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Kevin Jones' Steam Index

Biographies of Civil Engineers

The arrangement is alphabetical (surnames beginning):

Note: there are 45 articles written by Mike Chrimes, Librarian of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB): the majority relate to key civil engineers associated with the railway industry.

Abbot, John
Baptised in Newcastle on 25 February 1774 and died on 18 July 1863. Firm produced castings for High Level Bridge over the Tyne. See Chrimes for biography by R.W. Rennison. Father of John George (below)

Abbot, John George
Baptised in Gateshead on 24 May 1816 and died on 5 February 1867. Firm produced castings for High Level Bridge over the Tyne. See Chrimes for biography by R.W. Rennison. Son of John (above)

Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus
Born in Woolwich on 17 July 1827 and died on 6 September 1902. Chemist and explosives engineer. Inventor of Cordite.   Mike Chrimes in Chrimes.

Abernethy, James (born 1809)
Iron founder and proprietor of Ferryhill Ironworks in Aberdeen. Responsible for supplying ironwork many bridges on the Great North of Scotland Railway including one over the River Lossie.  He died in 1879. Tom Day in Chrimes.

Abernethy, James (II born 1814)
Cousin of above: born on 12 June 1814 in Aberdeen. His father, George was appointed manager of the Dowlais Iron Foundry and James and his brothers were sent to Cotherstone Boarding School near Barnard Castle, but were removed by an uncle after two years and his education was completed at Haddington Grammar School. Most of his major works were associated with docks and river improvements, but he was also associated withb railways. In 1838 he was appointed chief engineerv of the Aberdeen Harbour Trust and in 1853 established his own business in London. He assisted John Laird in constructing works on the Mersey which enabled Birkenhead to become a centre for shipbuilding and  docks. In the 1860s he was associated with a scheme to enable railway carriages and wagons to be loaded onto ferries by hydraulic lifts at Dover for the Channel Crossing, but the scheme collapsed due to the Franco-Prussian War. Late work included the Alexandra Dock in Hull. He died in 1896. P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin in Chrimes and Nick  Deacon in Rly Archive, 2015 (48), 31 et seq and Mike G. Fell. Hull's Alexandra Dock. Backtrack, 2015, 29, 674.

Addison, John
Born in Liverpool on 12 April 1820; died at his residence, The Castle Hill, Maryport, on 22 March 1903. He belonged to a family who had lived for many generations in Upper Teesdale. Early in life he showed a propensity for engineering work, and during the development. of the railway system throughout the country adopted that profession. He was educated at Darlington. At the age of 10, when staying in Liverpool, he was present at the funeral of Huskisson, killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and this great demonstration of public feeling made a lasting impression. On leaving school in October, 1836, Addison was Articled to Stephen Robinson of Hartlepool.l, where he acquired experience in railway and dock construction, and during the latter part of his pupilage he was employed as Resident Engineer on the Clarence and Hartlepool Junction Railway then in course of construction. After this he spent about a year at the Hartlepool Engineering Works in order to gain some knowledge of the mechanical branch of the profession. During 1839 and 1840 he lectured on surveying, levelling and mechanical drawing to the newly-formed engineering class at Durham University. In 1842 he entered the office of John and Benjamin Green, Architects and Civil Engineers of Newcastle-on-Tyne, but was soon afterwards engaged by John Blackmore, the Engineer of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, as Chief Assistant, in which capacity he conducted the business of Blackmore, whose health had failed. On the death of Blackmore in March 1844, Addison was appointed to the staff of Locke and Errington, who were at that time the engineers of lines about to be constructed from Lancaster to Carlisle, in extension of the London and North Western system, and from Carlisle to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Forfar, on the Caledonian Railway. In that capacity he ran one of the first lines of levels over Shap Fells and afterwards prepared the working section of the Lancaster and Carlisle line. He was subsequently employed by Locke and Errington on the Parliamentary surveys of the Shrewsbury and Stafford, the Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton, the Hayton and Warrington, the Runcorn Gap and other lines. During the Parliamentary contest between the Caledonian and the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Companies in 1845, Addison was sent on behalf of the former Company to survey a line through the Dalveen Pass connecting Thornhill on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway with Elvanfoot on the Caledonian Railway; the Parliamentary Committee desiring to have a report as to whether the two railways could be combined. The report being hostile to that theory resulted in the Caledonian Railway, for which Addison was engaged, obtaining their Act. Addison was then appointed Resident Engineer on the Southern division of the new Railway (the Caledonian), and, after preparing the working sections of the first 60 miles from Carlisle northwards, superintended the construction of the first 30 miles, on which is the first railway bridge uniting England with Scotland. Between 1845 and 1848 he surveyed several lines promoted by the Caledonian Company to Annan, Dumfries, Cannobie, Langholm and Brampton, and gave engineering evidence before Parliamentary Committees against sundry hostile schemes projected by other companies. The financial crisis of 1847 and 1848 brought a great strain to bear on the working powers of the Caledonian staff. The public began to lose faith in the rapid development of railway enterprise. Bankers and capitalists hesitated to advance more money except on the personal guarantee of the directors, thus placing the promoters of the Caledonian Railway in great difficulties. Happily the credit of the Company was to a great extent restored by the opening of the line from Carlisle to Beattock on the 10 September 1847, and was quite established when the railway through to Edinburgh and Glasgow was opened on the 15 February 1848. Addison often referred to this event as one of the greatest interest and excitement. He remained on the engine of the first train that travelled from Carlisle to Edinburgh throughout the journey of sixteen hours, when in several places temporary rails had to be laid in order to enable them to pass over the unfinished sections of the line, but the result, namely, the arrival of the little train in Edinburgh, at once restored confidence to the minds of capitalists, for till then the public had grave doubts as to whether it was possible for a locomotive steam-engine to draw a train of carriages over 'Beattock summit'” namely, the heavy gradient to the north of Moffat. It was on the 30 September 1848, that Queen Victoria made her first railway journey to Scotland, and this was by the Caledonian line. In December 1857 Addison undertook the management of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway, being appointed head of its several departments. He retained that post for twenty-seven years during the most prosperous period of the Company’s existence, and then declining health compelled him to retire from active official life on the 1 March 1884. On his retirement he was appointed a Director of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway Company. Addison took a keen interest in matters relating to the welfare of the district in which he lived. He commanded the Maryport Artillery Volunteers from the year 1860 to 1865. In 1877 he was appointed a trustee of the District and Harbour of Maryport, and in October of the same year he was placed on the Commission of the Peace for the County of Cumberland. ICE obituary Marshall.

Addison, Percy Leonard
Born in Glasgow on 25 October 1855, younger son of John Addison, at that time Resident Engineer on the Caledonian Railway; died at Park House, Bigrigg, Cumberland, on 14 November 1906. Educated at a private school in Warwick and at Cheltenham College, and was afterwards sent to Berlin and to Cannstadt in Wurttemburg. Between 1871 and 1874, he obtained his practical training in the engineering departments of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway and the London and North Western Railway, and in the latter year he joined the staff of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway as Assistant Resident Engineer. In 1878 he obtained an appointment as Assistant Engineer on the Eastern Bengal Railway, where he had charge of a division of 60 miles, but was obliged to relinquish the post in 1880, on account of ill-health caused by exposure during the inundations. On return to England, he was temporarily employed in the engineer’s office of the Midland Railway, and in 1883 he was appointed to superintend the mines of D. and J. Ainsworth, of Cleator, West Cumberland, a position which he held until the summer of 1891, when his health failed him and he was obliged to relinquish the active pursuit of his profession. From that time until his death he devoted himself to scientific studies and pursuits, especially to geology and astronomy. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society and contributed many able memoirs to various scientific journals. In 1890 he contributed a Description of the Cleator Iron Company’s Barytes and Umber Mines and Refining Mills in the Caldbeck Fells to the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers..

Adie, Alexander James
Born in Edinburgh on 16 December 1808 and died near Linlithgow on 3 April 1879. Educated at Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University. apprenticed to James Jardine. Resident engineer on the Bolton and Preston Railway under Rastrick where his works included flying arches at Chorley and a skew bridge over the Lancaster Canal. Between 1847 and 1863 he was civil engineer and manager of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway. Marshall.   R.B. Schofield in Chrimes.

Aird, Sir John
Born 3 December 1833 in Greenwich; son of contractor. Worked with other members of the Aird family and with the Lucas family. Began with pipelaying for the gas and water industries, and eventually became involved with railway contracts and with dock works. He became an MP and was involved in promoting public libraries and buying Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Sir John's baronetcy, awarded on 5 March 1901, was a public recognition of his considerable achievements. His organization was, after the death of Thomas Brassey, the largest contracting firm in Britain, employing 30,000 men in December 1874, and as many as 20,000 men on the Aswan Dam alone twenty years later. Aird retired to Wilton Park, Beaconsfield where he died on 6 January 1911. Excellent ODNB entry by Mike Chrimes (includes portrait of bearded figure). Also Chrimes in Chrimes.

Allcard, William
Born in London on 30 June 1809; died Bakewell, Derbyshire, on 5 August 1861. Locomotive engineer associated with Buddicom and member of Quaker family. Apprenticed at Robert Stephenson & Co. He worked in drawing office, but also helped on the Leeds & Selby and Newcastle & Carlisle projects. In 1826 transferred to Liverpool and took charge of preliminary work on Chat Moss on Liverpool & Manchester and then on Bolton & Leigh Railways. Early in 1828 appointed resident engineer of middle portion of L&M including Sankey Viaduct. At opening he drove Comet. He then took charge of the Liverpool end of the line and began tunnel down to Lime Street station. Early in 1834 he was appointed resident engineer to Birmingham-Stafford section of Grand Junction Railway until line opened in July 1837 when he was awarded the maintenance contract. He also contracted for the Lancaster & Preston Junction Railway, opened 26 June 1840, and for permanent way for Sheffield & Manchester Railway. In 1841, when Locke began the Paris & Rouen Railway he contracted with Buddicom, Thomas Brassey and William Mackenzie for supply of locomotives and rolling stock and established a large works at Rouen. Here they both built and operated locomotives and trains. Marshall.. Michael R. Bailey  in Chrimes. Dawson, Backtrack, 2020, 32, 380

Allott, Charles Sneath
Born Lincoln, 17 May 1842; died Manchester 27 February 1907. Civil engineer and bridge builder. Pupil of W S Moorsom on Ringwood-Christchurch Railway. In 1862 he joined staff of Fairbairn Engineering Co, Manchester, and remained there until its liquidation in 1875: he had charge of works including roofs of Albert Hall, and Liverpool Street station and bridges on the Intercolonial Railway in Canada. In 1875 set up on his own and built the iron viaduct and bridges on the CLC between Manchester Central station and Cornbrook. He reported on all LYR iron underbridges and afterwards prepared drawings for strengthening many. In 1897 he took his son Henry N Allott into partnership under the name of C.S. Allott & Son. Marshall

Armstrong, William George
Born Newcastle upon Tyne on 26 November 1810 and died at his mansion at Cragside on 27 December 1900. Innovator in hydraulic engineering, notably so far as railways concerned for cranes, capstans and swing bridges. Major manufacurer of armaments. ODNB biography by Stafford M. Linsley. Entry in Chrimes by R.W. Rennison. Major contributor to IMechE. Statue outside Hancock Museum in Newcastle see Backtrack, 2011, 25, 740. On Board of restructured Robert Stephenson & Co, Christopher Dean. Robert Stephenson & Company: a financil basket case? Part 2. A Phoenix? — and the Darlingon Project. North Eastern Express, 2019, 58, 105-
Papers
Address by the President. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1869,  20, 183-200.
Description of the hydraulic swing bridge for the North Eastern Railway over the River Ouse near Goole. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1869,  20, 121-7.

Arrol, Sir William
Marshall: Born Houston, Renfrewshire, on 15 (13 in ODNB) January 1839 and died in Ayr on 20 February 1913. Civil engineering contractor and bridge builder. He was the son of Thomas Arrol, a cotton spinner. William started work at 14 with a Paisley blacksmith. After several years as journeyman smith he obtained employment in 1863 with Blackmoor & Gordon of Port Glasgow. By the age of 29 he had saved £85, half of which he spent on a boiler and engine, and in 1868 started a small works of his own near Glasgow. This prospered and in 1871 he began the Dalmarnock Works. He had added bridge building to his work and his first contract was on the Caledonian Railway's Hamilton branch, including a multi-span bridge over the Clyde at Bothwell. {is this fully correct?}. The CR then entrusted him with the first portion of the bridge over the Clyde at Glasgow in 1875. Two years earlier Arrol had undertaken construction of a railway suspension bridge over the Forth to designs by T. Bouch. Work began but, after the Tay Bridge collapse on 28th December 1879, the project was stopped and a new cantilever design was produced by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker for which Arrol was again given the contract. In the meantime he constructed the NBR bridge over the South Esk on the Arbroath to Montrose line, gaining experience which became useful when he built the second Tay Bridge, designed by W.H. Barlow. This was begun in 1882 and completed in 1887; the longest railway bridge in Europe. The Forth Bridge was begun in 1882 and completed in 1890. For his work Arrol was knighted by Queen Victoria. While engaged on the Forth Bridge. Arrol was also busy with the steelwork for the Tower Bridge in London and the train shed at Leith Central (Backtrack, 2020, 34, 12). Besides these Arrol constructed the Redheugh Bridge, Newcastle, three bridges over the Nile at Cairo, the Queen Alexandra Bridge, Sunderland (1909), the Scherzer lifting bridge at Barrow, and the second section of the Clyde bridge into Central Station, Glasgow. See also extract from Joby's The railway builders. ODNB biography by Michael S. Moss. Memorial  Woodside Cemetery, Paisley. See Humm J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2015, 38, 252.

Ashcroft. Peter
Resident Engineer of the South Eastern Railway: see Mortimer and Dawn Smith (states Engineer 1854 to 1870). Formerly Superintendent Permanent Way of the Eastern Counties Railway.

Austen, William Henry
Engineer and Locomotive Superintendent of Festiniog Railway from late 1931 (Boyd, J.I.C.) and also took over role of Colonel Stephens. Austen was born at Snodland in Kent on 8 May 1878. His father was a labourer at the nearby Aylesford paper mill. William was however largely raised by his grandmother at Cranbrook. When William left school in 1891 he was apprenticed to Messrs Joseph T Firbank, the contractors then engaged in the construction of the Cranbrook & Paddock Wood railway. It is almost certain that here he first came into contact with Stephens who at the age of 22, was working as resident engineer on the line. By 1894 work was coming to an end and Stephens obtained a brief to design and supervise the construction of the Rye & Camber tramway. Austen joined him where he was "put in charge of the locomotive workshops" and to all intents and purposes was employed by Stephens as his assistant from this time. After Stephens' death Austen moved to ensure the continuity of the railways notably by purchasing 23 Salford Terrace, Tonbridge. His key operational appointment was of managing director of the Kent & East Sussex in November 1931 becoming receiver and manager on 22 April 1932 at the behest of the Southern Railway, the principal debenture holder. He became general manager of the East Kent in 1932 and was appointed director of the Shropshire Railways Company in the same year. Both the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead, and the West Sussex lines were already in receivership and Austen was appointed general manager for the former, and engineer of the latter. He became consulting engineer to the Ashover and Rye & Camber lines in succession to Stephens and director of the North Devon & Cornwall Junction, which had been worked by the Southern Railway since its inception in 1925. Austen was also director of the Snailbeach District Railways which Stephens had acquired in 1923. Austen's involvement with the Festiniog and Welsh Highland Railways was no less stormy than that experienced by his predecessor. Stephens had been chairman and managing director since 1925 and his bombastic style of management was not popular with the workforce. Austen became engineer and locomotive superintendent but was not offered a board appointment and the Tonbridge influence gradually diminished. In 1936 cuts in essetial maintenance by the Festiniog chairman were the last straw for Austen and he tendered his resignation saying that the decision showed "no consideration for tomorrow". Austen died at home on 26 February 1956. Looking back on his career, he certainly provided the continuity that was needed following Stephens' death, a task which he did more than adequately, despite having no formal qualifications. The question of succession never really arose in Austen's mind as he had long maintained that the days of independent railways were over and that nationalisation was inevitable. From Colonel Stephens Museum website.

Surnames beginning "Ba"

Baker, [Sir] Benjamin
Marshall: Born Keyford, Frome, Somerset on 31 March 1840 and died in Pangbourne, Berks, on 19 May 1907. He was civil engineer and designer of the Forth Bridge. Educated Cheltenham Grammar School. Between 1856 and 1860 was apprenticed to H.H. Price at Neath Abbey Ironworks in Wales. In 1860 he went to London as assistant to W. Wilson on the construction of Grosvenor Road railway bridge across the Thames, and Victoria station. In 1861 he joined the staff of John Fowler and became his partner in 1875. From 1861 he was engaged with Fowler on the Metropolitan (Inner Circle) line in London, and the St John's Wood extension. In 1869 he became Fowler's chief assistant on the construction of the District Railway from Westminster to the City. With Fowler, Baker was consulting engineer for the first of the London tube railways, the City & South London, opened in 1890, and with J. H. Greathead they were joint engineers for the Central London tube, opened in 1900. In the construction of this Baker put into effect a scheme he had suggested 25 years earlier of making the line rise in entering a station and dip on leaving it to reduce braking and starting power. Fowler and Baker undertook many overseas works including railways in Australia and Souhern Africa. In England Baker was responsible for docks at Avonmouth and Hull, in association with Sir James Wolfe Barry. In 1877 Baker designed the wrought iron cylinder used to transport Cleopatra's Needle from Egypt to London arriving, after being lost at sea, in 1879. From 1869 he was engaged with Fowler on the Nile dams in Egypt. Following the Tay Bridge disaster in December1879 (see T. Bouch) Baker designed the great cantilever bridge to span the Firth of Forth which was begun in 1883 and opened on 4th March1890. In the same year Baker was knighted. (See also W. Arrol and Fowler). Elected AICE 1867, Member 1877, FRS 1890. Also MIME. ODNB entry by W.F. Spear revised and organised by Mike Chrimes. Frances Collingwood. Benjamin Baker. Rly Wld, 1957, 18, 130.

Baker, William
William Baker was born in Kennington, London, on 19 May 1817 and died on 20 December 1878 from Bright's disease. Eventually Chief. engineer of the LNWR. Between 1834 and 1839 he was articled to George Watson Buck, engineer, then engaged on the London & Birmingham Railway between London and Tring. In October1837 Baker went with Buck to work on the Manchester & Birmingham Railway, completed in 1842. Later he became engineer of the MSJ&AR, at the same time being engaged on the Shrewsbury & Birmingham and Shropshire Union Railways, opened in 1849. Baker was then appointed engineer of the Stour Valley Railway, Birmingham to Wolverhampton, and whilst there, in 1852, he was appointed by the LNWR as engineer of the Southern Division to succeed R. B. Dockray. On the death of Robert Stephenson in 1859 Baker was appointed chief engineer of the LNWR. Works carried out under his supervision included the Runcorn Bridge; stations at London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Preston, Bolton, Crewe, Warrington and Stafford; widening works, and many miles of new lines. In addition he acted as consulting engineer to the West London Extension Railway from 1859 to 1863; the North London Railway between 1863 and 1866; and was engineer to various railways built jointly with the LNWR. In Ireland he was responsible for the construction of the Dundalk, Newry & Greenore and North Wall Extension Railways (satelite actvities of the LNWR). Elected MICE .1848 Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes. Also Peter Braine The railway Moon.

