Andrew Barclay, Sons & Company of Kilmarnock were one of Britain's most prolific builders of industrial shunting and narrow gauge locomotives. Their standard gauge industrial saddle tank engines are characterised by their flat-sided saddle tanks. The limited liability company was founded in 1892 following the failure of Mr Andrew Barclay's previous companies, which in turn had spawned Grant, Ritchie & Co. founded by two former Andrew Barclay engineers. This Andrew Barclay company was a great successes, building a large number of conventional and and fireless steam locomotives and producing a very Germanic looking well tank design for narrow gauge engines. The company adapted to diesel shunting locomotive construction in the late 1940s, though often possessed a distinctly steam-era appearance use of a solidly reliable engine and gearbox kept customers coming for Barclays.
>In 1972 the Andrew Barclay company was purchased by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds, the group trading as Hunslet-Barclay securing contracts to build some classes of second-generation diesel units for British Rail. Further mergers have seen the business formed into the Wabtec group (former Westinghouse Air Brake company) which still operates in Kilmarnock as Wabtec Rail Scotland.
Well over 100 Andrew Barclay built steam and diesel locomotives have survived in preservation, with a good number of them maintained in working condition on some of the smaller heritage railways.
Andrew Barclay 2134 was built in 1942 for British Gypsum, one of five locomotives the company owned and believed to have been working at the Kirkby Thore works, near Penrith lettered W.T.T. Sold for preservation in 1970 as one of 4 locomotives (works numbers 1969, 2134, 2343 and 2361) the engines went to the Carnforth shed site, then operating as Steamtown steam centre. 2134 was restored to service in fresh dark green paint, GWR style lining and CORONATION nameplates. 2134 has worked at Carnforth and several heritage railways as both Coronation and W.T.T., but is currently stored at Carnforth awaiting overhaul.