Samuel Wilkes Engineering specialises in the design, development and manufacture of door locks, latches, catches and hinges for railway vehicles and other specialist market sectors including bus and coach, commercial vehicle, specialist automotive, military and marine.

Wilkes Engineering supply door locks and hinges to most of the UK’s railway vehicle builders and OEM door and interior suppliers. Wilkes Engineering also supply an extensive range of components to the UK railway spares market.

Bespoke locking systems for railway vehicles

At Wilkes Engineering we design, develop and manufacture bespoke locking systems to suit the individual requirements of any organisation. Our locks are specified for rail vehicles, buses and coaches as well as many other specialist vehicles and applications where safety critical features and security are primary requirements.

We are ISO 9001 accredited and offer competitively priced, high quality products with a fast and reliable service.

Wilkes Engineering designs, manufactures and supplies door locks, hinges and other interior components for railway vehicles.
Wilkes Engineering’s range of locks includes cab door, toilet door, sliding door and emergency cupboard door locks.
Wilkes Engineering’s locks, latches and catches.
Wilkes Engineering’s hinges.
Wilkes Engineering’s passenger emergency communication and call-for-aid units.

Specialist locks for train doors

Our range of locks for railway doors includes the following:

  • Cab door locks
  • Carriage door locks
  • Hinged door locks
  • Sliding door locks
  • Toilet door locks
  • Cab / saloon door locks
  • Inter-connecting door locks
  • Detrainment door locks
  • Emergency cupboard locks
  • High security locks (OTR)
  • Skirt panel locks
  • Seat locks
  • Mortice locks
  • Budget locks

To complement the design and manufacture of our bespoke specialist locks at Wilkes Engineering we also offer an extensive range of budget locks. This range includes quarter turn locks, slam latches, catches, security locks and many other variations.

Hinges, latches and call-for-aid units

Wilkes Engineering is a specialist in the design, development and manufacture of many different types of hinges including door hinges, concealed hinges, continuous hinges and panel hinges. We can often design hinges according to our customers’ specifications.

We also manufacture latches, catches, doors, panels and other interior components for train carriages. Other Wilkes Engineering products include passenger emergency communication units and call-for-aid units.

Quality assurance

Wilkes Engineering is accredited to BS EN ISO 9001: 2000. Our quality management system is aligned to railway group standards GM/RT 2450 and GO/RT 3260, where safety critical features are a primary requirement as well as security and function.

Design and development of train door locks

As well as an extensive product range, Wilkes Engineering can provide a range of services. We offer prototype development, life cycle testing and pre-production manufacture, as well as designing and developing your bespoke locks and hinges.

We also offer production manufacture such as:

  • Conventional and CNC machining
  • Assembly, fitting and testing
  • Electro-mechanical assembly, fitting and testing
  • Laser profiling
  • Presswork
  • Light fabrication
  • Service, refurbishment and repair

Recent rail contracts

Wilkes Engineering has supplied parts to either the main contractor or various OEM suppliers for prestigious contracts such as Virgin West Coast Main Line, Electrostar, Turbostar, Irish Rail C8100 refurbishment, MKIII refurbishment, Jubilee Line extension, Northern Line and Victoria Line.