Baldry, James Danford
Baldry was born in London sometime in 1816 and died in France on 10th February 1900 aged 83. He had been articled to Edward Lomax and later entered into the service of Joseph Cubitt. From 1848 to 1852 he was assistant engineer for the construction and maintenance of the East Lincolnshire Railway. In 1853 he joined staff of John Fowler, and was engaged on constructing the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway. From then until 1881 he worked with Fowler, taking charge of many large engineering works, including the Severn Valley Railway, Craven Arms-Much Wenlock Railway, Coalbrookdale line, and the Isle of Wight Railway. In 1881 he became a partner of Fowler and Benjamin Baker . Became MICE 5. December. 1865. (Marshall). Obituaries: Min Proc ICE V 143 1900 1 p 309; Engg V 69 23.2.1900

Ball, Sir James Benjamin
Born 9 March 1867; died Forest Row, Sussex, 16 September 1920. In 1884 articled to Joseph Hall. In 1890 joined staff of GNR to assist Richard Johnson. From 1895 engaged under Elliott Cooper on construction of LD&ECR and in 1899 became chief engineer until GCR absorbed line in 1907. He then became head of new works, GCR, being engaged on the Ardwick and Hyde Jn widenings nr Manchester, the new Carriage & Wagon Works at Dukinfield, Wath gravity shunting yard, Torside-Woodhead widening on the Manchester-Sheffield line, opening out of Bridghouses tunnel and rearrangement of Sheffield station, new avoiding line at Doncaster. At lmmingham Dock he was responsible for hydraulic equipment and for laying out about 160 miles of track, ferro-concrete bridges and gantries, granary, etc. On 1 January 1912 he became chief engineer, GCR. In February 1917 he left GCR (see Locomotive Mag., 1917, 23, 51 and prentation: Locomotive Mag., 1917, 23, 106) and moved to become chief engineer LBSCR, In 1917 he was appointed Controller of Timber Supplies. Knighted in 1918. Marshall

Ballard, Stephen
Born Malvern Link on 5 April 1804; died Colwall on 14 November 1890. Trained as builder and civil engineer, becoming manager and later engineer of the Hereford & Gloucester Canal. Was appointed resident engineer by Walker and Barges of the Middle Level Main Drain from the Ouse to the Sixteen Foot River at Upwell. A chance meeting with Thomas Brassey on Cambridge station led to his appointment on the construction of the GNR Biggleswade-Peterborough line, where his experience in the fen country was valuable: Joby (page 63) illuminates the technique of constructing rafyts from peat and faggots. After a brief visit to India he undertook construction sections of the Dutch Rhenish Railway for Brassey. Once again his fen experience was valuable. He next built the Worcester-Hereford Railway, opened 1860-1, including tunnels at Colwall and Ledbury. This was followed by the Ashchurch-Evesham, 1862, and the Evesham-Redditch, 1864. His last undertaking was the MR extension from Bedford to London. He then retred to Colwall. ODNB Biography by Philip Weaver. Marshall.

Barber, E.S.
Engineer Monmouthshire Canal & Railway Co. until 1848: devised a tramplate and wheel that could be used on both trams and edge rails. Rutherford Backtrack, 2008, 22, 368.

Barlow, Peter
Born in Norwich in October 1776. Died  on 1 March 1862 in Charlton. Mathematician and physicist: professor at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Experiments on the resistance of iron formed the basis of the design for the Menai suspension bridge submitted by Telford. About 1830 he became interested in railways, in the testing of various rail sections and determining the effects of gradients and curves. In 1836 he was appointed one of the Royal Commissioners for determining the best system of railways for Ireland, the report being presented to Parliament in 1838. In 1839 he prepared a similar report on the best routes to Scotland and Wales and the most convenient port for traffic to Ireland. In 1842 he was engaged in an enquiry into the merits of the atmospheric system and in 1845 he was appointed one of the Gauge Commissioners-in which work he was associated with Sir Frederick Smith and Prof Airy. In 1847, being then 71 years old, he retired from his duties at the Royal Military Academy. He was father of William Henry and Peter William Barlow. ODNB entry by A. M. Clerke, revised Iwan Rhys Morus. Marshall gives more information on his railway activities. Theoretical paper on locomotive power .

Barlow, Peter William
Brother of William Henry (below): born Woolwich 1 February 1809 and died in London on 20 May 1885. (Marshall). Author of paper on atmospheric railways. Improver of the shield methods of tunnelling and lining tunnels with cast iron segments: system was exploited on Tower Subway under the Thames. He was also an instigator of steel rail and fishplates. See Charles E. Lee Railway Magazine Volume 89 page 331. Mike Chrimes in Chrimes. Patents via Woodcroft: GB 12659 Parts of the permanent ways of railways. 14 June 1849; GB 12917 Permanent ways of railways. 3 January 1850.

Barlow, William Henry
Born in Woolwich on 10 May 1812 and died Greenwich on 12 November 1902. (Marshall). First Engineer of the Midland Railway and had been Resident Engineer of the North Midland Railway, and before that of the Midland Counties Railway. Held the post until 1857. On Committee to create Crystal Palace. Parkhouse, N. Bridge improvements on the Midland in the 1880s. Rly Archive, 2004 (8), 43. Excellent concise biography by Christopher Lewis in: Backtrack, 2006, 20, 404.which concentrates on the London Extension of the Midland Railway, including the trainshed at St. Pancras; and his work on the second Tay and Forth bridges. McKean. Battle for the North. (Inqiry into first Tay Bridge Disaster). He died on 12 November 1902 and William and his wife Selina are buried in Charlton cemetry: the grave is illustrated. High Combe, the Barlow residence which now serves as a Catholic presbytery is also illustrated. There is a portrait by John Collier which is property of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and the Barlow charger (a silver dish) presented to him on his 90th birthday. Extensive bibliography. Mike Chrimes: excellent ODNB entry (with portrait). Christopher Lewis with Ted Ruddock is also responsible for entry in Chrimes. Patents via Woodcroft: GB 10093 Constuction of keys, wedges or fastenings for engineering purposes. 6 March 1844; GB 12046 Manufacture of railway keys. 27 January 1848; GB 12133 Electric-telegraphs and apparatus connected therewith. 27 April 1848; GB 12438 Construction of the permanent ways of railways. 23 January 1849 Andrew Dow Railway p. 125 states that this is the patent for "Barlow rail"); GB 12917 Permanent ways of railways. 3 January 1850.

Barton, James
Born in Dublin in 1825, the eldest of eight children of the Govenor of the Bank of Ireland. Educated Trinity College and in 1843 was one of first graduates to receive a Diploma in Civil Engineering. After working as Resident Engineer on the Dundalk & Enniskillen Railway he joined the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway, supervising construction between Dundalk and Portadown. Shortage of capital had hindered the construction of a high level viaduct across the River Boyne at Drogheda. In November 1850 two detailed designs were produced by Macneill (a lattice girder) and by Fairbairn (a tubular design). These were referred to Barton who recommended the lattice girder design, but with modifications brought as the result of calculations made by Barton and his staff. These were presented in a paper: The calcualtions of strains in lattice girders with pracytical deductions therefrom presented at the British Association meeting held in Belfast in September 1852. He was a great believer in a railway tunnel under the North Channel and in 1897 made detailed proposals for one from Island Magee to the east of Stranraer avoiding the Beaufort Dyke. Canice O'Mahoney in Chrimes and Geraghty, P.J. Sir John Macneill (1793-1880): king of the Irish railways. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2008, 78, 207-34.

Batcher, William
Resident engineer on Highland Railway Aviemore line. When completed moved to the Irish Board of Works where he worked on the Londonderry & Burtonport Extension Railway and was responsible for locomotives and rolling stock  Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204.

Beaumont, Huntingdon
Born in about 1560. Interested in coal mining and constructed a timber wagonway from Strella to Wollaton Lane in Nottinghamshire to assist in its transport. Beaumont also had coal intests in Northumberland where a seam is name after him and a timber wagonway was constructed near Blyth. Beaumont died in Nottingham gaol 1624 where he was imprisoned for debt. Turnbull, L. The railway revolution: a study of the early railways of the Great Northern Coalfield 1605-1830.

Behr, Fritz Bernhard
Pioneer of monorail systems: from 1885 he took over the Lartigue railway interests outside France. Born Berlin on 9 October 1842. Educated in Paris and then trained as an engineer in Britain, firstly as a pupil to Wentworth Shields and Sir John Fowler. In 1876 he became a naturalised British subject. He died on 25 February 1927 Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631). Hennessey, R.A.S. One track to the future. Backtrack, 2005, 19, 437-41. and Tucker, D.G.. F.B. Behr's development of the Lartigue Monorail: from country crawler to electric express. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1983/4, 55, 131-49. Disc.: 149-52. Adrian Garner. Monorails of the 19th century includes proposals for high-speed systems between Liverpool and Manchester, and between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Bell, James (Senior)
Born in 1807 or 1808, in East Lothian, probably Dunbar, the son of builder and engineer Robert Bell from whom he learned the business of civil engineering as his superintendent. Early in his career he was appointed manager and engineer of the Paisley & Renfrew Railway, followed by a period as resident engineer on the eastern section of the Glasgow & Ayr Railway, then being constructed to the designs of James Miller of Grainger & Miller. A similar appointment with Miller on the construction of the North British Railway from Edinburgh to Berwick followed in 1842-44 and in the latter year the North British Railway appointed him engineer of the eastern section. He subsequently became engineer-in chief for the entire system. He designed the Waverley Bridge built between 1870 and 1873. David Bell, who designed a number of the early North British stations may have been a brother.
Retired in 1879 and died on 17 January 1885 at 28 Brighton Place, Portobello: his wife Elizabeth Young had predeceased him on 20 September 1875. All their sons joined the North British Railway, the eldest, James Bell junior succeeding his father as engineer in chief on his retirement.

Bell, James (Junior)
James Bell (junior) was born in Duddingston, Edinburgh on 20 October 1844, the son of James Bell (senior), engineer in chief of the North British Railway. He entered the service of the North British as a junior in his father's department in 1860 and at the end of his training as a civil engineer was appointed District Engineer of that company's central and Eastern sections. In 1871 he was appointed Assistant Engineer and later in the same year he succeeded his father as Engineer-in-Chief. Bell retired in 1909 at the age of sixty-five under the company's age limit regulations but was retained as its consulting engineer for a further three years. Thereafter he was appointed engineer to the Forth Bridge Company for a further seven years during which the tracks were strengthened for the heavy locomotives then being introduced. Bell died on 19 January 1935 at 7 Regulas Road, a large villa designed for him by Thomas Tolmie Paterson in the 1890s. Chrimes in volume 3.

Bennie, George
Born Auldhouse near Glasgow in 1892, but lived much of his life in Rothesay. Inventor of monorail system which was propeller-driven: the Railplane. Demonstration system erected near LNER Milngavie branch. Died in 1957. Information from Glasgow University Archive online site. Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631)..

Betts, Edward Ladd
Born in Sandown, Kent, on 5 June 1816 and died in Aswan, Egypt on 21 January 1872. Railway contractor. Built Balaclava Railway during Crimean War. See John Marshall. Involved with Peto see: Cox, John G. Samuel Morton Peto (1809-1889): the achievements and failings of a great railway developer. 2008

Bidder, George Parker
Born in Mortonhampstead on 14 (13 according to ODNB) June 1806 and died in Dartmouth on 20 September 1878. Brilliant child mathematician. Civil engineer who worked with Robert Stephenson (who clearly exploited Bidder's remarkable calculating ability) on the London & Birmingham Railway. Designed the original swing bridge over the Wensum in Norwich. In later life became involved in the flow of water. Marshall. See also ODNB biography by H.T. Wood, revised E.F. Clark  who was responsible for biography in Chrimes. Also involved with Peto see: Cox, John G. Samuel Morton Peto (1809-1889): the achievements and failings of a great railway developer. 2008. Mike G. Fell. Brandon station. Backtrack, 2020, 34, 454.

Bidder, Maurice McClean
For many years connected with Kitson and Company as a director and later as managing director. Son of George P. Bidder, Q.C., and grandson of George Parker Bidder (above), the famous "Calculating Boy," who was associated with Robert Stephenson and other engineers on railway construction, and who in later life became President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Educated at St. Paul's School from 1892 to 1897, when he entered the Royal Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill. In 1900 he became a pupil to Kitson and Company at the Airedale Foundry, and in the following year he joined the Midland Railway as a pupil under G. McDonald. He was appointed in 1902 superintendent of the Royal Survey Department, Siam, and was engaged in Government work in that country for four years. On return to England he went into private practice in Westminster as a consulting civil engineer in partnership with his cousin, Capt. W. N. McClean, M.I.Mech.E. In 1912 he joined Kitson and Company as a director and six years later was appointed assistant managing director. He became managing director to the firm in 1922, and held this position until 1928. He was an authority on gas production and distribution and was for several years chairman of the Danish Gas Company. At the outbreak of WW1 he held the rank of Major in the Royal Engineers. He served in Egypt, Gallipoli, and Palestine, and in 1917 he was awarded the D.S.O. and promoted to the rank of brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. He died as the result of a street motoring accident on 26 August 1934, in his fifty-sixth year. Brief obit Locomotive Mag., 1934, 40, 287. He had been a Member of the IMechE since 1921 and was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers

Birkinshaw, John Cass
Born at Bedlington on 14 November 1811. His father was the principal agent of the Bedlington Ironworks where his father had patented malleable iron fish-bellied rail (see Skempton). His father worked with George Stephenson and he worked with Robert Stephenson. Died 2 March 1867. See Michaael S. Bailey in Chrimes. Patent (via Woodcroft): GB 4503/1820 Manufacturing and construction of, a wrought or malleable iron rail-road  or way.  23 October 1820. See also Andrew Dow Railway. pp. 20-1. When working on the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway as chief engineer he was also responsible for locomotives until Matthew Kirtley took this over from about 1842 (see Dewrance. Locomotive Mag., 1943, 49, 180)

Bouch, [Sir] Thomas
According to Marshall born in Thursby, Cumbria on 22 February 1822 (Rapley states 25 February). Anthony Burton calls Bouch "the hapless designer of the Tay bridge [who ended] his life in disgrace. With a year of the disaster he was dead, broken in body and spirit. [at Moffat on 30 October 1880]. His crime was to cut his costs to the limit..." He was also responsible for the graceful Deepdale and Belah viaducts on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway. He had been knighted by Queen Victoria on 26 June 1879. His brother, William, was Locomotive Engineer of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The sole remaining reminders of Bouch's endeavours are the stumps of the old Tay Bridge and some of the girders incorporated into the newer structure. One of the greatest might-have-beens was Bouch's Forth Bridge. David Stirling. North British Study Gp J/., 2008 (103), 24.
John Rapley biography with portrait and full list of works and concise account of the Tay Bridge and the response to it in Chrimes. The investments by the Bouch brothers in Cowans Sheldon, the Carlisle crane makers, and in the Darlington Forge are noted.
Charles McKean Battle for the North. London: Granta, 2006
G.W. Spink. The rise and fall of the Tay Bridge. Railway Wld., 1970, 31, 14-17; and 109-13.
See biographical feature by Earnshaw Backtrack (5 p232)
John Rapley in Chrimes (includes portrait). Charles Walker Bouch—the railway builder. Rly World, 1972, 33, 218
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia
As innovator of train ferries (Granton to Burntisland) see Bruce: Backtrack, 2001, 15, 40.

Surnames beginning "Br"

Braddock, Henry William
Engineer, no architect as such employed, of Marylebone station: see Robert Emblin. Putting on the style. Backtrack, 2012, 26, 534.Rather peculiarly, the Civils paper on Marylebone station is by Hobson and Wragge.

Brandreth, Thomas Shaw

Brassey, Thomas

Brennan, Louis
Irishman from Galway: inventor of gyroscopically-controled monorail: information from . Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631).  Hennessey, R.A.S. One track to the future. Backtrack, 2005, 19, 437-41; and references therein

Brereton, Cuthbert Arthur
Born 1850; died 1910. Achitect with Sir John Wolfe Barry of Kew (road) bridge, opened on 20 May 1903 by King Edward VII.. Also involved with Barry in construction of Barry Docks and railways, the Middlesborough Docks, the Surrey Commercial docks, and the Great Northern and Piccadilly Tube. He had previously been resident engineer to the Llynvi and Ogmore Railways, and the Portcawl Docks and was afterwards assistant engineer on the London Inner Circle railway. Brereton family website: http://brereton.org.uk/engineers.htm

Brereton, Joseph Lloyd
Born in Little Massingham Rectory on 10 October 1822 and died there as Rector on 15 August 1901. Only Brereton herein to achieve ODNB status (entry by Peter Searby). Not like his relatives, but did help to promote railway from Taunton to Barnstaple, and later, the Lynn & Fakenham Railway.

Brereton, Robert Maitland
Born on 2 January 1834 at Little Massingham, Norfolk. Second cousin of Robert Pearson Brereton, and like him worked for Brunel on Saltash bridge (he was one of his pupils). In 1857 he joined the Great Indian Peninsular Railway. From 1871 he was involved in irrigation in the San Joaquim Valley in California, but in 1879 he returned to Norfolk to be its County Engineer. He died on 7 December 1911. Chrimes..

Brereton, Robert Pearson
Born on 4 April 1818 in Brinton, Norfolk: he came from a family that produced other notable Victorian engineers Cuthbert A. Brereton (Sir John Wolfe Barry's partner) and Robert Maitland Brereton (chief engineer on part of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway and advocate in the US Congress for the building of irrigation canals in California). Died in June 1894 according to Buchanan or 1 September 1894 according to Wikepedia.. Worked for Brunel for more than twenty years on Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash and on Cornwall Railway and, following Brunel's death, completed many of his projects R. Angus Buchanan in Chrimes.which includes a portrait.
Brereton was recruited by Brunel staff in 1836 to be one of seven resident engineers supervising the construction of the Great Western Railway. He lost an eye in a work accident and is depicted in a portrait with an eye patch After the Great Western railway was completed, he carried out similar tasks on other railways that Brunel was building. For example, in 1845 he was one of Brunel's resident engineers on the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway and was sent to Italy to sort out problems with the construction of the Turin–Genoa railway. He became Brunel's chief assistant in 1847 and remained in this post until Brunel's death in 1859. His signature appears on drawings for the Chepstow Bridge which were prepared in Brunel's London office around 1850. One of Brunel's major and long-running projects was the construction of the Royal Albert Bridge across the River Tamar for the Cornwall Railway. In 1854 Brereton was sent as Brunel's assistant to help William Glennie, the resident engineer on the bridge, who was in poor health. Much of his time in the next five years was spent on this project. He was instrumental in developing ways to excavate underwater to prepare for the construction of the central pier. In 1857 he assisted Brunel when the first span was floated into position, and he then supervised the lengthy process to raise it 100 feet (30 m) to the top of its piers. Brunel's poor health increasingly prevented him from attending work in Cornwall, and so Brereton supervised the floating out of the second span in 1858 without Brunel's help. He then saw through the raising of this span, the completion of the bridge and opening of the line in May 1859. After Brunel's death in September 1859 Brereton took over his role as chief engineer for many railway companies, designing new works and alterations. He ran his business from Brunel's old office in Duke Street, London, while Brunel's widow Mary continued to reside in the rooms above. Some of Brunel's railways were still under construction, including the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway, Cornwall Railway, Dartmouth and Torbay Railway, West Somerset Railway.
Brunel had described Brereton in 1845 as "a peculiarly energetic persevering young man". The Chairman of the Cornwall Railway, speaking in 1859 following the opening of the Royal Albert Bridge, described him as "always ready, always able, always full of energy." He has a memorial brass in the church in Blakeney.

Bretland, Arthur White
Born in Co. Down c1879 or 1885 (gravestone), baptised 23 May 1882 at Glencraig and educated at Campbell College in Belfast. He died in 1953 and is buried at Malahide in the Church of Ireland graveyard. Chief Mechanical Engineer Midland Great Western Railway and from 1924 Deputy Chief Engineer of the Great Southern Railways. Inventor of track-laying machine which bwas patented in Germany (Priority 3 December 1923), USA and Canada, but not in UK?. See Andrew Dow: Steam Wld, 2007 (237), 26 et seq and Tatlow Backtrack, 2019, 33, 70

Brewer, John Williams
Born in Llanelli on 26 March 1841; died London 26 August 1894. Worked in Locomotive Department of Rhymney Railway under his father; then articled to David Jones, Engineer of the Rhymney Railway. In June 1861 he was appointed assistant to John Williams, engineer of new works on the Taff Vale Railway. Between 1870 and 1880 he practiced as a civil and mining engineere with an office in Cardiff. From 1880 he worked permanently with the TVR On the death of John Williams in 1887 he became surveyor and assistant engineer; on the retirement of H.O. Fisher in 1891 he became Chief Engineer. Marshall.

