Tank production moves from farm machinery to railways

The first order assigned 37 male tanks to William Foster's firm, which had built the prototypes. Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company in Birmingham received 113 tanks. Of the latter, 38 were male, leaving 75 female tanks from the stated total. Prototype construction and larger production orders thus involved different firms. The succession of naval sponsorship, agricultural machinery and railway manufacturing shows how existing heavy engineering contributed to tank production.