English Electric Dick Kerr System, type DBI, Form K, Preston Works, for tramways - driver control handle, on Lisbon tram

Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, England. W.B. Dick and Company was founded in 1854 in Glasgow by William Bruce Dick. The company were initially oil refiners and manufacturers of paint used for coating the bottom of ships. They had depots and works in Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Barrow-in-Furness, Cardiff and Hamburg by 1890. From 1883 the company joined with John Kerr and under its new name, expanded into tramway equipment and rolling stock and built around fifty locomotives up to 1919. In 1890 it took limited company status, as railway and tramway appliance makers and as iron and steel founders and electricians. There was a public offer of shares to acquire the engineering and contracting company of the same name - reasons given were the advancing years of the senior partner and the need for investment to expand the works at Kilmarnock including a modern iron and steel foundry. Until the late 1890s the company had largely produced steam tram engines, but soon afterwards it became one of the largest manufacturers of electric tramway cars. The company facilities in Preston, Lancashire, were acquired in 1893 along with the railway and tramway plant activities of Hartley, Arnoux and Fanning who had been bought out by Kerr Stuart and Company. In 1917 they acquired the United Electric Car Company of Preston.