Brindley, James
Boorn 1716, Tunstead, near Buxton, Derbyshire, —died September 30, 1772, Turnhurst, Staffordshire). Pioneer canal builder, who constructed the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester, which is recognized as the first English canal of major economic importance. Beginning as a millwright, Brindley designed and built an engine for draining coalpits at Clifton, Lancashire, in 1752. In 1759 Francis Egerton, 3rd duke of Bridgewater, hired him to build a 16-km canal to transport coal from the duke’s mines at Worsley to Manchester. Brindley’s solution to the problem included a subterranean channel, extending from the barge basin at the head of the canal into the mines, and the Barton Aqueduct, which carried the canal over the River Irwell. The success of the canal encouraged similar projects: the Grand Trunk Canal, penetrating the central ridge of England by the Harecastle Tunnel, and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the Coventry, the Oxford, the old Birmingham, and the Chesterfield canals, all designed and, with one exception, executed by Brindley. In all, he was responsible for a network of canals totaling about 580 km. The improvement in communications helped to hasten the Industrial Revolution. Brindley, a self-made engineer, undertook all his works without written calculations or drawings, leaving no records except the works themselves. Scholes (Backtrack, 2023, 37, 67) records that "There are few plans for our brilliantly engineered canal system James Brindley calculated it all in his head". Although his death is long before most railway building his methodology greatly fascilitated railway construction.

Brogden, Alexander
1825-1892: from the Furness area. Brogden & Sons promoted and largely built the Ulverston & Lancaster Railway with its crossings of the Kent and Leven estuaries. Used narrow gauge steam locomotives supplied by Fletcher Jennings to serve coalmines owned by family in Ogmore Valley, South Wales. Deeply involved in Mont Cenis Fell Railway (see Ransom).  Family firm (John Brogden & Sons) contracted to build 200 miles of railway in New Zealand, but not involved in Rimutaka Incline. See Ransom.

Brotherhood, Rowland (or possibly Roland)
Son of William Brotherhood, who was a contractor on Sonning Cutting (see Backtrack, 2008, 22, 317: letter from Michael R. Bailey) and wass thrown from his horse and killed whilst performing preparatory workds for Wharncliffe Viaduct. His son Rowland took over these works and worked well with Brunel. In 1842 he established a works at Chippenham to supply the railway industry and between 1857 and 1867 locomotives were manufactured there. Rowland was born in Middlesex in 1813 and died in Bristol on 4 March 1883. See Leleux Brotherhoods.

Brown, Charles John
Born Bannockburn on 28 January 1872; died Guildford 17 November 1938. Educated Edinburgh University and Heriot-Watt College; then pupil of J.B. Young of NBR, plus further training from James Bell, Chief Engineer of the NBR. In 1909 joined MR as assistant engineer, and in October 1911 succeeded Alexander Ross as Chief Engineer GNR. In 1923 he took over responsibility for former GCR engineering, and in 1925 that of the GER, thus becoming responsible for civil engineering on the Southern Area of the LNER. Responsible for stations at Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City new towns and for Guidea Park to Shenfield widening (latter): Locomotive Mag., 1934, 40, 42. He employed Herber Morris Ltd track layer (Tatlow Backtrack, 2019, 33, 70). He reitired in January 1937 and was succeeded by R.J.M. Inglis according to Marshall. Brown meritted incluson in Chrimes Volume 3.

Bruce, [Sir] George Barclay
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 1 October 1821 and died in St Johns Wood, London on 25 August 1908. Obituary in Locomotive Mag., 1908, 14, 154 records that at the time of his death he was one of the last remaining links with the Stephensons. Engineer of the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick (paper by Bruce in Min. Proc. Inst. Civ. Engrs, 1850, 10, 219). Winner of Telford Medal. Most of work performed in India. Consulting engineer. See Marshall and ODNB entry by W.F. Spear revised by Ralph Harrington. Entry in Chrimes (with portrait) by M. Kaye Kerr and Ian J. Kerr. Rennison, R.W.  The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and its engineers; 1829­1862. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2001, 72, 203-33.

Bruff, Peter Schuyler
Born Devonport on 23 July 1812 and Baptised in Portsea on 6 August 1812; died Ipswich 24 February 1900 (P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin in Chrimes which differs from Marshall). Civil engineer and manager for Eastern Union Railway which linked the depths of East Anglia with London. Also responsible for other railways and civil engineering works in East Anglia. Published Treatise on engineering fieldwork in London: Simpkin Marshall, 1838 (BLPC). Ellis's chapter on the development of railway engineering in Singer notes that Bruff was the inventor (and patentee) of fish-plates. See Moffat, Hugh. East Anglia's first railways: Peter Bruff and the Eastern Union Railway. 1987. Excellent letter from Andrew Kleissner in Backtrack, 2012, 26, 126 which notes that he had a son William, who was also a civil engineer, but also had interests in gold mining, and in the 1870s was taken to court on a charge of embezzling from his employer, the Severn Bridge Company. Backtrack, 2021, 35, 607. He made several trips to the USA and died in Brentford in 1911.

Brunlees, [Sir] James
Born Kelso 5 January 1816, died Wimbledon 2 June 1892 (Marshall). Outstanding civil engineer: notable works with which he was associated included the viaducts across the Leven and Kent estuaries, the Mersey Railway; the Solway Viaduct and the Mont Cenis Railway. Mike Chrimes has written an excellent biographies for the ODNB and for his own Biographical dictionary.

Brydone, Walter Marr
Born Southsea (Christened 15 December 1822 at Portsea) and died probably in London in 1885. Trained as a civil engineer with Lomax and worked as assistant to William Cubitt on constructing the South Eastern Railway between 1840 and 1847. He then worked on the construction of what became the Great Northern Railway and was appointed its engineer in 1856. In 1861 he resigned and set up as a consulting engineer, mainly relying upon Great Northern contracts. Mike Chrimes in Chrimes.

Buck, George Watson
Born Stoke Holy Cross, Norfolk, on 9 April 1789; died Ramsey, Isle of Man, 9 March 1854. Quaker parents. Educated Friends' School Ackworth, Yorkshire. First employed under John Rennie (senior) on East London water works. In 1818 he settled at Welshpool and became engineer of the Montgomeryshire Canal for 14 years About 1834 his friend Robert Stephenson entrusted him with the construction of the London & Birmingham Railway between Camden Town and Tring. On this section he built his first oblique bridge. In 1838 appointed chief engineer of the Manchester & Birmingham Railway in conjunction with Robert Stephenson. Here the principal work was the Stockport viaduct: see Wells Backtrack, 2019, 33, 372. In 1839 he published A Practical and Theoretical Essay on Oblique Bridges. In 1840 he went to Germany to take charge of construction of railway from Altona to Kiel but was forced by illness to retire before its completion. On return to England he soon resumed duties on the Manchester & Birmingham which he completed in 1842. In 1846, after a period of strenuous work, his health broke down and he was forced to retire to the Isle of Man where he spent his time correcting his published works and writing assays. He died from scarlatina, his wife and daughter dying of it less than 2 weeks later. His son Joseph Haywood (below) became engineer on the LNWR. Marshall and M.C. Reed in The London & North Western Railway: a history. Penryn: Atlantic. 1996. 248pp..

Buck, Joseph Haywood Watson
Born Manchester 22 November 1839; died Crewe 9 July 1898. Son of George Watson Buck (above). Educated King William's College, Castletown, Isle of Man. In 1856 he began in the engineer's office LBSCR, London, and later in the office of Sir Charles Fox. In 1860 became pupil of William Baker, chief engineer, LNWR, who had earlier been a pupil of Buck's father. In 1863 he took charge of the construction of the Eccles-Tyldesley-Wigan line, opened 1 September 1864, and the Kirkburton branch, opened 7 October 1867. Buck was then engaged as resident engineer on the construction of the second single-line tunnel at Standedge, opened in 1871. He was then moved to Watford as resident engineer on widening works between London and King's Langley, 28 miles, including Colne viaduct and new tunnels at Watford and Primrose HilL 1877-8 he built 11 miles of line between Northampton and Rugby, opened 1 December 1881. He next built the Stalybridge-Diggle Loop, opened 1 December 1885. After a short spell at Stockport he was appointed divisional engineer, Crewe, where he remained until  March 1898 when failing health forced him to resign. Marshall.

Surnames beginning "Ca"

Campion, F.E.
Chief Civil Engineer Southern Region from 1951 in succession to V.A.M. Robertson. Joined LBSCR in 1920, and was appointed Assistant Divisional Engineer at the Grouping. He became Assistant Civil Engineer in 1948. Moody in Southern Electric: the History of the World's Largest Suburban Electrified System. London: Ian Allan, 1957. 172pp.

Carpmael, Raymond
Born 14 September 1875; died 8 March 1950. Educated privately and at Dulwich College. Joined Bridge Department of GWR in 1900. Became an Assistant at Fishguard Harbour in 1901; Chief Assistant in 1902. Resident Engineer Weymouth, 1907-09; Chief Assistant, Shrewsbury 1909-16; Chief Assistant Gloucester in 1916; Senior Engineer Civilian Railway Co. (G.W.R.) in 1917; in 1919 Divisional Engineer, Shrewsbury; in 1924 Assistant to the Joint Chief Engineers, Barry Docks. in 1926 Assistant Engineer, Paddington. and in 1932 Chief Civil Engineer, Great Western Railway. IMechE Paper on metal sleepers. Paper presented to Institute of Transport on high speed trains: see Locomotive Mag., 1934, 40, 363: earlier 1928 Institute of Transport paper on speed and safety on railways which included observations on broken rails. Gold Medal from Institute of Transport in 1928. Member of the Indian Pacific Locomotive Committee (outlined in Locomotive Mag., 1939, 45, 215), but may not have pulled his weight according to Cox Locomotive Panorama v. 2. He would seem to have been somewhat lacking in acumen for such an important post. Lived in Reading. Keen gardener and sailor. Photograph on board SS Narkunda with Alan Mount on voyage back to Europe following Indian Pacific inquiry, see Cox Locomotive Panorama Volume 2..

Clark, Edwin
Born on 7 January 1814 and died on 22 October 1894: both in Marlow. After acting as mathematical master at Brook Green, and then as a surveyor in the west of England, went to London in 1846 and met Robert Stephenson, who appointed him superintending engineer of the Menai Strait Bridge, which was opened on 5 March 1850. In that year he published The Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges (3 vols). In August 1850 he became engineer to the Electric and International Telegraph Company, and took out the first of several patents for ‘electric telegraphs and apparatus connected therewith’. From then on he divided his time between electric and hydraulic engineering. Clark's Two Mile Telegraph used on LNWR between London and Rugby from 1855. On 4 February 1856 he took out a patent for ‘suspending insulated electric telegraph wires’, but most of his patents were for improvements in dry docks and floating docks, in the methods of lifting ships out of the water for repairs, and for constructing piers. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 3 December 1850, and contributed many papers to their Proceedings, being awarded a Telford medal in 1866 for his paper ‘On the hydraulic lift graving dock’, and a Watt medal in 1868 for those on ‘The durability of materials’. Two years' residence in Buenos Aires, Paraguay, and Uruguay, provided material for his Visit to South America (1878). Edwin Clark died at his home, Cromwell House, Marlow, on 22 October 1894. From ODNB entry by A.F. Pollard, revised by Anita McConnell for his brother Latimer Clark, who also worked on Britannia Bridge and developed pneumatic railways. James Sutherland in Chrimes. Portrayed in Conference of Engineers at Britannia Bridge by John Lucas (see Marshall for key to those in picture).

Clarke, William
Engineer to the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway. Developer of standard buildings: see Beale article in Br. Rly J. 1985, (8) 266 and subsequent letter from Keith Beddoes on page 41 of Issue 10 which notes that Dowles Bridge across the River Severn was his finest work. In 1873 he was associated with a proposed railway near Cleobury Mortimer.

Surnames beginning "Co"

Collins, A.J.
Chief Engineer Cambrian Railways from January 1898. Previously with L&YR and NER; also some time spent in Australia.

See G.A. Sekon. Rly Mag 3 313-28.
C.C. Green's Cambrian Railways portrait page 58 called him "Collin" without terminal "s"

Colson, Henry
Engineer of the Monmouthshire Railway & Canal Co. from 1848 until sacked: drew up specification for locomotive supplied by Grylls. See Rutherford Backtrack, 2008, 22, 368.

Conder, Francis Roubiliac
Born in the City of London on 26 November 1815, died Guildford on 18 December 1889. Educated at Mill Hill School and articled to Sir Charles Fox, working on the Harrow to Tring section of the London & Birmingham Railway. In 1850-1851 he was involved in the construction of the Cork & Bandon Railway including the Chetwynd Viaduct. In 1854 he established a partnership with Thomas Smith Goode. In addition to work on the South Wales Railway, they were involved in the Bordeaux and Bayonne Railway (subject of an ICE paper), (see also Dow Railway p. 103) and between 1856 and 1860 Conder was Engineer-in-chief of the Naples & Brindisi Railway. Author of Personal recollections of English engineers (Ottley 4016). Later he turned towards works for water supply and sewerage. Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes and essay by Jack Simmons in Express Trains.

Cowper, Edward Alfred
Born London 10 December 1819; died Weybridge, Surrey on 9 May 1893. Biography by Ronald M. Burse in ODNB. Not in Marshall, but in Chrimes (by James Sutherland pp. 200-1). Apprenticed John Braithwaite for seven years. In 1837 he invented the detonating fog signal for railways and this was used on the London & Croydon Railway. In 1841 he joined Fox & Henderson where he invented a method for casting railway chairs (Patent 11222/1846 from Chrimes), and was involved in the cast iron roof for Birmingham New Street. He was involved in the design work for the Crystal Palace. In association with C.W. Siemens he designed the  hot-blast stove for steelworks. The wire-spoked bicycle wheel is not mentioned by Burse: see Foster Trans Newcomen Soc., 1967, 40, 147. Obituary Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, 1893, 44, 303. In his Presifential Address to the IMechE (1880, 31, 312) he observed that his father, who was professor of engineering in King's College, and an inventor of printing machinery, had seen Trevithick's locomotive running in Euston Square and that it had derailed due to excessive speed. Cowper was clearly a major influence in the development of the history of engineering and in the preservation of historical relics..
Cowper, E.A. On an improved mode of moulding railway chairs. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, 1851, 2, 42-4. Disc.: 44-5. + Plate 41
Cowper, Edward A.  On the inventions of James Watt, and his models preserved at Handsworth and South Kensington. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1883, 34, 599-631 + Plates 55-87..

Crossley, John Sidney
Born Loughborough 25 December 1812 and died Barrow on Soar on 10 June 1879. Marshall includes an extensive biography. See also Chrimes in Chrimes and Neil Parkhouse (Rly Archive, 2004, (8) 43) who notes that he was Engineer of the Midland Railway between 1857 and 1875, a period which included building the Settle & Carlisle Line. Ribblehead station included in Jenkins' pantheon.

Currie, Donald
Raised strong objections to railways in 1837 because “veins of water will be cut, springs dricd up, and sloping fields so deprived of water that they will become sterile and unfit for pasturage and agriculture. Whole estates are cut asunder and disfigured by deep cuttings.” Therefore, he proposed what he called a safety railway, by constructing it of "timber or other materials raised at least ten feet above the ground,” removing every obstruction to agricultural operations. As Sir John Aspinal said "Time and knowledge have, however, changed all that" in. his Thomas Hawkesley Lecture.

Surnames beginning "D"

Dalrymple Hay, Sir Harley Hugh
Marshall records that was born in Bengal on 6 October 1861 and died in  Chorley Wood on 17 December 1940. He was educated privately in Edinburgh and by army tutors. He was articled as pupil to the chief engineerr of the MR, working on sections of line in South Wales. He then entered the drawing office of the LSWR. In 1894 he was appointed resident engineer on the Waterloo & City Rilway. This was the start of his long connection with tube railways, for which he devised a new type of shield which was an improvement on that of W R Galbraith. Experience he gained on the Waterloo & City line was utilized in the construction of the Bakerloo, Harnpstead and Piccadilly lines, now a part of the London Underground system. He was also consulting engineer to the 2ft gauge Post Office underground Railway completed in 1928. After WWl he undertook an extensive programme of station reconstruction on the surface works of the London Underground system. This included the replacement of many lifts with escalators, and the provision of large sub-surface circulating areas. Some of these works, particularly at Piccadilly, involved much alteration of sewers and other services. He was awarded the Telford Gold Medal for his paper of the Waterloo & City tube. ODNB biography by A.Y. Dalrymple-Hay, revised by Mike Chrimes.

Dargan, William
Born in Ardistan near Tullow in County Carlow on 28 February 1799. Died in Dublin on 7 February 1867. Worked under Telford on Shrewsbury to Holyhead Road. In 1831 he worked on Dublin & Kingstown Railway, then on Ulster Canal, and Dublin & Drogheda Railway. He organized the Dublin International Exhibition in 1853 and the Irish National Gallery was built as a monument to him. See Marshall and Rutherford: Backtrack, 2001, 15, 652 et seq.who calls him one of Ireland's greatest benefactors. ODNB biography by G.C. Boase, revised by Mike Chrimes.  Extensive biography in Joby's The railway builders.Fergus Mulligan in Chrimes: excellent authorative biography.

Deas, James
Born in Edinburgh on 30 October 1827, son of James Deas, engineer of the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway and later the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway, The son was educated in Edinburgh and trained in the locomotive shops of the E&GR at Haymarket, followed by three years under James Miller. Deas was involved in constructing the railway between Dumfries and Carlisle and between 1855 and 1864 worked at the head office of the G&SWR, firstly as assistant to William Johnstone and later in charge of the southern portion of the railway. In 1864 he became Engineer-in-Chief of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway, but the amalgamation with the NBR led him in 1869 becoming the engineer of the Clyde Navigation Trust where he contributed greatly to improvements in the Clyde. He died in Glasgow on 29 December 1899. Ted Ruddock in Chrimes (includes a portrait).

Dick, Maxwell
Of Irvine. Patented a monorail system GB 5790/1829 Railroad; propelling carriages thereon by machinery (21 May 1829) Woodcroft. Claimed to cope with snow and convey mail at 60 mile/h. Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631). . . See Grahame Boyes Early Railways [1] 192.

Dillon, James
Born in 1833 in Dublin, son of a solicitor. Died at Glenageary, Co. Dublin, on 12 May, 1916.. Educted privately and apprenticed to Maurice Collis, a  civil engineer from 1849 to 1853. From 1853 to 1859 he was engineer for the contractors for the 50 miles of railway extensions in Cavan Monaghan and at Fermoy. In 1859 he commenced private practice and was consulting engineer for the proposed Dundalk and Carrickmacross Junction Railway and with G..W. Hemans for the proposed Dublin & Baltinglass Junction Railway. In 1866 he succeeded Sir John Macneill as Consulting Engineer to the Dublin and Meath Railway. He was the engineer for the Great Southern & Western Railway extension from Mitchestown to Fermoy in County Cork. During the 1870s he designed and constructed many large drainage and arterial works in County Meath including several substantial bridges.He was a Government arbitrator under the Public Works Commissioners and Local Government Board of Ireland, and a member of the Viceregal Commission on Arterial Drainage. He was the author of various papers, and served as President of the Irish Institution of Civil Engineers. Chrimes in Chrimes.

Dixon, Edward
Born Raby, Co Durham, on 13 July 1809 (not June at stated by Marshall and ICE obituary). Died Wandsworth, London, on 18 November 1877. Civil engineer. Son of John Dixon, colliery proprietor. Educated at Quaker Ackworth School. Began career on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway under his brother John on the crossing of Chat Moss. Later he worked under Robert Stephenson on the London & Birmingham Railway under Locke on the London & Southampton Railway. Returning to Stephenson he worked on surveys for railways in Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire. He then superintended construction of Learnington-Coventry, opened in 1844; Rugby-Leamington, opened in 1851; Bletchley to Oxford, and Nuneaton-Coventry, opened 1850/1. After serving as acting resident engineer of the London-Birmingham section for a period he moved to Southampton where he was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce and a JP. He was a founder of the Union Steamship Co. Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes.

