Former Railway Workshop At Derby Railway Works

This is a former railway workshop, built in 1839 as part of the Midland Counties Railway's maintenance facilities at Derby railway works, and is the earliest surviving railway works in the country. It includes a former beam engine house, fitting and turning shops, smithies, and later a pattern shop and store; it was disused at the time of inspection. The building is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and slated roof coverings.

The plan consists of a triple pile, single-storey shed formerly accommodating three lines of track, with a double-pile two-storey workshop area beyond, with rail access to part of the ground floor. The southwest elevation has six bays of a single-storey shed attached to a nine-bay two-storey workshop range to the southeast. Late 19th-century double-gabled timber infill sheds link with an early 20th-century gable of a truncated cross range of smithies’ shops, also dating back to 1839. Side walls feature blind arcades rising from a shallow plinth, with semi-circular arch heads springing from a plain impost band. Semi-circular windows with small-paned cast iron frames are set within the arcades, with gauged brickwork to the inner and outer arches. The first floor windows of the two-storey section have flat gauged brick heads. The northwest elevation is triple gabled, with pilasters separating the gable bays. Each apex is topped with a blind oculus and flat copings, and below, a raking double band. Each gable has a tall central opening with a semi-circular arched head; two have been altered to form windows, one with 20th-century double doors, which originally served as access doorways for lines into the shop.

Inside, the single-storey part is supported by two arcades of cast iron columns; the heads of these columns carry curved brackets onto which the tie beam ends are carried. Principal rafter ends are carried in metal shoes fixed to the ends of the tie beams. Roof trusses have timber raking struts and a vertical tie rod linked to a metal apex cradle. The two-storey section has an arcaded spine wall, formerly with rail access to the southwest part. Roof trusses are carried on a single arcade of iron columns, with a wide timber bearer at the head of each column supporting adjacent tie beams. Queen post trusses support single purlins. The former beam engine house, located at the southeast end of the two-storey range, has bed blocks in an undercroft that extends into the smithy range.