knottingley, West Yorkshire – but it has grown and diversified into a versatile and multi-skilled engineering business.

“To be honest, I don’t like playing the heritage card too much because it can be as much a burden as a help,” says Mr Dilley, whose family company bought the firm from Mr Williams’ ancestors in 1989.

“Heritage is useful in that it demonstrates that we are a blue-chip supplier to the railway industry of pedigree and long-standing and, of course, it gives us grandfather rights to many of our most important products,” says the executive chairman, who this year celebrates his own milestone 20 years at the helm of the company.

“Today, the strength of Henry Williams is not what our predecessors did a century ago, but the fact we have modernised and re-equipped the business, and developed new technology, so that we remain at the forefront of our industry.”

The newly-installed forge hammer, a German-made Banning pneumaticallypowered drop hammer capable of shaping steel with fourtonne blows, has increased production speeds by more than 30 per cent.

It is the latest in a succession of major investments in the company’s Dodsworth Street premises, which, over the past three years, have totalled nearly £2m.

As part of the project, a 1MW transformer and substation were installed to power the hammer, and 100 cubic metres of reinforced concrete was laid to withstand its blows. The hammer is equipped with anti-vibration springs, which help to reduce long-distance noise and to extend its life and those of its components.

In previous years, other major expenditure has included a complete refurbishment of the main upset forge, a new robotic welder, a sophisticated CNC turret punch, and an additional Mazak milling machine for die making.

Henry Williams is part of the Con Mech Group, the company started by Mr Dilley’s father, Robert, just after the Second World War.

WHEN Con Mech acquired the Darlington company, in March 1989, it was reliant on the railways for more than 90 per cent of its work, supplying railway forgings and sheet metal enclosures, and electrical equipment such as complete signalling and level-crossing systems, and mimic panels.

Today, that dependence on the railways ranges between 60 per cent and 70 per cent, as the company has sought to diversify in related fields, most effectively in the manufacture of control and signalling equipment for Britain’s roads, including tunnel maintenance, parapets, pedestrian guardrails and bridge windshields.

A three-year Highways Agency contract to supply cabinets to house roadside electronic equipment helped the business achieve total turnover of nearly £10m.

Ferrybridge was among its biggest rail contracts, but it also supplied six REBs (relocatable equipment buildings), each costing more than £70,000, in an upgrade of unmanned crossings on the 25-mile Colchester to Clacton line, in Essex, which led to more orders.

Henry Williams’ 100-strong workforce is waiting for news on tenders for three tunnel projects and rail infrastructure renewal work.

Mr Dilley said: “In 1986, when we paid £1.5m for the fixed assets, stock and goodwill of Henry Williams Ltd, I had a number of hopes for the business – two of which were spectacularly wrong.

“Firstly, I thought Labour would win the 1992 General Election. And secondly, that a new Labour government, when elected, would spend a lot more money on the railways. Even then, the infrastructure was in dire need of upgrade, but neither a Labour victory nor the rail investment happened.

“Privatisation made the industry very stagnant, notably during John Major’s second term from 1992 to 1996.

“They were difficult years for Henry Williams Ltd, scratching around for renewal-based work, and it was not until 1999 that we began to see significant increases in spending on Britain’s railways.

“We have a strong balance sheet, our net borrowing is zero, we have increased our production capabilities through investment and, while the economic gloom lies heavily on every industry, I am far from despondent about the immediate future.”

Engineering is in Mr Dilley’s blood. He gained a degree in mechanical sciences, but says his career path suffered an early setback when former Prime Minister Harold Wilson cancelled the TSR-2 (tactical strike and reconnaissance) aircraft project.

HE switched to accountancy, spent 14 years with various companies, including Albright and Wilson, and Unilever, finishing up as finance director of shipping company Ellerman City Liners.

He then spent a further five years with Ellerman as trade director for Africa and the Middle East and was part of the management buyout team that bought the shipping line from the Barclay brothers.

When Ellerman was sold to Cunard, he moved on to run the family business.

“When I come to Darlington, I like to walk through the forge and workshops. I may do so several times during the day. I don’t do this to try to catch people out, I am genuinely interested in what is happening there.

“I like the noise of industry and to breathe in the atmosphere. It is also essential to manage the company properly for me to really understand what is going on at every part of the site.

“Each time I walk through, I can guarantee that I’ll see something different. And if there’s a problem with a machine, I’ll usually get the best answer as to what is going on by talking to the person who operates it.”

Now 62, Mr Dilley brushes aside any suggestion that retirement is on even the distant horizon.

Until injury a few years ago forced a change, he was a keen roadrunner (he has four London Marathons to his name) and nowadays enjoys mountain biking and swimming.

“I certainly don’t want to stay beyond my sell-by date,”

he laughs, the glint in his eye challenging the very inference. “I do, however, envisage being retired by 70 and I believe a management buyout would be a good way forward for the company. It is certainly something I would encourage.”

In the meantime, he hopes that the present-day incumbents can take a leaf out of Henry Williams’ book and contribute a new chapter to the company’s contribution to Britain’s railway heritage.

125 YEARS IN HISTORY AND PRODUCTION

1883 Henry Williams opens workshop at Polmadie, Glasgow.

1884 Invents first spring railway switch lever for railway points.

1884 Develops spring switch that operates parallel to track 1890 Develops first two-way spring switch.

1893 Company moves to bigger premises in Cathcart, Glasgow.

1899 Henry Williams dies. His four sons, Harry, Llewellyn, Owen and Denis, take over running of business 1902 Launch of “A”

type two-way spring trailable switch lever, the world’s first semiautomatic points switch lever.

1911 Henry Williams Ltd moves to Dodsworth Street, Darlington 1912 Launch of “B”

lever, a refinement of the “A” type, which would be manufactured the world over for 60 years.

1914-18 Darlington works used to manufacture armaments for the First World War, chiefly trench mortars.

1920 Henry Williams (India) Ltd established in Calcutta.

1939-45 Company produces two million mortar bombs and seven million armament forgings for war effort.

1946 Henry Williams (India) Ltd, by then employing 4,000, sold to GKN.

1950s Forging work expands into agricultural, motor and general engineering production.

1989 Henry Williams acquired by Col Mech Group.

2008 Henry Williams’ 125th anniversary marked with presentation of commemorative watch to every employee.

The Con Mech family

HENRY WILLIAMS Limited is one of four companies owned by the Con Mech Group. Two are based in Suffolk: Tripp Batt and Co Ltd, which designs and installs grain-handling and storage systems, and Pan Anglia (Country Merchants) Ltd, which supplies farm parts for ploughs and cultivators.

The third business in the group is Con Mech Engineers Ltd, which manufactures groundengaging tools for earthmoving machinery, at Harelaw Industrial Estate, near Stanley, County Durham.

It has a workforce of 65.

Last year, the company, which also has a heat treatment division primarily serving the North Sea oil and gas sector, recorded an £8m turnover, which is the biggest in its history.

It is building a furnace and six-metre-long quench tank at a cost of £600,000.

Con Mech takes its name from “construction” and “mechanical engineering”, which remains at the core of the group.