Dixon, John (1796-1865)
Born Raby, Co Durham, 25 November 1796. Died Darlington 10 October 1865 aged 68 One of the earliest railway civil engrs. Began as a book clerk under Jonathan Backhouse, one of the promoters of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on which he later became a clerk. In 1821 he took up surveying with George Stephenson. After completion of the SDR in 1825 he went to the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway as resident engineer, begun in 1825. In 1827, before completion of this, he went to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and surveyed the line across Chat Moss. On the opening of the LMR he was put in charge of locomotives, where he contributed improvements. In 1845 he returned to Darlington where he became a consulting engineer: works included the westward extension of the SDR. He was a Quaker. Dawson, Backtrack, 2020, 32, 380 Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes. and Marshall

Dixon, John (1835-1891)
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 2 January 1835. Died Croydon 28 January 1891. Civil engr. Bdest son of Jeremiah Dixon and nephew of John Dixon of the SDR. Educated Dr Bruce's Sch, Newcastle. Apprenticed at Robert Stephenson & Co. Became engineer at Consett Ironworks, later going into business on his own and restarting the old ironworks at Bedlington. This was unsuccessful so he moved to London where he began a successful career as engineer and contractor. Among his railway works was the first, experimental, one in China from Shanghai to Woosung, about 20 miles, a 2ft 6in gauge line opened in 1876. His most famous achievement was the transporting of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London. See Michael R. Bailey and Julian Rainbow in Chrimes. and Marshall.

Dockray, Robert Benson
Born near Manchester on 13 November 1811 and educated at Quaker schools in Kendal and Darlington. Peter S. Richards. A Note on the early life of Robert Benson Dockray (1811-1871). J. Rly Canal Hist., Soc.,1988, 29, 305. Joined the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1831 and intructed in engineering matters by Thomas Storey. Worked for Robert Stephenson on the London & Birmingham Railway from 1835. In 1840 he was appointed Resident Engineer for the whole London & Birmingham line, and for the LNWR Southern Division upon its formation in 1846. During Railway Mania worked extremely hard on unfulfilled projects to protect company's western flank and as a result lost the sight in one eye and was forced to retire in September 1852, but lived until 8 September 1871, dying at his home in Lancaster. Paper in Min. Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs, 1849, 8, 164. Another papr discussing drainage work including that on approach to Euston Proc. Instn Civil Engrs. 1845, 4, 164. Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes. Incomplete archive held by University of Salford. Andrew Dow (Railway p. 61) had clearly inspected RAIL 410/288 and noted Dockray's comparitive costs of stone versus wooden sleepers and theb need to replace the stone blocks which had led to high wear .

Donkin, Bryan
Born Sandoe near Hexham on 22 March 1768 and died in London on 27 February 1855. Eminent scientist (FRS) and civil engineer. Co-author of ICE paper on locomotive trials on GJR. Newcomen Society paper presumably written by a relative. ODNB biography by Roger Lloyd-Jones. Presumably patents listed in Woodcroft were held by him
GB 10832/1845 Wheels for railway-carriages; mecanical contrivances by which railway carriages are made to cross from one jine of rails to another, and to sidings. 11 November 1845.
GB 12964/1850 Steam engines: fluid meters. 9 February 1850.

Donkin, Bryan (1835-1902)
Son of John Donkin, 1802-1854, (and grandson of Bryan Donkin): born in London on 29 August 1835. Educated University College, London and École Centrale des Arts at Métiers in Paris. Became interested in cylinder jacketing and superheaters and devised glass apparatus to inspect interior of cylinders. Died Brussels on 4 March 1902. ODNB biography by Mike Chrimes and Chrimes in Chrimes.

Dorning, Elias
Born in Worsley on 25 January 1819 and died in Pendlebury on 18 July 1896. Civil engineer. In 1836 was articled to William Benson, Bury, for 5 years. Between 1841 and 1843 was resident engineer for Bury waterworks. He then began private practice in Manchester as civil and mining engineer, surveyor and land agent, making extensive parliamentary surveys and valuation of properties for railway works. Associated with Thomas Bouch in the purchase of land for the LNWR Eccles-Tyldesley-Wigan line, and they were joint engineers for the Lancashire Union Railways. Dorning also carried out similar work for the CLC and Wirral Railways. Acted as surveyor for the LYR until that company appointed a permanent surveyor, and in 1884 was responsible for securing the land for Horwich locomotive works. At the same time he acted for the LYR in the purchase of land for the Pendleton-Hindley line. See Marshall..

Doyne, William Thomas
Born in Carlow on 15 April 1823. He studied briefly at Durham University before becoming articled to Edward Dixon. He was then assistant engineer on the Hamburg to Bergesdorf railway between 1840 and 1842. He then returned to Ireland when he worked on the Great Southern & Western Railway under John MacNeill and followed this by working on branches of the London & Birmingham Railway, becoming resident engineer of the Rugby & Leamington line in 1847.  This established him as it led to two papers in the Minutes & Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (Volume 9 page 353 and 11, page 1).  He worked briefly for the Ebbw Vale Iron Co. During the Crimean War he took charge of the Army Works at Balaclava in partnership with Robert Garrett. He was appointed resident engineer of the Ceylon Railway in 1857, but Moorsom's survey had led to the need for expensive works and Doyne was recalled to Britain. He then worked with A.C. Fitzgibbon  for the Dun Mountain Copper Mining Co. to build a railway near Nelson in New Zealand. Following this he became involved with the Tasmania Railway which made slow progress probably not helped by Doyne establishing an office in Melbourne. In 1868 he was appointed chief engineer of the Launceston & Western Railway. He died in Melbourne on 29 September 1877.   See also Horne Backtrack 13 296

Dredge, James
Born Bath 29 July 1840; died Pinner 18 August 1906. Civil engineer who worked with D.K. Clark and John Fowler (with latter on Metropolitan Distrct Railway). Succeeded Zerah Colburn as Editor and eventual proprietor of Engineering. See Marshall and ODNB biography by W.F. Spear revised Ralph Harrington. Ted Ruddock in Chrimes who emphasise his skill in design of suspension bridges few of which survive. Between 1871 and 1878 he had an office in 10 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London..

Surnames beginning "E"

Earle, John B.
Resident engineer Leek & Manifold: portrait in Lindsey Porter's Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway. 2002. Also one locomotive named J.B. Earle..

Eckersley, William
Born in Manchester on 23 January 1824 and died in Santa Ana, Salvador on 23 April 1895. Railway contractor. Entry in Chrimes (pp. 261-3) by P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin (with portrait). .

Edgeworth, Richard Lovell
Irish aristocrat who won Royal Society of Arts Gold Medal for development of railways and/or trains. Possible claimant to the inventor of the "train" for carrying loads across soft ground on wooden railways. See letter by Foulkes in Backtrack Volume 10 page 165, and feature by Rutherford in Backtrack Volume 10 beginning page 33 actually on page 34.

Ellson, George
Born Ripley, Derbyshire on 2 June 1875. Educated Ripley College. Apprenticed at Butterley Co. and studied at Nottingham University College. In 1896 appointed draughtsman at E.C. & J. Keay, but in 1898 moved to Engineering Dept of SECR. In 1923 became Deputy Chief Engineer of Southern Railway and succeeded A.W. Szlumper as Chief Engineer. Retired in 1944: died Seaford 29 September 1949. Involved in the vast electrification works and in train ferry terminal at Dover. Marshall. In addition he had a major influence on steam locomotive design, following the Sevenoaks accident where he considered that pony trucks were at fault: see for instance: H.A.V. Bulleid Bulleid of the Southern..
Modern Trends of Railway Engineering Practice. obscure Instn Civil Engrs paper, PICE 1-9-1
Contribution to Other's paper
Cox, E.S. of locomotive reciprocating parts. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1943, 33, 221-2. (Paper No. 432)
A class 5 locomotive was deliberately slipped on greased rails at a speed equivalent to 100 mile/h to establish the effect of coupled wheel lifting at speed. This paper was also published in Proc. Instn mech. Engrs, 1941, 146 148-62 and J. Instn civ. Engrs, 1941/42, 17, 221-50. Ellson (219) commented upon the Merchant Navy class which had been designed without balance weights and to experiments conducted on the a member of the two-cylinder H15 class from which the balance weights had been removed. He also commented upon the Raworth electric locomotive.
Patents
530,083 An improved rail expansion joint. Applied 16 June 1939. Published: 4 December 1940.
192,922 Improvements in connection with the live rails or conductors in systems of electric traction Applied 8 February 1922. Published 15 February 1923.
Protected third rail system intended to operate at higher voltage (SECR system)

Emmons, Uri
US patent of 1837 which claimed improvements to Palmer's monorail system. Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631).

Errington, John Edward
Marshall records born in Hull on 29 December 1806 (but Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes) notes that he was Christened on 26 March 1805 and that the December birth might have been in 1804) and died in London on 4 July 1862. Civil engineer, associated with Locke, Training received on public works in Ireland, then worked on railway surveys in England under Padley. He was then engaged by Rastrick on plans for Grand Junction Railway on which he met Joseph Locke, where Errington became resident engineer. He then took charge of the Glasgow, Paisley & Greenock Railway, opened in 1841, and Greenock Harbour works. Further work with Locke as joint engineer on the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway, the Clydesdale Junction Railway, Scottish Central Railway; Scottish Midland Junction, and Aberdeen Railway, later these lines became part of the Caledonian Railway. In 1856 he began work on the Yeovil-Exeter section of the LSWR, which he completed shortly before his death. See also David Gilks' feature on Locke in Backtrack, 2005, 19, 496 and Biddle's Britain's historic railway buildings.

Surnames beginning "F"

Faviell, William Frederick
Born 26 July 1822: baptised at Kirby Overblow. Railway contractor. Entry in Chrimes (pp. 279-80) by P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin (with portrait).

Findlay, [Sir] George
Born at Rainhill on 18 May 1829 whilst father was engaged on construction of skew bridge over Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Eductaed at Halifax Grammar School whilst father working on Halifax branch of Manchester & Leeds Railway. Then worked under his brother James for Brassey in construction of Trent Valley Line. Marshall gives a long list of works for which he was responsible in his own right. In 1864 he became Goods Manager of the LNWR and in 1880 General Manager. See Reed The London & North Western Railway. Knighted in 1892. Author of The working and management of an English Railway (Ottley 3737, etc and Supplement 6583 for reprint with Introduction by Jack Simmons). Son Robert briefly Locomotive Superintendent Belfast & Northern Counties Railway. The ODNB entry by E.I. Carlyle revised by Ralph Harrington. notes that "In his later days Findlay was the most prominent figure among railway managers in Britain. He had an admirable talent for organization and direction, and was capable of intense labour". Paper to Instiution of Civil Engineers; to which Webb contributed to discussion. See also letter by Bob Baird.

Firbank, Joseph
Born near Bishop Auckland in 1819: died on 29 June 1886. Son of a miner. Railway contractor. Firbank's first large contract was with the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company in 1854, to transform the company's mineral tramways and canals into passenger railways. He was recommended by Charles Liddell, the company's engineer, with whom he had worked on a contract for the LNWR.. Firbank established his home at Newport (Mon), where he formed a close friendship with Crawshaw Bailey, the ironmaster, who supported him financially in his early undertakings. He was employed in South Wales for thirty years. In 1856 Firbank undertook a contract for the widening the LNWR near London, and between 1859 to 1866 was engaged upon a number of contracts for the LBSCR. He was engaged on the Midland's London extension from 1864 until 1868 where Liddell was the consulting engineer. At the height of constructional activity in 1866, Firbank was employing 2000 men.. In 1870 Firbank was engaged as contractor on the Smardale to Newbiggin section of the Settle and Carlisle extension of the Midland Railway, a stretch of line noted for its impressive physical features and isolation. In the face of appalling weather conditions and difficulties of access at least one contractor retired from the project. Firbank completed his work, however, having taken on further responsibilities involving a junction with the North Eastern Railway. After completing this contract Firbank was engaged in the construction of the Birmingham west suburban section of the Midland Railway.. In 1884 Firbank built the Midland Railway's St Pancras goods depot. His last contract was for the Bournemouth direct line from Brockenhurst to Christchurch. It proved to be the most troublesome of all his undertakings, and was finally completed by his son. In all, forty-nine lines were constructed by Firbank from 1846 to 1886. ODNB (M.W. Kirby) , Marshall and Joby's Railway builders.

Firbank, Sir Joseph Thomas
Born Monmouth in 1850 and died on 7 October 1910. Son of Joseph Firbank. Educated Cheltenham College. In partnership with his father, but left railway contracting on death of his father and was MP for Hull East between 1885 and 1906. He was knighted in 1902 Marshall and Joby's Railway builders.

Fitzgibbon, Abraham Coates
Born in Kilworth, County Cork on 23 January 1823; died at Bushey Heath on 4 April 1887. He was educated at the Royal Naval School and then became a pupil of Sir Charles Lanyon. Worked as assistant engineer on several Irish railways, and then as agent for William Dargan. Engaged by Charles Fox to report on Illinois Central Railroad, where he must have seen timber versions of Pratt and Howe trusses, Then went to Ceylon and New Zealand before becoming chief engineer to Queensland Railways in 1863. where extensive use was made of Pratt trusses. Sir Charles Fox was the London agent for the QR. Chrimes in Chrimes. .See Horne Backtrack 13 296

Flanagan, Terence Woulfe
Born at St. Catherine's Park, Leixlip in Ireland on 19 February 1819. Educated in Paris and Brussels before attending Dublin University. Became a pupil of Charles Vignoles. He was resident engineer on the Blackburn, Darwen & Bolton Railway with its difficult viaducts (see Wells Northern viaducts. Backtrack, 2019, 33, 372) and the long Sough Tunnel. Flanagan was an accomplished linguist and this helped with his involvement on railways between Antwerp and Rotterdam, and between Lisbon and Santarem. He died in London on 13 December 1859 while working on the Southampton and Fareham Railway. Chrimes in Chrimes and Marshall.

Forman, Charles de Neuville
Born Glasgow on 10 August 1852; died Davos Platz, Switzerland, 8 February 1901. Educated Glasgow High School, at private schools in St Andrews, London and Edinburgh; and at Glasgow Univiversity 1867-72; apprenticed to Forman & McCall, Glasgow. In 1875 employed under James Deas, engineer of the Clyde Trust, at that time engaged on const of Queen's Dock. In 1874 he returned to Forman & McCall and became a partner in 1875. Forman had keen commercial instincts. His first railway work was the Kelvin Valley Railway, opened 1 June 1878. He then worked on the Strathendrick & Aberfoyle Railway, opened 1 August 1882. Forman's first parliamentary contest was the promotion of the Clyde, Ardrishaig & Crinan Railway for which powers were obtained in 1887 and were not allowed to lapse. One of his most important tasks was the construction of the West Highland Railway from Helensburgh to Fort William, nearly 100 miles. He was instrumental in carrying the Bill through Parliament, and the line was opened on 7 August 1894. Another major project was the Glasgow Central Railway from the Lanarkshire coalfield to Queen's Dock, Glasgow, forming an underground suburban line for the city and opening the way for the extension of the CR into Dumbartonshire. Powers for this were obtained in 1888 after a long struggle, the CR having in the meantime taken over the Glasgow Central. Work began in 1890 and the line was opened in 1896. It traversed the busiest thoroughfares In the city in a covered weiy involving much interception of sewers, drains, water, gas, electricity and other services. In 1890 Forman was also engaged on the promotion of the Lanarkshire & Dumbartonshire Railway forming an extension of the Glasgow Central along the north bank of the Clyde, invading NBR territory and involving tunnelling and city work. At the time of his death Forman was engaged on constructing extensions of the Lanarkshire & Ayrshire Railway, the Paisley & Barrhead District Railways, the Ballachulish branch, and the Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway, this last being part of an attempt to reach Inverness from the West Highland Railway, forming a more direct route from Glasgow than the HR via Perth. Overwork led to a collapse of his health and his early death. Neil K. Dickson,s Professor Blackburn of Roshven and the West Highlan Railway (J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc. 2019, 518) rather tarnishes Foreman's abilities. Marshall; Robert C. McWilliam Chrimes Volume 3; Dow's West Highland. Forman's treatment of location for terminus in Fort William. NBR Study Gp. J., 2020, (140), 38

Fowler, [Sir] John
Marshall: Born Sheffield on 15 July 1817 and died Bournemouth on 20 November.1898. His major engineering achievements were the Metropolitan Railway and the Forth Bridge. He was educated privately and trained under J.I. Leather, engineer of Sheffield waterworks; then under J.U. Rastrick on the London to Brighton Railway. In 1839, under Leather, he became resident engineer on the Stockton & Hartlepool Railway, on the completion of which in 1841 he was appointed engineer, general manager and locomotive superintendent. In 1844 he set up for himself as a consulting engineer in London and was engaged on lines east of Sheffield which became part of the MS & L. During the Railway Mania Fowler took an active part with the numerous bills then before Parliament.
He designed the Pimlico bridge, completed in 1860, the first railway bridge over the Thames in London. In 1860 he became enginerr of the Metropolitan Railway, an exceedingly difficult project involving the underpinning of buildings, and the diversion of sewers and other services. For this he designed a fireless 2-4-0T, known as Fowler's Ghost, but it was not a success. Zerah Colburn (Plate 36) also credits John Fowler with the 4-4-0T design, but this is probably incorrect (see Shillito below). The first section of the Metropolitan Railway was opened on the 9th January1863. Of the 13 mile Inner Circle line Fowler was responsible for the construction of over 11 miles and also over 4 miles of branches. In 1869 he advised on railways in Egypt, and in 1870 in India.
In 1875 Fowler took into partnership Benjamin Baker and together they designed the Forth Bridge, the greatest railway bridge in the world. (See also W. Arrol) It was begun in 1883 and opened on 4 March1890. Fowler and Baker were consulting engineerss for the first London tube Railway, the City & South London opened in 1890, and with J. H. Greathead they were joint engineers for the Central London tube railway opened in 1900. On 17 April 1890 Fowler received a baronetcy and retired soon after. He became MIME in 1847, the year the Institution was founded, and MICE in 1849 and was President in 1866-7. On 2 July1850 he married Elizabeth Broadbent of Manchester and they had 4 sons.
Very good reproduction of illustration of him with William Gladstone on inspection train on Metropolitan Railway: p. 95: Christopher Awdry's Brunels' broad gauge railway. See also Appendix 13 in Vaughan's Railwaymen.ODNB biography by Mike Chrimes. Possibly even better better structured biography by Chrimes in his excellent Biographical dictionary (pp. 302-9). Carl Shillito. Sir John Fowler: portrait of an engineer. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2013 (218), 10-21 gives an excellent summary both of Fowler's life and the major sorcesw of reference to it notably by Chrimes (also portrait in colour on cover of Issue 218). Jenkins includes Victoria (Chatham side) annd Baker Street as examples of Fowler's architrecture . Mackay, T., Life of Sir John Fowler. 1900.

