Hudswell Clarke

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Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No. 1704.

A typical Hudswell Clarke Diesel Locomotive from the 1950s

Hudswell Clarke (HCCL) was an engineering and locomotive building company in Leeds, England founded in 1860. The locomotive part of the business is now part of the Hunslet Engine Company. Locomotive-building was always only one part of a diverse product inventory that included underground diesel-powered mining locomotives, hydraulic pit-props and related mining equipment.

Hudswell Clarke Locos

• 0-6-0 Tank No. S100
• 0-6-0 Saddle Tank No. 431

Military engineering

A Blue Danube bomb at 24 ft long x 62 inches diameter. It was known to the RAF as Bomb, Aircraft, HE 10'000 lb MC. Released from 45'000 ft at 500 knots (930 km/h) its max velocity reached 2'480 ft/s (Mach 2.2). It bears a likeness to the Tallboy and Grand Slam earthquake bombs of WW2 designed by Barnes Wallis, and that is not surprising since archives show that Wallis was retained as a consultant on the design of Blue Danube

During WW2 the company diversified into armaments, as did so many other engineering companies. In the post-war period Hudswell, Clarke and Co Ltd (its full title, and note the comma) was closely involved in many secret programmes, including the British nuclear weapon programme. The airframe for the first British nuclear bomb, Blue Danube was manufactured by Hudswell Clarke at its Roundhay Road, Leeds, plant where this writer was employed as a design engineer. The airframe for Red Beard, the second generation tactical nuclear bomb, followed with that for Violet Club, the Interim Megaton Weapon; and there were many other projects. All the bombs detonated at the Christmas Island H-bomb tests were contained in airframes designed and built by Hudswell Clarke. The company were also major contributors to other military projects, eg. the Centurion main battle tank conversion into an armoured bridgelayer, that served with the British Army for many years. The contraction of defence manufacturing in the mid-1960s contributed to the sale and demise of the company.

A Red Beard tactical atomic bomb on its bomb trolley awaiting loading into a Canberra bomber. The perforated baffles were a feature to reduce bomb bay buffetting when the Canberra bomb doors opened, and were not needed on other aircraft. Red Beard was known to the RAF as Bomb, Aircraft, HE 2'000 lb MC, athough its actual weight was 1'650 lb. It was deployed on a wide variety of aircraft of the RAF and Royal Navy, being stockpiled in the UK, Cyprus, Singapore and afloat on carriers.

References

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