Fox, Sir Charles
Charles Fox was born in Derby on 11 March 1810 and died Blackheath, Greater London on 14 June 1874. He was a civil engineer and contractor. He was the youngest of four sons of Francis Fox, MD. When 19, Charles abandoned medical training for engineering and was articled to John Ericsson of Liverpool, working with him and J. Braithwaite on the Novelty locomotive, which entered the Rainhill trials. His abilities attracted Robert Stephenson who, in 1837, appointed him as one of the engineers on the London & Birmingham Railway where Fox was responsible for the Watford tunnel and the incline down from Camden Town to Euston. He presented an important paper on the correct principles of skew arches before the Royal Institution. He then entered into partnership with the contractor Bramah upon whose retirement the firm became Fox, Henderson & Co, specialising in railway equipment: wheels, bridges, roofs, cranes, tanks and permanent way materials. The firm was responsible for many important station roofs including Liverpool Tithebarn Street, 1849-50, and Bradford Exchange, 1850, Paddington and Birmingham New Street. In 1850-1 the firm erected the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition, and later dismantled it and reerected it on Sydenham Hill. For this Fox was knighted (together with Joseph Paxton and William Cubitt) on 22 October1851. From 1857 Fox practised in London as a civil and consulting engineer, and in 1860 took his two sons Charles Douglas and Francis into partnership: Sir Charles Fox & Sons. Fox made a special study of narrow-gauge railways and in conjunction with G. Berkley he built the first narrow-gauge line in India, and later built narrow-gauge lines in other parts of the world. But he was opposed to breaks of gauge where avoidable, and recommended first reduced axle loads, second reduced weight of structures and third reduced speeds, in that order, to achieve economies. His works included the Medway bridge at Rochester, three bridges over the Thames, a swing bridge across the Shannon in Ireland, a bridge over the Sahône at Lyons and many bridges on the GWR. Railways upon which he was engaged included the Cork & Bandon, Thames & Medway, Portadown & Dungannon, East Kent, Lyons & Geneva (eastern section), Macon & Geneva (eastern section) and the Wiesbaden and Zealand lines in Denmark. He was engineer to the Queensland; Cape Town; Wynberg (Cape of Good Hope) and the Toronto 3ft 6in gauge lines. Fox & Sons instigated the complex scheme of bridges at Battersea for the LBSCR, LC & DR and LSWR and the approach to Victoria Station, London, including the widening of the bridge over the Thames. Fox was MICE and for many years a member of the council of the IME. He was an original life member of the British Association, member of the RSA and a fellow of the Royal Asiatic and Royal Geographical Societies. He was noted for his urbanity and generosity. Marshall.. ODNB Biography by Robert Thorne. D.M. Gwilym and M. Roberts in Chrimes.

Fox, [Sir] Charles Douglas
Eldest surviving son of Sir Charles Fox. Born Smethwick on 14 May 1840 and died in London on 13 November 1921. Educated King's College School and King's College, London then articled to father. Upon the death of his father the firm became Sir Douglas Fox & Partners. Major works included Mersey Tunnel, Hawarden Swing Bridge, Liverpool Overhead Railway, Snowdon Mountain Railway. southern part of Great Central London Extension, and early tube lines in London. Author of several ICE papers. Marshall... ODNB Biography by Ralph Freeman. Gwilym Roberts in Chrimes volume 3. Death recorded in Locomotive Mag., 1921, 27, 332.

Fox, Francis (b. 1818)
Born in Plymouth on 12 September 1818. Died in Teignmouth on 13 March 1914. Educated at Friends' Schools at Croydon and Sidcot. In October 1835 became pupil of Edwin O. Tregelles. In 1839 assocaited with Cornwall Central Railway project. In 1846 joined Brunel as assistant engineer on South Wales Railway. In 1854 appointed engineer of Bristol & Exeter Railway. Resigned when BER taken over by GWR, but GWR placed specific works under his care, such as the Weston-super-Mare Loop. Marshall.. Brian George in Chrimes. ICE Paper 1032 on iron permanent way.

Fox, Francis (b. 1844)
Son of Sir Charles Fox: born at Bellefield, near Birmingham on 29 June 1844. Educated Cavendish House School and Brighton College followed by pupilage under his father. Became a partner in the firm on the death of his father when firm became Sir Douglas Fox & Partners. Major works included Mersey Tunnel ICE Paper 2165 (with James Brunless), Hawarden Swing Bridge, Liverpool Overhead Railway, Snowdon Mountain Railway. southern part of Great Central London Extension, and early tube lines in London and Simplon Tunnel where he gained experience of rack railways which aided the Snowdon project. He was a deeply religeous man and it is appropriate that his expertise saved Winchester Cathedral from possible collapse. He contributed to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He died in Wimbledon on 7 January 1927.Not in Marshall: excellent biography in ODNB by Mike Chrimes.. Gwilym Roberts in Chrimes Volume 3.

Fox, Samson
Born at Bowling, near Bradford on 11 July 1838. Died Walsall 24 October 1903. Apprenticed Smith, Beacock & Tannett. He established a tool making business in Leeds and in 1874 established the Leeds Forge Co. Ltd.  Patented prressed steel bogie (Locomotive Mag., 1939, 45, 252). He designed corrugated fireboxes for marine boilers and in 1887 and 1888 took out patents for pressed steel frames for railway freight wagons. In 1888 he started a works at Joliet, near Chicago, which he later sold. He helped to finance the Royal College of Music in 1883 and was three times mayor of Harrogate. Marshall. and ODNB entry by W.B. Owen, revised by Ian St John.

Fraser, Henry John
Born Pudsey on 20 March 1848; died near York on 13 November 1889. Eldest son of John Fraser (below). Articled to his father 1866-70 and then put in charge of the works on the Bradford, Eccleshill & Idle and the Idle & Shipley lines of the GNR, completed 1874, and from then until completion in 1879, the GNR Bradford-Thornton line which included substantial viaducts and tunnels. He also had charge of the Halifax section of the GNR Halifax- Thornton-Keighley line including Queensbury Tunnel, 1 mile 741 yds, completed 1879. From July 1878 to 1880 he was engaged on the extension of this line from Thornton to Keighley, involving Lees Moor tunnel, 1,533 yds, and Hewenden viaduct During this time he became a partner with his father. He also assisted in the preliminary work and const of the GNR Newark-Bottesford line and the GNR/LNWR Joint lines from Bottesford to Melton, 1879, and the GNR Tilton-Leicester line and preliminary work on the Tilton-Market Harborough line. On the death of his father in 1881 he was joined by his brother in law, W Beswick Myers and, under the name of John Fraser & Sons, they completed the Marefield Junction to Leicester, opened 1882, and Thomton-Keighley, opened 1884, lines. They also carried out preliminary work and construction of several other GNR lines in Yorkshire, the Crofton link, Dewsbury line, Beeston-Batley, and the Halifax High Level branch; also the LNWR Harrow-Stanmore branch. In conjunction with Sir Douglas Fox (qv) they built the Driffield-Market Weighton section of the Scarborough, Bridlington & West Riding Junction Railway, opened in 1890. Fraser and Myers were also engaged on the GNR Low Moor-Dudley Hill, opened in  1893, and an extension of the Pudsey line. Marshall. Significant omission from Chrimes.

Fraser, John
Born Linlithgow on 28 July 1819; died Leeds 24 September 1881. Civil engineer. Marshall. Eldest son of James Fraser, architect, of Manchester. Articled to G.W. Buck. In 1842 he was appointed by Edward Woods as resident engineer on the construction of the LMR link to Manchester Victoria station, which opened in May 1844. Fraser prepared the designs for all the bridges and viaducts, almost the entire route. In 1846 he was appointed resident engineer on the West Riding Junction and Huddersfield & Sheffield Junction Railways (LYR) under John Hawkshaw and again under Hawkshaw, was appointed resident engineer on the Leeds, Bradford & Halifax Junction Railway (GNR), opened in August 1854, and the Leeds-Wakefield line, opened in 1857, and the Gildersome and Ardsley  branches. Later, as chief engineer, he carried out the Methiey branch, Ossett branch, Ossett-Batley and extension to Adwalton. In 1862, in conjunction with John Fowler, he undertook the West Riding & Grimsby Railway, Wakefield-Doncaster, opened in 1866. When these loca1 lines became part of the GNR Fraser was appointed district engineer and in that capacity built the connection to the LYR at Bradford; the Halifax & Ovenden (GNR/LYR) 1865-6; Bradford, Eccleshill & Idle and extensions, 1866; Idle & Shipley, 1867; Ossett & Dewsbury and Batley & Dewsbury, 1871-2; Pudsey R, 1871; Bradford & Thornton R, 1871; Halifax, Thornton & Keighley, 1873. Of the last, the section from Thornton to Keighley was completed by his son Henry John after his death. In 1870-1 he designed and built the North Bridge at Halifax, an iron structure of 2 160ft spans, 60ft wide. Fraser was also engineer with his son on the GNR/LNWR Joint lines in Leicestershire. The problems encountered on the difficult Whitby, Redcar & Middlesbrough Union Railway are detailed by Williams in J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2014 (219) 32. who notes the "Dear Father letters".

Froude, William
Born at Dartington parsonage on 28 November 1810. Died in Simonstown, on 4 May 1879. Educated at Westminster School and Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated BA with first-class honours in mathematics in 1832. His tutors were his eldest brother, Hurrell, and John Henry Newman, who together with I.K. Brunel were, he wrote, the greatest influences on his life. He worked on the survey for the South Eastern Railway in 1833 as a pupil of the engineer Henry Palmer. In 1837 he joined the staff of Brunel, when he managed the last section of the Bristol to Exeter line. He demonstrated his ability by developing a new design of skew bridge, a mathematical approach to reducing the sideways force on a train entering a curve, and a theory of the expansion of steam. In 1856 Brunel persuaded Froude to undertake a study of rolling in waves. This led to his 1861 paper to the Institution of Naval Architects which provided the first correct theory of the behaviour of a ship in a seaway. Over the next decade gaps in his theory were filled and empirical methods developed for the solution of aspects where the mathematics were too difficult. This work was enthusiastically followed by the Admiralty and influenced the design of subsequent warships; it also led to Froude's election in 1870 as a fellow of the Royal Society. It marked the beginning of a partnership with Brunel's second son, Henry. In 1869 Froude was a member of a British Association committee to improve estimates of the power required to drive a ship. The committee's report recommended a number of full-scale trials but Froude dissented, reporting the results of a series of tests of three models, of different scale, representing two very different ship forms, the Swan and the Raven. These tests showed firstly that there was no universal optimum form, as was generally believed; Raven was better at low speeds, Swan at the highest speeds. He also demonstrated that, when tested at the corresponding speed (now defined as the Froude number), the resistance per unit immersed volume of the three models of each form was the same and hence it should be possible to obtain ship resistance from models tests; this is now known as Froude's law. Froude's approach, which was opposed by most engineers of the day, was validated by an elaborate trial in 1871, in which HMS Greyhound was towed and her resistance measured over a range of speeds. He proposed to Edward Reed, chief constructor of the navy, that a special tank should be built close to Froude's house at Chelston Cross, Torquay, in which models could be run and their resistance measured accurately so as to develop improved hull forms for the navy. He offered his own services free to superintend the work. His proposal was approved in February 1870: the tank was 270 feet long, 38 feet wide at the water surface, and 10 feet deep. The model, shaped in paraffin wax, was drawn along the tank by a carriage running on rails, which was itself pulled by an endless rope, worked by a steam engine. A dynamometer on the carriage recorded speed, resistance, and the trim of the model. This was the first ship tank and there were innumerable problems in developing apparatus, including governors to ensure that the model ran at a constant speed, but by May 1872 the tank was operational. The first task was to obtain data on frictional resistance, which had to be treated differently from the remaining residuary resistance. In 1873 Froude designed a dynamometer which would measure the performance of model propellers both in isolation and in the disturbed flow behind a ship. This machine gave good service until 1938 and later became the centrepiece of the Froude's Museum. He was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Society in 1876 and received the degree of LLD from Glasgow the same year. From ODNB biography by David K. Brown and Andrew Lambert.

Fulton, Hamilton Henry
His father, Hamilton Fulton, had been State Engineer to South Carolina, but returned to England where his son was born in 1813. The father train trained the son as a civil engineer. He worked on the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway and in 1846 set up his own practice in London. He was involved in many major projects including Penge Tunnel, the Ryde to Ventnor line, and the Manchester & Milford Railway. He was also involved in three major paper projects: a bridge across the Severn Estuary, a similar endeavour across the Mersey and a tidal Manchester ship canal. Marshall states that he died on 10 August 1886: this invalidates what Marshall states about James Szlumper (when Marshall implies Fulton's death being in 1861).

Surnames beginning "Ga"

Galbraith, William Robert
Marshall states that born Stirling 7 July 1829 (Ruddock states 9 July 1829) and died in London on 5 October 1914. Educated Stirling Academy and Glasgow University. In 1846 he was articled to John Errington and worked in the London office and on railways in England and Scotland, including the Aberdeen Railway; the Scottish Central Railway; LNWR (Crewe-Shrewsbury) and LSWR. From 1855 Galbraith was mainly employed on LSWR extensions west of Yeovil. On the death of Errington in 1862 he was appointed engineer for new works on the LSWR with supervision of parliamentary business. He built most new LSWR lines during the next forty years in Middlesex, Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall and, with his partner and former pupil R F Church, branches promoted independently and later acquired by the LSWR, to Swanage, Chard, Seaton, Sidmouth, Ilfracombe and the extns from Exeter to Okehampton, Plymouth and Devonport, Holsworthy and the North Cornwall Railway to Bodmin and Padstow. In 1892 the LSWR became owners of Southampton docks which were greatly extended under Galbraith's supervision. Between 1880 and 1890 he was consulting engineer to the NBR in charge of parliamentary work. He also laid out and built the NBR Inverkeithing & Burntisland and Glenfarg lines in continuation northwards from the Forth Bridge and he prepared and carried out parliamentary plans for the alteration and enlargement of Waverley station at Edinburgh. From 1892 he was engineer with Greathead and later Alexander Kennedy on the Waterloo & City Railway and with Benjamin Baker and R.F. Church on the Bakerloo line, and with Douglas Fox on the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway, altogether 14 miles of tube railways. He retired in 1907. Ted Ruddock in Chrimes (includes portrait and lists works). Michael Messenger Light railways before 1896. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2013 (218) 2.

Garrow, George
Worked on the Kyle extension of the Highland Railway, then the extensions to the Caledonian Railway at Oban before moving to the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway in 1911 where he worked ona major irrigation project. He retired in 1930.  Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204.

Gibbons, T.H.
Divisional Engineer on GWR at Plymouth: Author of paper on timber viaducts in Cornwall and their replacement by masonry structures: Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1900, 57, 355.

Glennie, William
Born: 9 June 1797; died: 20 June 1856. Engineer for Box Tunnel. His son, William Glennie, was an engineer on the Eastern Bengal Railway, and died in India.

Notes:

William Glennie (1797-1856) was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and was also an engineer. In 1824, and when on half-pay, he undertook on behalf of the British United Mining Company to head an expedition to Mexico to rework the Real del Monte silver mine. The expedition was made up of a large contingent of Cornish miners, some who brought their families, and whose descendants remain in Mexico to this day. Loaded with 1500 tons of mining equipment the expedition, accommodated in two ships, had a difficult passage. One account says the ship carrying William Glennie and two of his younger brothers, Frederick then aged 15 and Robert, aged 19 was wrecked off Cuba, however the expedition finally landed men and equipment in Mexico safely. There followed a difficult journey from the coast to the mountains and a number of the expedition succumbed to yellow fever.

William Glennie may have been employed by the British Foreign Office as a spy to report on the emergent Mexico’s attitude to Britain (Mexico had gained independence from Spain in 1821) or he decided to act in an unofficial capacity to protect British mining interests. He made a number of expeditions around the country during his years in Mexico and some of these may have formed the basis of his later report delivered personally to Lord Palmerston. One such trip took place in 1827 when William and Frederick Glennie climbed the volcano Popocatepetl and kept a journal of their journey.

William passed his responsibilities as agent for the mining company on to his brother Robert when he left Mexico in 1834. That December, at the request of the directors of the British United Mining Association he delivered by hand a report of his spying activities to the Foreign Office in London for the personal attention of Lord Palmerston. What Glennie claimed Palmerston wanted was information on the best way to respond in the event of the new Mexican government being unfavorable to Britain. As a naval officer, Glennie’s report was full of practical options for the British government to consider, from the blockading of ports to seizing assets as well as advice on an outright military assault. Glennie even included a sketch of the strategic fort of St Juan de Ulua, which commanded the entrance to Veracruz. He recommended seizing Yucatan with its valuable products of dyes and wax, noting that the geography of Yucatan meant it could easily be seized from the sea.

Glennie said “In the event of the obstinacy or folly of the Mexican Government rendering the above measures (military action) unavoidable and keeping in mind the general unhealthy climate of the coast of Mexico, the Directors feel it their duty to submit to Lord Palmerston’s consideration, whether the black troops in the West Indies might not be employed to advantage….if such a measure should be found necessary.”

The British government may well have rewarded the Glennie brothers in Mexico – by retaining William on naval half-pay for years and rewarding Frederick with the role of the office of British Consul in Mexico City.

By 1841 William Glennie was listed in the census as a civil engineer living in Gloucestershire with his wife Elizabeth and their four children. In 1845 he became the resident engineer of the South Devon Railway. He worked briefly with Brunel in the construction on the line from Exeter to Plymouth where he was a specialist on bridge-building. In 1851 he and his family were living in Plymouth and he was still listed as a RN lieutenant on half pay. He died in Stoke Damerell in 1856.

Source: Dulwich Grove and the 12 Sons of Dr William Glennie by Brian Green

Associated With

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Known For

Box Tunnel

Mentioned In

Death Notice - William Glennie (Jr.)

Extract from Letter Entitled "The Ascent of Popocatapetl"

Scilla Autumnalis on St. Vincent's Rocks

Author of

Surnames beginning "Gr"

Graham, George
Long serving Engineer to the Caledonian Railway. Subject of a Railway Magazine (1, p. 411) Illustrated Interview: He started the first CR train from Carlisle to Baettock when a young man on Locke's staff and had been the Engineer of the CR since 1853. He had started in the mechanical engineering works of Robert Napier in Glasgow and had worked on Cunard engines, but his health failed when he went to Annandale to recover and in 1845 started to work for Locke. He noted the difficulties experienced in surveying. Amongst the new lines completed under Graham were the lines to Lesmahagow and Strathaven, the Gourock extension and the bridge over the Clyde into Glasgow Central.

Greathead, James Henry
Born Grahamstown, Cape Colony, 6 August 1844; died Streatham, London, 21 October 1896. Civil engineer who invented the Greathead tunnelling shield. In 1859 he went to England to complete his education and in 1864 began a 3 year pupilage under Peter W. Barlow (qv), followed in 1867 by a year as assistant engineer on the Midland Railway's extension from Bedford to London under W. H. Barlow (qv) and C. B. Baker (qv). At about this time his former master Peter W. Barlow was proposing a system of underground railways in London in tubes lined with cast iron segments. In 1869-70 Greathead worked with Barlow on the pioneer scheme, the Tower Subway under the Thames. The difficulties encountered by Marc Brunel (qv) in building the Thames Tunnel at Wapping were such that 26 years later no contractor was willing to undertake the Tower Subway. Greathead, then only 24, tendered for the construction of the shafts and tunnel for £9400, devising a cylindrical wrought iron shield forced forward by 6 powerful screws as the material was excavated in front of it. In 1870 Greathead began to practice on his own account and in 1873 he returned to railway construction.1873-7 he was resident engineer on the Hammersmith extesion railway and the Richmond extension of the Metropolitan District Railway. About this time he devised plant for tunnelling under the Thames at Woolwich in water-bearing strata, incorporating an air lock in the front of the shield to act as a trap to prevent loss of air in the event of a blow in the strata. It was insufficiently tried and the tunnelling attempt, at a lower level without its use, was abandoned in 1876. He assisted in the preparation of several projects: Regents Canal Railway, 1880; Dagenham Dock, and Metropolitan Outer Circle Railway, 1881; a new London-Eastbourne line, 1883; and various light railways in Ireland in 1884. Also in 1884 Greathead was engaged as engineer on the London (City) & Southwark Subway, later called the City & South London Railway, begun in 1886 and opened 18.12.1890, the world's first electrical underground railway. In 1884 he patented further improvements in his shield. In 1888 he became joint engineer with Sir Douglas Fox (qv) on the const of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, opened in 1893. With W.R. Galbraith (qv) he tunnelled the Waterloo & City Railway, opened in 1898, and began the Central London Railway in conjunction with Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker shortly before his death. Elected MICE 1881. Statue in Cornhill, London (illustrated) see Backtrack, 2011, 25, 740.

Min Proc Instn Civ. Engrs., 1896, 127, 365-8; The Eng V 82 30.10.1896 p 448 (portrait); Jackson, A.A., & Groome, D.F., Rails Through the Clay. 1962.

Gregory, Sir Charles Hutton
Born Woolwich on 14 October 1817 and died on 10 January 1898. Civil Engineer: worked under Robert Stephenson on Manchester & Birmingham Railway; in 1840 Resident Engineer on London & Croydon Railway; 1846 Chief Engineer on Bristol & Exeter Railway. Much work on overseas railways. In 1841 erected first semaphore signal and introduced wired interlocking (Johnson and Long). Chrimes in Chrimes included a portrait and a very long list of works associated with him.. (Marshall). Deakin (Trans. Newcomen Soc, 1929, 9, 1)  see Vanns

Grierson, William Wylie
Born in London on 9 December 1863. Educated at Rugby School. Pupil of William Dean. In 1887 entered Engineering Department of GWR. Involved in several major new works, notably Sodbury Tunnel and was appointed Chief Engineer of GWR in July 1916. Retired in 1918, but President of the Civils in 1929-30 (Presidential Addresss), Died in San Remo on 14 March 1935. Marshall.

Grove, George
Born on 13 August 1820 and died 28 May 1900 (Marshall) into an Evangelical, free-thinking ('Clapham Sect'), attended Clapham Grammar School, where Charles Pritchard encouraged teaching a wide range of subjects, including music and science. Groves was apprenticed to Alexander Gordon, the Scottish civil engineer and expert on lighthouse construction. Gordon took Groves to Malines in 1837/8 to negotiate a railway contract. Groves was admitted to the Institution of Civil Engineers as a graduate on 26 February 1839. He worked under Robert Napier in Glasow for two years, and then joined the staff of C.H. Wild during the time of the Railway Mania and worked on Chester & Holyhead Railway. With the encouragement of Robert Stephenson, Brunel and Sir Charles Barry he applied for the Secretaryship of the Royal Society of Arts, previously held by another engineer, John Scott Russell. He was successful: he is of course far better known for his Dictionary of Music and Musicians. An odd omission from the Oxford Companion to British Railway History

Rutherford: Backtrack, 2001, 15, 228

Surnames beginning "Ha"

Haddon, John Lawton
Monorail system used in Syria to replace mule transport, but grew to use vertical boiler locomotives: improved version of Palmer system. Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631). Adrian Garner. Monorails of the 19th century.

Hallade, Emile
The Swiss-born Emile Hallade had been employed. by the Eastern Railway of France as a senior track engineer, and was engaged in raising speeds and improving curve alignments on this railway in the early years of the twentieth century. He developed a method of measuring versines or off-sets from the curve to mid chord points on standard chord lengths at regular intervals round that curve. The larger the versine was, then the sharper the curve was. In other words versine value relates directly to the severity of the curvature. He also arranged for clearances to fixed structures such as platforms, bridge parapets, tunnel walls and so forth, to be measured. Curve calculations were then computed by the technical staff to smooth out the versines and to provide specification for the desired track slews needed to give 'best fit' past adjoining tracks and structures and to keep the track on the existing formation, if possible.
Whilst the resultant curve amendments could be measured from drawings, it was more usual for calculations to be done in a tabular form. In this table, changes in slew at a particular point could be followed forward and back to see the effect of that slew at the adjoining points. After much pencil and eraser work, the final 'best fit' slews could be teased out. Much skill, practice and patience was needed, and the procedure cried out for a modern computer programme, which was to come many years later. The desired slews were marked up on the track and pegs installed to set the final track position. All that remained was to do the actual slew. The Great Northern Railway was the first British railway company to exploit the technique and most others followed. Hallade also invented the eponymous track recorder. LMS Journal, (13) p. 63.

Handyside, Andrew
Born on 25 July 1805 in Edinburgh. Died 9 June 1887 in Derby. As a young man he followed the example of his brother William Handyside (1793–1850) by going to work with his uncle Charles Baird at his iron foundry and engineering works in St Petersburg. Handyside returned from Russia about 1846 and took over the Britannia ironworks in Duke Street, Derby. This works had been established over thirty years earlier by Weatherhead and Glover and had a wide reputation for its ornamental cast ironwork known as ‘Derby castings’. Under Handyside, the scope of its output was considerably extended, and the firm became a leader in the manufacture of iron products for export. During the continued development of the English railway system in the mid-nineteenth century, Handysides supplied bridges, railway equipment, and the ironwork of station buildings, including the roofs of Broad Street, London (1864–5), Liverpool Central (1872–3), and Manchester Central (1876–80) stations. The same range of products was exported for railways throughout the world, notably bridges for India and Australia and the 120 foot span roof of the main station in Amsterdam. The firm retained its reputation for traditional castings such as for lamp-posts, pillar boxes, plus the manufacture of steam engines, pumps, and mining machinery. Handyside was a town councillor (1855–8), and was a director of both the Derby water works and the Derby and Derbyshire Banking Company. The firm which carried his name continued to flourish and was employing about 1000 people in the 1890s, but from that height of success it plunged to failure and was wound up in 1910. From ODNB biography by Robert Thorne. Also Robert Thorne in Chrimes.

Hawkshaw, Sir John
Chrimes magnificent entry in the ODNB notes that Hawkshaw was born in Leeds (son of a publican) on 9 April 1811 and died in London on 2 June 1891. Marshall is incorrect concerning place and date of birth. Educated at Leeds Grammar Shool and apprenticed to Charles Fowler, road surveyor. Civil engineer of Manchester & Leeds Railway (LYR), Severn Tunnel, completed Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge and converted Thames Tunnel for railway use. Also great engineer of harbours (Fleetwood) and canals (Amsterdam Ship Canal). Closely associated with the Manchester & Leeds Railway/Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway until his death. Chrimes succinctly notes that Hawkshaw championed the use of steam locomotives on steep gradients in the Pennines. Reported to the Directors of the Great Western Railway on the broad gauge (Ottley 6021/2) and on Brunel's permanent way in 1838. Patent: 7911 Mechanism applicable to railways; also to carriages to be used thereon of 17 December 1838. Brief biography by Mike Chrimes in Oxford Companion to British Railway History. and superb  entry in ODNB. Rested on his laurels in his own Biographical dictionary where entry is by Martin Beaumont (pp. 378-87. Beaumont has now written his own book: Sir John Hawkshaw – the life and work of an eminent Victorian engineer, Martin Beaumont. (Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society), 160pp., 167 illustrations. Reviewed by Peter Tatlow? in Backtrack, 2016, 30, 382. Strong views on folly of broad gauge (Rly Mag., 2, 518).

Hemans, George Willoughby
Born in Ryllon neaar St. Asaph in North Wales on 27 August 1814. His mother was the poetess Felicia Browne) was responsible for his early education before spending three years at the Military College at Sereze in France where he was very successful. After his mother's death in 1835 he was placed under the guardianship of an uncle, Colonel Browne, a Dublin magistrate who found work for him in the Ordnance Survey in Irreland and then established a pupilage with John Macneill in his London office. Macneill employed him on surveys of projected railways both in Ireland and in Scotland, In about 1840 he was employed by him as resident engineer on the Dublin & Drogheda Railway which included the erection of Ireland's first major wrought iron girder bridge across the Royal Canal in Dublin. For his paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers on this he received a Walker Premium. Now an experienced young engineer, Hemans was, in August 1845, appointed Chief Engineer to the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland (MGWR). He was responsible for the design and supervision of construction of the main line from Dublin to Galway, including major bridge crossings of the Rivers Shannon and Suck and Lough Atalia. The section from Enfield to Mullingar caused considerable difficulties, constructed as it was across deep bog in order to avoid the severe curves of me Royal Canal. Hemans overcame the problems with innovative engineering, literally laying me foundations for me design of both road and rail transportation routes across the bogs of me midlands and west of Ireland. The line to Galway was opened in 20 July 1851. Hemans was connected with several other railway companies, including lines in Ulster and Munster. He is said to have constructed more railways in Ireland than any other engineer of his time. In 1854, Hemans moved to London and rapidly attained a deserved reputation as a Parliamentary engineer. Railways in England and Wales, constructed under his supervision, included the Vale of Clywd, and lines in Sussex and Herefordshire.
In East Sussex, he lodged plans for lines from East Grinstead to Tunbridge Wells via Groombridge (1861), from Hartfield to Uckfield (1862). Plans were also lodged for the Daventry Railway in North- amptonshire with branches to Southarn and Leamington (1863), whilst plans for the Tewkesbury & Malvern Railway were lodged in 1863. Hemans acted as Consulting Engineer for the line from Rhyl to Denbigh and on to Corwen in North Wales. He was also engineered the line from Lake Consrance to Chur along the Upper Rhine valley in Switzerland. 1n 1861, Hemans laid plans for connecting the GS&WR at Kingsbridge (now Heuston) Station in Dublin with the MGWR at Cabra. This necessitated a viaduct across the Liffey and a tunnel under Phoenix Park. The link was completed by 1877. He also planned the line from Liffey Junction to the North Wall and Spencer Dock at the entrance to the Royal Canal. In 1864 he designed entraining embankments in County Clare to reclaim much of the slob lands at the mouth of tile River Fergus. Railway work having declined in Britain and Ireland, Hemans sought work abroad. In 1870 he was appointed Engineer-in-chief for the Province of Canterbury in New Zealand, and subsequently, to the New Zealand Government. However, in 1872, he suffered a severe stroke that left him paralysed and incapable of speech or writing for the rest of his life. Hemans was a council member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland from 1849 and served as President in 1856-1857, being the first to deliver a presidential address. He was also an active member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, being elected AMInstCE on 2 May 1837 and transferring to membership on 18 February 1845. He died on 29 December 1885 at 11 Roland Gardens, Brompton, London, 13 years after his stroke. See Ron Cox biography in Chrimes (pp. 391-2).Significance in structural engineering see T.M. Charlton History of theory of structures Ronald Cox and Dermot O'Dwyer paper in Early main line railways conference.

Henderson. [Sir] Brodie Haldane
Born 6 March 1869; died Braughing on 29 Septeber 1936. Pupil with Beyer Peacock, then with James Livesey. For a time worked in Civil Engineer's Dept of LYR. In 1891 entered into partnership James Livesey. Livesey & Henderson responsible for Lower Zambezi Brisge and Transandine Railway summit tunnel. Marshall. Brig.-General Sir Brodie Haldane Henderson, senior partner in the firm of Livesey and Henderson, consulting engineers, died on Sept. 28, at Branghing, Ware, at the age of 67. As consulting engineer for the principal railways in the Argentine and Uruguay he was well known in engineering circles. He served an apprenticeship with Beyer, Peacock & Co. and then spent some time on the construction of the Algeciras-Bobadilla Railway in the South of Spain. After joining the firm of Livesey & Son he was engaged on harbour, dock and railway works in South America, China, Africa and Japan. During the war he was for a time Deputy-Director of Transportation to the British Expeditionary Force in France. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1919. He was a Deputy-Lieutenant of Herts of which county he was High Sheriff in 1925. Witness to Weir Committee on Railway Electrification. In 1929 he was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (Locomotive Mag., 1936, 42, 335). .

Herbert, Luke
Proposer of early Brighton to London monorial to be wind-powered and to convey fish. Information from Hennessey, R.A.S. One track to the future. Backtrack, 2005, 19, 437-41; and references therein. Letter by H.F. Hilton (Locomotive Mag., 1944, 50, 180) notes that was a Patent Agent and edited Journal of Patent Inventions, possibly associated with Birmingham inventors.

Hodgson. Robert
Born in Edinburgh in 1817, the son of an admiral. Spent two years being educated in France before completing it at Edinburgh High School then worked under James Nasmyth, before becoming a pupil of Thomas Elliot Harrison, Hodgson became involved in the construction of the Newcastle & Berwick Railway and on the formation of the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway in 1847 he continued to work under Harrison. He became Resident Engineer on the High Level Bridge project to cross the River Tyne designed by Harrison and Robert Stephenson. He was subsequently in charge of the construction of the Tyne Dock, the Hull and Doncaster line with a swing bridge at Goole, the York and Doncaster line with amother swing bridge over the Ouse, the new station at Leeds and the Team Valley line. In 1874 he designed the Ouseburn brickbuilt viaduct for the Byker Bridge Co. He was a Member of both the Civil and Mechanical Engineers and of the regional bodies and of the Newcastle Literary & Philosophical Society. His grave in Whitburn is virtually next to that of Harrison and he had married Harrison's sister. Rennison and Gunning in Chrimes.

Hogg, Alexander
Educated at the Inverness Royal Academy and apprenticed under William Paterson. from 1865-9. He then joined the Caledonian Railway before emigrating to the USA in 1870. Their (with James Ross) work is recorded in Pierre Berton's The last spike  Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204.

Hopkins, Evan
Mentioned by Brian George in Skempton in biography of his son Roger (below). He was an engineer of canals and tramroads in South Wales including that between Pen-y-Darren and Abercynon. He had been involved in the steam powered Glynneath inclined plane (1802-1805) which employed a Trevithick high pressure steam engine

Hopkins, Rice
Born in Swansea in 1807, eldest of three sons of Roger Hopkins and grandson of Evan Hopkins; both men well-known engineers. He commenced his professional career in 1822, under the instruction of his father, who was then engaged in the construction of the Plymouth and Dartmoor tramroad. He was thus placed in favourable circumstances for acquiring a thorough practical knowledge of his future profession. In later years he entered into a partnership with his father and then with his brother, Thomas, who died on 8 February 1848. In conjunction with his father and his brother, Rice Hopkins was engaged in some extensive works in Devon, Somerset and also in South Wales, where they erected the Victoria Ironworks in Monmouthshire and where for some years they were directors, but this venture failed in 1840. By 1845, with his brother Thomas, he had returned to Plymouth where they reviewed their father's 1831 work for a Bideford and Okehampton railway, this time concentrating on a Bideford and Tavistock railway with branches to Barnstaple and Crediton. The North Devon people were anxious to have a railway from Bideford to Okehampton, and in competition with T.C. Bell he again proposed such a scheme at a public meeting on 18 September 1852 at Okehampton in the presence of the Mayor and many supporters. The 1831 and 1845 proposals are reviewed in detail by Sir Robert Lethbridge. The line to Bideford was built by others, and opened in stages to 1855. After the South Devon Railway arrived in Plymouth there was much pressure for them to extend a branch to Tavistock. At first they seemed reluctant and, in 1852, four different routes were proposed by various people. Rice Hopkins proposed a route via the Rivers Tamar and Tavy that was eventually adopted over 20 years later by the London &South Western Railway. All this pressure ensured that the South Devon Railway eventually provided their route up the River Plym valley to Tavistock in 1859. Hopkins was much employed in cases of arbitration and railway compensation. At the time of his death he held the appointment of Engineer to the Llanidloes &Newtown Railway Co., the West Somerset Mineral Railway Co. and the Watchet Harbour Commissioners; the proposed improvement in the harbour was based upon his plans as approved by the Lords of the Admiralry. He was elected a Corresponding Member of ICE in the year 1836, and on the abolition of that class in 1837 he became a Member. He died on 18 December 1857. Brian George in Chrimes.

Hosking, John
Baptised on 19 August 1810 at Gwithian in Cornwall, the son of Thomas Hosking. He was employed for some time in the Sheffield district and in about 1845 he moved to north-east England to supervise the fabrication of the ironwork of the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson and Thomas Elliot Harrison. It   consisted of bout 5000 tons of ironwork which was the responsibility of Hawks Crawshay & Sons of Gateshead. Prior to the preparation and fabrication of the ironwork, it would seem that Hosking had been responsible for carrying out experimental work for Stephenson regarding the manufacture of iron by hot and cold blast. Employed by the railway company for the duration of the work, Hosking was said to have 'taken care that the works were executed properly, but his appointment as inspector had been of material assistance to Hawks Crawshay in the execution of the work for which Robert Hodgson was the Resident Engineer. The bridge, of wrought- and cast-iron, consisted of six spans of 125 ft, providing headroom of 95 ft above high water and, perhaps in connection with the formation of the lower deck for road traffic, Hosking in 1849 was granted a patent, No. 12,761, for perforated wooden paving. His other work tended to be on thr installation or repair of road bridges. He died on 23 December 1871 at his house in Regent Terrace, Gateshead. R.W. Rennison and A Gunning in Chrimes.

Hosking,, William
Born at Buckfastleigh on 26 November 1800, eldest of four children of lohn Hosking who emigrated with his family to New South Wales in 1809 and returned to England in 1819. Hosking gained his first experience in the 'handicrafts of the engineer and architect' while in Australia, apprenticed to a builder and surveyor for nearly four years. Following his return to England, Hosking was articled to architect William Jenkins of Red Don Square, London, from 1820 to 1823. Around this time, he travelled through France and Italy with John Jenkins to study architectural and engineering works. On his return, he exhibited drawings of the ancient monuments of Italy and Sicily at the Royal Academy, and in 1827 jointly published with Jenkins A selection of architectural ornaments, Greek, Roman and Italian. In 1830 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. From early in his career Hosking wrote and lectured extensively on architecture, emphasising the importance of technical and practical considerations. In 1829 he delivered six lectures on London's buildings to the Western Literary & Scientific Institution. This led to a commission to write the articles on Architecture and Building for the seventh edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
In 1834 Hosking was appointed engineer to the Birmingham, Bristol & Thames Junction Railway Co., for whom he designed the complex arrangement of bridges near Kensal Green carrying the Paddington section of the Grand Union Canal over the new railway, and a public road over the canal. The construction drew considerable attention. Following this success, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of British Architects in 1835, serving on the Council during 1842-1843. He resigned from the Institute in 1846. In 1840 King's College, London, offered Hosking the first Professorship in the Art of Construction, later renamed the Principles and Practice of Architecture. True to his position at King's College, and against the general tendency of the time towards specialisauon, Hosking sought to maintain unity berween architecture and engineering. Reflecting this policy, his most important publications were on bridge design. In 1841 he published Preliminary essay on bridges, reprinted the following year with additional essays on the practice and architecture of bridges. In 1843 Hosking published with ]. Hann a standard work of the period, The theory, practice and architecture of bridges of stone, iron, timber and wire, with examples on the pinciples of suspension. These volumes offered the most comprehensive treatment of bridge design of the period. Hosking was appointed an official referee of the Metropolitan Building Act of 1844. His work in connection with the Act led to his publishing in 1848 A guide to the proper tegulation of buildings in towns (reprinted in 1849 as Healthy homes), and to his appointment on Parliamentary Inquiries into town planning. Hr died on 23 August 1861. Yvonne and Tom Hosking in Chrimes.

Hughes, John Sylvester
General Manager Festiniog Railway: Hughes who was a Civil Engineer with an interest in mountain railways to the summmits of Ben Lomond, Skiddaw, Snaefell and Snowdon.
Illustrated interviews. No. 34–Mr. John Sylvester Hughes, General Manager Festiniog Railway. Rly Mag., 1900, 7, 97-110.
Portrait on facing page: mainly an account of the railway, its civil engineering works, traffic, motive power (notably the Fairlies) and rolling stock. Brief details of man.

Hurtzig, William Cameron
Born in  St, Thomas in the Dutch West Indies on 6 September 1853. Educated at Ware Grammar School and University College, London. Trained under Benjamin Baker. Worked on Rosslare Harbour and Waterford & Wexford Railway and on the Lough Erne Viaduct of the Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway. Resident Engineer for the Alexandra Dock in Hull and became Chief Engineer of the Hull & Barnsley Railway in 1885, but joined Fowler & Baker in 1888. Involved in construction and strengthening of the Forth Bridge. Died 20 June 1915. Chrimes in Volume 3.

Surnames beginning "I"

Inglis, Sir Charles Edward
Born 31 July 1875 at Worcester. Educated Cheltenham College and King's College, Cambridge. Classed as 22nd wrangler in the mathematical tripos and gained first-class honours in mechanical sciences tripos. Became a pupil of Sir John Wolfe-Barry & Partners, consulting engineers: worked under Alexander Gibb, Wolfe-Barry's resident engineer for the extension of the Metropolitan Railway from Whitechapel to Bow: designed and supervised nine bridges crossing the railway. Began to study mechanical vibration. In 1901 made a fellow of King's College. Subject of his thesis was The balancing of engines. Under Bertram Hopkinson, Inglis was appointed to a lectureship in engineering in 1908 and continued his work on vibration. In 1913 he published a seminal paper on stresses in a plate due to the presence of cracks and sharp corners. During WW1 he served in the Royal Engineers. Designed a light tubular bridge, readily transportable and easy to erect, which the War Office adopted. From 1916 to 1918 he was in charge of the department responsible for the design and supply of military bridges; for this work he was appointed OBE. His bridge came to the fore when the army was faced in 1917-18 with the tank bridging problem. He played a highly prominent part in the work of the Bridge Stress Committee, set up in 1923 to determine the behaviour of railway bridges under moving loads, providing all the mathematics and much of the impetus which kept the experimental work going. Elected FRS in 1930, and knighted in 1945. He died in Southwold on 19 April 1952. ODNB: J.F. Baker, rev. Jacques Heyman.

Publications
Impact in railway-bridges. Minut. Proc. Instn civ. Engrs, 1931/32, 234, (2), 358-403. Disc.: 404-44. 22 diagrs., 13 tables. (Paper No. 4870).
A mathematical treatise on vibrations in railway bridges. Cambridge, C.U.P., 1934. xxvi, 203 p. 65 diagrs., 39 tables.
The vertical path of a wheel moving along a railway track. J. Instn civ. Engrs, 1938/39, 11, 262-77. Disc.: 278-88: 12, 450-2 + folding plate. 13 diagrs. 3 tables. (Paper No. 5201).

Inglis, [Sir] Robert John Mathison
Born 5 May 1881; died in Helesburgh on 23 June 1962. Educated Bennington Park and Edinburgh University. Civil engineer who joined the service of the North British Company in 1900, and at the time of amalgamation was filling the post of district engineer at Glasgow. Like many other brother-Scots, he afterwards crossed the border, becoming assistant engineer, Southern Area, and succeeding C.J. Brown as engineer in 1937. working for NBR, then LNER in Scotland. Responsible to C.J. Brown for Guidea Park to Shenfield widening: Locomotive Mag., 1934, 40, 42. Became Engineer Scottish Area in 1936 and Divisional General Manager in 1943. During 1943 he spent four months in India investigating Indian railways for the government. In 1945-9 he was Chief Transport Officer for the British Zone in Germany. In 1949 he was appointed Chairman of the Glasgow & District Transport Committee which led to the Inglis Report (1951) recommending electrification of railways in the Glasgow area. He received a knighthood in 1947. Marshall. Some additional material from LNER Magazine 1946. See also Hennessey in Backtrack, 2014, 28, 134 and Skelsey in Backtrack, 2016, 30, 580.

Surnames beginning "J"

Jacomb-Hood, John Wykeham
1859-1914. Chief Engineer LSWR. Went with Fay to USA in 1901. Instigated low pressure pneumatic signalling initially at Grately then on four-track Woking Junction to Baingstoke section. High-speed electric traction on railways. ICE Paper, Killed in a hunting accident. Who Was Who.

Jacomb-Hood, Robert
Born Riseley, Beds on 25 January 1822. Died Tunbridge Wells on 10 May 1900. Educated Chist's Hospital and Trinity College, Cambridge. Articled to George Watson Buck who was working on London & Birmingham Railway. Later worked with both Baker and Barlow. In 1846 he became resident engineer on many of the LBSCR  In 1860 he set up in private practice in Westminster. In 1883 he joined the Board of the LBSCR. His son, John Wykeham (above) became Chied Engineer of the LSWR. Chrimes in Chrimes. Marshall

Jessop, Josias
Born (christened on 24 October 1781 at Birkin St Mary’s Church, Pontefract, second son of William Jessop his wife Sarah (née Sawyer). In 1799, aged 17 years, he carried out several experiments on a railway at Brinsley, Nottinghamshire owned by Joseph Wilkes and he also accompanied the Committee of the Grand Junction Canal Co to see some railways before they began theirs at Blisworth. The same year he also assisted Benjamin Outram to survey a line of railway from Merthyr Tydfil to Newport (for the Pen-y-Darren ironworks) and on 9 December 1799 accompanied his father William to survey a proposed line of canal from Croydon to the Thames at Wandsworth, which resulted in the Surrey Iron Railway. In his report William Jessop states: Railways of wood or Iron have many years been in use in the northern parts of England, chiefly among the coal mines; it is but lately that they have been brought to the degree of perfection, which now recommends them as substitute for canals; and in  many cases they are much more eligible and useful. Josias Jessop continues in his letters by saying: In 1802 I took the levels & made an Estimate for one [railway] from the Wandsworth Railway [Surrey Iron Railway] to Portsmouth and had previously set out the Merstham Railway to the Chalk quarries at Merstham. In the ea rly nineteenth century he was involved in works for the Bristol Floating Harbour, Subsequent ly the Jessops became involved in the Butterley Company and with Edward Banks. In 1817 Jessop was appointed as engineer for the Mansfield & Pinxton Railway, discussions for which had begun as early as 1809 during his father’s lifetime. In 1824 Jessop had landed his biggest railway contract to date, that for the Cromford & High Peak Railway. The railway was some 33 miles in length and was intended to connect the Cromford Canal to Manchester by the most direct route over mountainous terrain rising over 1,000 feet. A Newspaper (the Newcastle Courant) reporting on the progress of the Cromford and High Peak Railway on 14 August 1824 wrote that ‘Railways seem to be  the fashion of the day and will supersede Canals as their cost is so much less and they convey so cheaply This accompanied a prospectus of the Grand Junction Rail Road Company, which was headed by Sir Edward Banks and two of the three engineers appointed were Josias Jessop and William Brunton (the third being James Walker). The Liverpool & Manchester Railway Act of Parliament was obtained in May 1826, due to the evidence presented by George Rennie and Josias Jessop. The Rennie brothers were asked to become the Consulting Engineers, but stated that ’ … while they were prepared to work with Telford or Jessop, they were not prepared to work with Stephenson’. The Railway Company refused the Rennies offer and instead appointed Josias Jessop as consulting engineer on 21 June 1826, retaining Stephenson as principal engineer. Then, at this critical and potentially pivotal moment in history, Josias Jessop died on 30 September 1826, his death being attributed to ‘exhaustion’. Martyn Taylor-Cockayne. Josias Jessop, civil engineer to railway engineer. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc, 2020, 40, 117.

Jessop, William
Born in Devonport in January 1745 and died at Butterley Hall, Derbyshire, on 18 November 1814. Jessop was a significant engineer of canals, tramways and railways, notably the Surrey Iron Railway (see Backtrack 17 314) and Backtrack, 2019, 33, 104). He had been the son of Josias Jessop, a foreman shipwright in the Devonport naval dockyard and a pupil of John Smeaton (Jessop's father had worked on the Eddystone lighthouse), working with him on the Calder & Hebble and Aire & Calder navigations in Yorkshire. Jessop's first major work was the Grand Canal across Ireland, begun in 1753 but not completed until 1805. Another important work was the Cromford Canal to link Arkwright's mills at Cromford with the Derbyshire coalfield. It included the 2966yd Butterley tunnel, and it led to the creation of the Butterley Co in 1790. He was an early user of cast iron as a structural material and was involved in the Surrey Iron Railway.. Rolt, L. T. C., Great Engineers 1962; R. Angus Buchanan: biography ODNB.

Johnson, Richard
Born in Spalding in 1827. In 1840 he was apprenticed to a builder and contractor as a carpenter. In October 1847 he was appointed to the staff of Brydone & Evans, engineers to the GNR. In 1855 he was appointed District Engineer to the GNR loop line with an office in Boston and in 1859 he became responsible for the direct Peterborough to Doncaster line. In June 1861 he became Engineer for the GNR when Mr Walter Marr Brydone retired (with Joseph Cubitt as Consulting Engineer). He observed the Welwyn tunnel accident and fire. He was in charge of constructing the Derbyshire Extension Railways, notably the viaduct at Ilkeston over old coal workings, the curved viaduct at Gilbrook, and the long Kimberley cutting. He was also invollved in the Newark Dyke bridge, the Don bridge, the Copenhagen tunnels, and the bridge over the GER at Peterborough. His son T.R. Johnson was also an engineer and was responsible for moving a new bridge into position at Peterborough. Richard Johnson was a teetotaller and was involved in missionary work. He died in Hitchin on 9 September 1924. Marshall and Rly Mag., 1, 10.

Johnston, Andrew
Born in London on 23 May 1818. Educated at Grant's School in Crouch End and became a pupil of Christopher Davy. Worked as residant engineer for Colwick to Grantham line under John Underwood; then moved to be an assistant engineer on the LBSCR in 1858. In 1865 he beacme responsible for the maintenance of the civil engineering works of the Midland Railway but had to retire due to ill health in July 1865 and died in Derby on 27 May 1884. John Gough in Chrimes.

Johnston, Robert Edward
Engineer of the LNWR and GWR joint lines centred on Shrewsbury and the Birkenhead Joint. See Biddle, G. Frodsham: a station moved sideways. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2005, 35, 34 and reference therein to Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs

Jones, Charles
Agent to Brassey: see Brooke, David. Thomas Brassey and the papers of Charles Jones. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2010, 36, 108-12.

Surnames beginning "K"

Kearney, Elfric Wells Chalmers
Born Geelong, Australia, 3 February 1881; died 15 April 1966. Advocate of the monorail: Kearney High Speed Railway Attempted to popularise his ideas via fiction: Eróne (1943) which introduces a "Monoway" and makes oblique reference to his nearly successful system between North and South Shields. . Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631). Kearney participated in the discussion. Hennessey, R.A.S. One track to the future. Backtrack, 2005, 19, 437-41.

Kelk, Sir John
Builder and public works contractor. Born in London on 16 February 1816: the Kelk family came from Carlton in Lindrick, in north Nottinghamshire. Apprenticed to the builder and developer Thomas Cubitt. It also produced ironwork for Blackfriars railway bridge and Hammersmith Bridge, and for many of Kelk's enterprises such as the building for the 1862 exhibition and Alexandra Palace. Both Kelk and Fowler were concerned with Peto and Betts, and Waring Brothers, in the building of railways in Kensington, involving the lines for the Metropolitan Railway and the Metropolitan District Railway, respectively from South Kensington to Paddington, and from Tower Hill to South Kensington, from 1864 until 1871. Kelk became extremely wealthy, not all of his enterprises were successful. In contemporary obituaries Kelk's most impressive railway enterprise was the building of the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway across the Thames from Battersea into the centre of London in 1858–60, a project on which he worked with the engineer, John Fowler. He died at home at Tedworth House, on 12 September 1886; he was mourned locally as a generous host to both sporting associates and learned societies. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery under a ledger-stone of the pink granite used in the Albert Memorial. ODNB biography by Hermione Hobhouse. Chrimes biography by P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin.

Kennard, Robert William
Born (18 January 1800) and died (10 January 1870) in London. Manufacturer of ironwork for bridges, acquiring Falkirk Ironworks and Blaenavon Ironworks. In 1839 became a director of the Northern & Eastern Railway, in 1843 of the Norwich & Brandon Railway and later of the Eastern Counties Railway. He was joined by his sons, James William?? (see below) (1825-1893) and Henry Martyn (1833-1911) and they were involved in erecting the Crumlin Viaduct on the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway. Marshall

Kennard, Thomas William
Born in Paris on 29 August 1825 (son of Robert William above) ; died in Sunbury-on-Thames on 10 September 1893. Known mainly for the Crumlin Viaduct: a Warren truss structure. In 1858 he went to the USA where he worked on theAtlantic & Great Western Railroad  Chrimes biography by P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin.

Kirkaldy, David
Born at Mayfield, near Dundee on 4 April 1820; died 25 January, 1897. Educated under Dr. Low of Dundee, and at Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, where he studied for some years, attending lectures also at the University.In 1843 he became an apprentice in the works of Robert Napier, the Glasgow shipbuilder.  He was awarded a medal for a series of five drawings at the Paris Exhibition in 1855, and in 1861 his coloured drawing of the steamship Persia was exhibited at the Royal Academy, the first instance off this being an engineering drawing. He also tested the iron plates and angle-bars used in the construction of H.M. armour-cased ships Black Prince and Hector. The Scottish Shipbuilders Association, having obtained the sanction of Messrs. Napier for the results to be laid before it, Kirkaldy forthwith prepared a Paper. The reception given to this effort led to the publication, in 1862, of the tests in a more extended form as a book, entitled Results of an Experimental Inquiry into the Tensile Strength and other Properties of various kinds of Wrought Iron and Steel. In 1864 the Institution of Engineers in Scotland awarded him a gold medal for his communication Experiments on Iron and Steel. Another service was rendered to engineering knowledge by the publication of the results of his researches as to the “effects of shape ” on the behaviour of metals, one outcome of these results being the adoption of an improved form of bolt for securing the armour plates of ships. overcome in a machine which would be suitable for the full range of such tests, and at the same time very accurate and delicate in its action. Kirkaldy left Napier in 1861 to design his own testing machine at his home in Corunna Street, Glasgow. The machine was built by Greenood & Batley of Leeds: construction commenced in June, 1864, but was not finished until September, 1865: The machine was erected in premises in The Grove, off Southwark Street, London, and public testing operations were commenced on the 1 January, 1866. The machine is extant and viewable. It was employed to investigate the failure of the Tay Bridge and achieved an international reputation. Denis Smith in Chrimes (note Chrimes illustrates the machine in his Introduction).

Knight, Jonathan
Born Bucks County, Pennsylvania on 22 November 1787. Died East Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 22 November 1858. Civil engineer, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Largely self-educated. At 21 began as a school teacher and surveyor. In 1816 appointed to survey and map Washington County, Pennsylvania. Assisted in surveys for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and the national road between Cumberland, Maryland, and Wheeling, Western Virginia, which, in 1825 he extended through Wheeling and through Ohio and Indiana to Illinois. This important work brought him imo prominence as an engineer and in 1827 he was appointd by the B&O Co to survey part of the route. In 1828-9 he accompanied Whistler and McNeill to England to study railways and locomotives. On his return to USA he was appointed chief engineer to the B&O, responsible for designing structures and machinery and letting contracts. On leaving the B&O in 1842 he became a consulting engineer. Marshall.

Surnames beginning "L"

Landmann, George T.
Born in Woolwich in April? 1780, Educated at Royal Military Academy where he shone academically and became an expert in fortfications. Engineer of the long viaduct of the London & Greenwich Railway. Died in 1854. Entry in Chrimes by Denis Smith.

Lane, Chrisopher Bagot
Born in Nurney House in County Kildare in 1814. Trained in medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, but elected to become an engineer and studied at Edinburgh University and as a pupil of Ruthven. In December 1837 joined I.K. Brunel and was associated with many of the works on the Great Western Railway and associated lines in Wales.. For a time he was a consultant engineer for railways in Brazil. In 1860 he advocated a high level railway to connect the Minories to Kensington. He took his own life on 11 January 1877. Ron Cox in Chrimes.

Langdon, William Edward
Born 1832; died 1905, (Teleramics website). Until 1870 Langdon was Assistant Telegraph Suprintendent on the LSWR (C.F. Dendy Marshall History of the Southern Railway). Telegraph superintendent of the Midland Railway: gave his name to telegraph insulators: Langdons. Michael Dunn: letter Br. Rly J., 1985, 1, 263. Books: Application of electricity to railway working (Ottley 3319)Presented paper on electric lighting to Institution of Civil Engineers: On railway-train lighting. Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs, 1891, 106, 127-50. Discussion 150 (see also Ottley 3172 and 3377). Paper The position and protection of the third rail on electric railways presented at Institution of Civil Engineers Conference in 1903

Langen, Carl Eugen
Born 9 October 1833; died 2 October 1895. Developed the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (suspended railway) which linked Barmen, Elberfeld and Vohrwinkel. Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631). Adrian Garner. Monorails of the 19th century.

La Nicca. Richard
Born on 16 August 1794, and died on 27 August 1883. Prominent Swiss civil engineer and pioneer of Alpine railways. In 1838 began surveys for a railway through the Rhaetian Alps via the Splugen Pass and, in 1845, via the Lukmanier Pass, and worked towards these objectives for thirty years. In 1845 he obtained concessions for railways in Graubünden and formed a company in Turin to build the railway from Lake Maggiore to the Bodensee. Between 1858 and 1871 he pressed to form a railway line from Fluelen to Disentis and Chur to Disentis through the Lukmanier, as an alternative to the Gotthard line, but this was unsuccessful. . Marshall

Lardner, Dionysius
Whereas Marshall does not mention Lardner Simmons found room for this vaguely absurd character in the Oxford Companion (probably because he was an "Academic"). Born in Dublin on 3 April 1793 and died in Naples on 29 April 1859. He was educated at Trinity College. ODNB Biography by J.N. Hays. Many of his hypotheses were deeply flawed, such as the ridiculous speeds claimed for trains running away on the down grade in Box Tunnel. Brunel was able to discredit Lardner. J.B. Snell was better qualified to assess Lardner's achievements in Mechanical engineering: railways. London: Longman. 1971. 177pp. G.R. Hawke's Railways and economic Growth in England and Wales 1830-1870 (OUP: 1970) includes a defence of Lardner as an Apoendix.

Lartigue, Charles François Marie-Thérèse
Born in 1834: developed elevated monorail systems to assist in harvesting esparto grass in Spain and Algeria. System developed by Behr.. Information from Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631).  Hennessey, R.A.S. One track to the future. Backtrack, 2005, 19, 437-41; and references therein including A.T. Newham. The Listowell & Ballybunion Railway (1967). Lartigue's first venture was a long line in Algeria. Further Backtrack (2008, 22, 295) material in article on Listowel and Ballybunion line. Adrian Garner. Monorails of the 19th century. includes a full list of British patents, an extensive list of references and many illustrations including of the lines in North Africa built for carrying esparto grass also Tucker, D.G.. F.B. Behr's development of the Lartigue Monorail: from country crawler to electric express. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1983/4, 55, 131-49. Disc.: 149-52..

Latham, John Herbert
Son of a priest, born 30 July 1832 (Chrimes states 1831) at Little Eaton: brought up in Cambridge; educated at Harrow and St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained a Degree in mathematics. Wrote a book on girder design (Construction of wrought iron bridges). He became Assistant Engineer to the Madras Irrigation & Canal Company in 1863 and Chief Engineer in 1865. He farmed in New Zealand from 1887 and died in Auckland on 10 July 1910. Horne hints that the book may have been more influential and might have been read by J.W. Murphy of The Lehigh Valley Railroad. See Horne in Back Track and J.H. Latham's Construction of wrought iron bridges, embracing the practical application of the principles of mechanics to wrought iron girder work ... with numerous detail plates. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1858.

La Touche, Henry Christopher Digges
Born in County Tipperary in Ireland on 2 September 1839. He was educated at Warwick and Cheltenham Colleges. Apprenticed to Edward Purser in 1860: worked on Smyrna & Aidin Railway, then joined Punjab Northern State Railway. Worked on many Indian lines, constructing major bridges, but health broke and had to return to England in 1890. Died 16 February 1895. M. Kaye Kerr and Ian J. Kerr in Chrimes..

La Touche, James Norman Digges
Born on 19 July 1857 at Wistanstow near Craven Arms where father (Huguenot) was vicar of Stokesay Church. Educated at Marlborough College and Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill. From 1880-2 he was a pupil of Stroudley and was then under Hugh Reid at Hyde Park Works in Glasgow. He joined the Indian Public Works Department in 1882 and was sent to work with his uncle Henry Christopher Digges La Touche where he worked on several lines with difficult bridges. He became Deputy Consulting Engineer for the Calcutta District in 1895, and in 1898 for the Bombay District, finally going to the Secretariat in Bombay until he retired in 1912. He eventually moved to Stokesay Cottage and died there on 25 November 1939. He invented a strain gauge to measure stresses in small span bridges.See Horne Backtrack 16 283.

Law, Henry
Born in Reading on 15 April 1824. Died in London on 18 July 1900. Articled pupil of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and worked with him on the Thames Tunnel. In 1852 began to practice on his own and went into partnership with John Blount. Mainly associated with non-railway bridges and major drainage works, but reported on the Tay Bridge failure to the Board of Trade. Denis Smith in Chrimes.

Laws, William George
Born in Tynemouth on 18 April 1836 and died in Newcastle upon Tyne on 22 December 1904.. Educated Durham University and articled to James Burnett of Thompson & Boyd. Worked on Border Union, Border Counties and NBR Wansbeck Valley railways. Later Chief Assistant to T.E. Harrison of NER. In 1881 appointed City Engineer of Newcastle where responsible for electric tramways construction. Marshall. R.W. Rennison and A. Gunning in Chrimes (with portrait).

Leather, John Towlerton
Marshall stated born Kirkham Gate Wakefield (but A.D. Leather in Chrimes states Liverpool, and Baptised in St. Paul's Church on 7 October) on 30 August 1804 and died at Leventhorpe Hall near Leeds on 6 June 1885. Civil engineer and contractor (Chesterfield contract on North Midland Railway) who put up the finance for the Hunslet Engine Co. on behalf of his son Hugo (see A.D. Leather).

Leather, John Wignall
Born in Bradford on 26 April 1810 (A.D. Leather in Chrimes) and died in Leeds on 31 January 1887. Educated at Durham School: early work on reservoirs, drainage works and canals. Later worked on railways: Stockton & Hartlepool Railway including Greetham viaduct; Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Dudley Railway; North Midland and Manchester & Leeds Railways. Marshall.

Lecount, Peter
Author of A practical treatise on railways, explaining their construction and mangement. Edinburgh: 1839.: appears to have worked on London & Birmingham Railway.

Le Fanu, William Richard
Born in Dublin on 24 February 1816. Died Enniskerry. Civil engineer main Dublin to Cork route of Great Suthern & Western Railway. Also other Irish railways. Chrimes.

Leslie, James
Born in Largo on 25 September 1801; died December 1889 probably at Colinton. Studied  at Mackay's Academy in Edinburgh and Edinburgh University. Apprenticed to the architect William Henry Playfair, but on completion determined to become a.civil engineer and joined George and John Rennie in London. In 1846 he established himself in Edinburgh. His major projects were in water supply and harbours. Ted Ruddock in Chrimes.. He designed the Kirkcaldy Harbour branch. NBRSG Journal, 121-4 et seq

Liddell, Charles
Born Easington, County Durham in 1813: son of the Rector. Died London on 10 August 1894. Became a pupil of George Stephenson and was involved in most of the Stephensons' railway projects including the Grand Junction and London & Birmingham railways. Went into partnership with L.D.B. Gordon and was engineer in chief of the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway which included the wrought iron Crumlin Viaduct. He was a great enthusiast for railway construction and his later work included involvement in both the Midland and MSLR London extensions. He was also involved in cable manaufacture and installation: Woodcroft GB 14,343 Electric-telegraphs (11 November 1852). Marshall. also Chrimes biography by himself.

Lindley, Peter
Together with Hirst of Metalastik, he probably did more to make rubber an acceptable engineering material than any other person. He was a graduate of Sheffield University and whilst there had worked on locomotives at the Yorkshire Engine Company. He was a major contributor to the design of rail pads (a mass market for elastomers, especially natural rubber), and to the large bearings used to mount the track beds under the Barbican development and for the Piccadilly Line extension to Heathrow Airport. He was involved with Derham on the isolation of Albany Court above St James Underground Station and in the initial British use of rubber bridge bearings under the Pelham Street bridge in Lincoln. He was responsible for creating an extra market of some 8000 tonnes per annum through his design for an automotive buffer for Ford cars to withstand 5 mile/h impacts..

Locke, Joseph

Lovell,Thomas
Born in London on 6 January 1827; died in Mussoorie, India, on 23 August 1878. Educated King's College School, London. When aged sixteen articled to William Stamp, civil engineer and was engaged on Admiralty works in Malta. He was next involved on the SER between Folkestone and Dover, and later for six years as Rigby's engineer on the Portland and Holyhead breakwaters. In  March 1855 he was appointed assistant engineer under G.B. Bruce on the Madras Railway, until his resignation in May 1862. Later he assisted in constructing the Jubbulpore line of the East India Railway. After a brief visit to England he was engaged as district engineer on the Oudh & Rohilkund Railway in 1868, including the first bridge to be built over the Ganges, at Rajghat, and at the same time on the construction of the main line to Moradabad, 215 miles. On 1 February 1869 he became deputy chief engineer of the Rohilkund line. During his term of office a second bridge was built across the Ganges, at Cawnpore, and other important bridges on the Oudh line, the Touse near Akberpore, in Fyzabad, the Gumti and Saie in Jounpur, and the Buma at Benares. In 1876 he drew up a project for a steam ferry at Rajghat, Benares, to enable goods wagons to cross from the Oudh & Rohilkund to the ElR across the Ganges. Marshall and Mike Chrimes in Chrimes.

Lucas, Charles Thomas
Born on 26 October 1820 in London. After serving articles with Stokes, a London builder, Lucas joined his father. He was employed by Samuel Morton Peto to superintend construction of the Norwich and Brandon Railway. In 1842 he set up his own contracting business in Norwich, where he was joined by his younger brother Thomas in founding Lucas Brothers at Lowestoft; they were extensively involved in the development of Lowestoft. In the 1860s the brothers turned to railway contracting on their own account, though often in collaboration with other firms. Kelk and Lucas were contractors for the Metropolitan District Railway, and Lucas joined Brassey and Wythes in the East London Railway. Their main railway work for the Great Eastern Railway was in 1865-75. They also worked on the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, and the West Highland. In 1870 they took John Aird into partnership, forming two new companies, Lucas and Aird, ‘one of the largest employers of labour in the country’, and John Aird & Sons, to specialize in railway and commercial contracting. Besides work for most of the principal railway companies they built the Royal Albert and the rival Tilbury docks (1880, 1882–6), and undertook the Suakin–Berber Railway in the Sudan in 1885. Lucas retired in about 1891 and died at Warnham Court on 4 December 1895. ODNB entry by M.H. Port, and Chrimes by Chrimes. Joby is also strong on Lucas family.

Surnames beginning "M"

McAdam, John Louther
Born in Ayr on 23 September 1756; Died at Moffat on 26 November 1836. In 1770 he went to New York and worked for a relative in a counting house, but returned in 1783 and acquired the Sauchrie Estate and an interest in the ironworks at Muirkirk and the Kairns Colliery where tar was  produced. He also became a Trustee of the Ayr Turnpike Trust, but his major acceptance as a road builder  came when he moved to Bristol and joined its Turnpike Trust. Here he perfected his system of road building with a bed of large stones covered with smaller stones to  encourage good drainage and a camber to assist vehicle stability and drainage: this is macadamisation or simply macadam. Late in this period he was involved in plans for a Bristol to London joint turnpike and railway.  See Reginald B. Fellows. Rival routes to Bristol. Part 1 Railway Wld, 1960, 21, 326-31.

McAlpine, Sir Robert
Michael Gould contributed a biography on page 302 of the Oxford Companion. The family, including Sir Robert, is included in an ODNB contribution by Iain Russell.

McClean, John Robinson
According to Marshall was born in Belfast in 1813 and died in Stonehouse (Kent) on 13 July 1873. Educated at the Royal Academical Institution in Belfast; in 1834 went to Glasgow University to study engineering. In 1837 he entered the office of Messrs. Walker and Burges, Westminster, and was connected with the various works undertaken by James Walker until 1844, when he established himself independently as a civil engineer :at the same time he became Engineer-in-chief of the Furness Railways,. Worked on improvements to Birmingham Canal. Harry Jack in Locomotives of the LNWR Southern Division: London & Birmingham Railway, London & North Western Railway and Wolverton Locomotive Works. 2001. 299pp. 145 figs. (illus, including line drawings), describes how he leased the South Staffordshire Railway for 21 years from 1 August 1850. He took a very prominent part in developing the mineral and agricultural resources of the Cannock Chase district, in which he was a large holder of mining property. He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for the years 1864 and 1865. He was one of the Members of Parliament for East Staffordshire from 1868 until his death.. Obituary: Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1874, 25, 23-4. John R. Bonnett in Chrimes.. Davvid Joy: Two dukes and a lord. Backtrack, 2018, 32, 292.

McCormick, William
Born Glendermott, Londonderry on 12 August 1800 and died Hampstead on 12 June 1878. Contractor on Manchester & Southport Railway, Londonderry & Coleraine Railway, Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway, Newry & Armagh Railway, Mid-Sussex & Midhurst Railway, Merthyr, Tredegar & Abergavenny Railway, Harrogate Loop and other works. MP for Londonderry 1860-5. P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin in Chrimes

McDonald, John Allen
Born Bristol 9 July1847; died Borrowash, near Derby on 18 December 1904. Chief engineer Midland Railway. Educated Bristol Grammar School (Flann, Backtrack, 2010, 24, 646 states Clifton). In 1865 he became pupil of his brother A.H. McDonald who was then resident engineer under W.R. Galbraith on several branches of the LSWR in Surrey and Dorset. On completing his pupilage he was appointed assistant to Charles Richardson on the Bristol Harbour Railway. In 1869 he was appointed engineer for Eckersley & Bayliss, contractor on the LNWR Rhymney Railway extension to Rhymney, and the MR Yate-Thornbury branch. On this he was brought into contact with J.S. Crossley, chief engineer MR. In August 1871 he was engaged under John Underwood, engineer for new works, MR. As resident engineer he carried out the Trent-Leicester widening, branches at Burton upon Trent and Kettering and other MR works. In 1889 McDonald was transferred to Derby as chief assistant for new works under A A Langley, then chief engineer. On the retirement of Langley in  July 1890 McDonald was appointed chief engineer, MR. He carried out much heavy work, including the Saxby-Bourne line, the branch to Higham Ferrers, new lines between Sheffield and Bamsley, opened 1893 and 1897; the New Mills-Heaton Mersey line, opened 1901-2, including Disley Tunnel 2 miles 346 yds; Heysham branches, opened in  11.7.1904; the swing bridge over the Nene at Sutton Bridge; and rebuilding stations at Sheffield and Nottingham. At his death he had nearly completed the first 10 miles, opened 1905-9, of the never finished main line between Royston and Bradford. Widenings carried out by McDonald totalled 167 miles and included London-Kettering, Erewash Valley line, and Masborough-Royston. He also replaced almost all the cast iron and wooden bridges on the MR. In 1896 he introduced a heavier bull-head rail of over 100lb/yd, and over 500 miles of line were relaid with this before his death. His last and greatest work was the construction of Heysham harbour in conjunction with G.N. Abernethy. Marshall Also Chrimes in volume 3.

MacDonald, Murdoch
Boen Inverness 6 May 1866. Died Nairn on 24 April 1957. educated at Dr. Bell's Farraline Park School in Inverness (now Inverness Public Library). He joined the Highland Railway initially as a clerk, but later he was apprenticed to the Chief Engineer. MacDonald served as engineer to the Black Isle Railway (1891-94) but left for Egypt in 1898 to work on the Aswan Dam. He later advised Egypt's Ministry of Public Works on irrigation and drainage. During the First World War he advised on the defence of the Suez Canal. Formed in 1927, his engineering company - Sir Murdoch Macdonald & Partners – heightened the Aswan Dam and designed the Ness Bridge. It merged to form the multinational Mott Macdonald Group in 1989. He was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for Inverness-shire in 1922, serving until 1950, latterly as an Independent Liberal. Macdonald was knighted in 1914, created a Freeman of Inverness in 1930 and became President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1932. He was convinced there is a Loch Ness Monster and persuaded the Secretary of State for Scotland to issue an order to protect it. Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204. who cites as MacDonald whereas other online sources cite Macdonald. Also Chrimes in volume 3.

McIntosh, David
Born Cheddleton, Staffordshire, on 16 May 1799; died in London on 7 January 1857. Railway contractor, son of Hugh McIntosh, contractor (died 1840). Educated Glasgow University and trained under his father. Carried out many major railway contracts: Dutton viaduct, GJR; 1836-40; five contracts on the GWR; 1837-41; three contracts on the London & Southampton Railway; 1837-41 Belper contracts on the North Midland Railway; 1838-41 Midland Counties Railway, Rugby-Leicester; 1838-40 a portion of the Northern & Eastern Railway, later GER. Leading Connoisseur of fine art. Chrimes in Chrimes. Marshall.

Mackay, John
Born in Rogart, Sutherland on 25 October 1822. Died Hereford 5 February 1906. Railway contractor who began working for Brassey and then set up on his own. P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin in Chrimes.

Mackenzie, Willliam
Marshall notes that born in Burnley on 20 March 1794 and died on 19 October 1851. Prominent contractor. Apprenticed to Thomas Clapham, lock carpenter on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, and at Troon harbour in Ayrshire. After Clapham's death he worked under Cargill constructing Telford's iron bridge at Craigellachie, subsequently working for Telford on the Birmingham Canal. He then transferred to railway work becoming contractor for the tunnel under Liverpool from Edge Hill to Lime Street station. Other contracts followed, on the GJR, Glasgow, Paisley & Greenock, North Union, and Midland railways. In 1840 he began his connection with Thomas Brassey with whom he carried out much work on railways in France. The revolution of 1848 forced a return to England where, with Brassey, he completed the Eastern Union Railway and, in conjunction with John Stephenson the whole of the lines from Lancashire to Edinburgh and Glasgow under Locke and Errington, the Scottish Central to Perth, the Scottish Midland to Forfar, part of the Chester & Holyhead under Robert Stephenson, part of the North Staffordshire Railway under Bidder, the whole of the Trent Valley line, and the Liverpool, Ormskirk & Preston section of the ELR, again under Locke and Errington. Altogether the contracts executed by Mackenzie alone and in conjunction with Brassey and John Stephenson totalled over £17m. Overwork and exposure led in 1848 to an attack of gangrene in his foot and from then his health declined. See also Newcomen Transactions, 2000, 73, 319 for paper by Otter and Thomas. Skempton. and Brooke, David. William Mackenzie: international railway builder. Newcomen Society (eviewed by Martin Barnes in J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2005, 35, 62).

Macneill, [Sir] John Benjamin
Marshall supplemented by John Byrne in Chrimes state that was born at Mount Pleasant, Ballymascanlan near Dundalk County Louth on 5 May 1793 and died on 2 March 1880 in London. Trained under Telford, on southern section of Holyhead Road, and was a beneficiary in Telford's will. In 1834 he set himself up as consulting.engineer and was engineer to the Wishaw & Coltness Railway and to Grangemouth Docks. In 1837 the Irish Railway Commissioners appointed him to survey railways in the North of Ireland. In 1840 he was Engineer to the Dublin & Drogheda Railway. He was the first to introduce wrought-iron lattice girder bridges into the UK, the 140 foot span rail bridge over the Royal Canal near Dublin being erected in 1843, followed in 1855 by the large viaduct over the River Boyne at Drogheda with a central span of 267 feet. Horne (Backtrack, 11, 308) shows that he made a considerable contribution to bridge design, both directly and through his pupils; including George Willoughby Hemans (above and letter in 18, 125). Robert F. Hartley in Early main line railways notes the Egyptian Arch bridge in Newry on the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway completeed in 1851 and still in use. John Byrne in Chrimes. who notes patents (but no details) which included railway signals and includes a portrait. Michael Collins (Backtrack, 2010, 24, 611) blames him for non-standard Irish gauge. Coakham notes that he corresponded with Joseph Beattie and this led to the use of Beattie's patented coal burning system on two Belfast & County Down locomotives supplied by Beyer Peacock. Macneill was tall and strikingly handsome. Although self-taught in technical and scientific subjects, he had a strong interest in matters of science. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 5 April 1838 and regularly attended the meetings of this and other bodies. He as knighted in 1844. (H.M. Chichester, revised R.C. Cox ODNB). P.J. Geraghty considers his contribution to the use of steam carriages on roads and includes a portrait from the Masonic Lodges in Dundalk: J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2010, 36, 88.. Patents listed in Woodcroft relate to road construction, other than 12,758/1849 Locomotive-engines and construction of railways. 6 September 1849. Clements, McMahon and O,Rourke in Locomotives of the Great Southern & Western Railway, Collon Publishing, 2020, claim that Macneill was instrumental in getting the Great Southern & Western Railway into existence throough the influence of Peter Purcell. In 1839 Macneill had conducted experiments on using locomotives to haul boats on the Forth & Clyde Canal: see NBR Study Gp J., 1996 (62), 16-17.

McNeill, William Gibbs
Born Wilmington, North Carolina on 3 October 1801. Died Brooklyn, New York on 16 February 1853 aged 51 Pioneer American railway civil engineer. Descended from survivors of Battle of Culloden, including Flora McDonald. Educated near New York and began his career in the army where he became a friend of George Washington Whistler. In 1823 transferred to the Corps of Topographical Engineers to ascertain the practicability and cost of building a railway or canal between Chesapeke Bay and Ohio river across the Allegheny mountains. He also surveyed the James river and Kanawha canals and the Baltimore & Ohio RR. In recognition of his work he was made a Member of the Board of Engineers and in 1828, with Whistler and Jonathan Knight he was sent to England to study railway construction and met George Stephenson. Convinced of the practicability of railways he returned to the USA where he and Whistler became joint engineers on several projects in the Eastern States working on the Baltimore & Ohio; Baltimore & Susquehanna; Paterson & Hudson River; Boston & Providence; Providence & Stonington; Taunton & New Bedford; Long Island; Boston & Albany; and Charleston, Louisville & Cindnnati. In 1834 he became brevet-major of engineering. In 1851 he visited Europe in an attempt to recover his declining health, and in London he was the first American to be elected MICE. Marshall.

Mahone, William
Born Vermont, USA, on 1 December 1826; died Washington 8 October 1895. Civil engineer and president of the Norfolk & Western Railroad. In 1851 he became engineer of the Norfolk & Petersburg Railroad of which he became president, chief engineer and superintendent in 1861. He served as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. Returned to railway work in 1867 and in 1870 created the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad out of three short lines from Norfolk to Bristol, thus becoming president of what in 1881 became the Norfolk & Western Railroad. In 1880 he was elected to the US Senate. Marshall.

Maillart, Robert
Born in Bern, Switzerland, on 6 February 1872; died Geneva 5 April 1940. Pioneer of reinforced-concrete bridge construction. In 1890 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic engineering school where, in 1894, he obtained the Diploma of Civil Engineering. He worked for several organizations and, in 1901, while with Frote & Westermann in Zurich he designed the first 'Maillart system' three-hinged arch at Zuoz. In 1902 he established his own independent office, Maillart & Cie. In 1905 he designed and built the Tavanasa bridge over the Rhine, with a three-hinge arch and pierced spandrels, a work of great strength and elegance. In 1912 he began practice in Russia but was overtaken by the WW1: his wife died and he returned in poverty to Switzerland with his children. By 1919 he was able to set up an engineering office in Geneva. His first three-hinged arch railway bridge was a modest span of 30m over the Landquart at Klosters on the metre-gauge Rhaetian Railway, built in 1930. Although most of his bridges were for roads his designs formed the basis for many railway bridges all over the world, such as the massive three-hinged concrete arch with a span of 150m carrying the 4-track SBB over the Aare at Bern, and the tremendous arches on the Tauern Railway in Austria, including the Pfaffenberg-Zwenberg bridge with a span of 200m, the world's longest. Max BiII, Robert Maillart bridges and constructions. Zurich: Artemis, 1969. . Marshall. .

Margary, Peter John
Born in London on 2 June 1820 and died there on 29 April 1896. GWR civil engr. In 1838 articled to William Gravatt, then chief assistant on Bristol & Exeter Railway under Brunel. Later assisted BruneI with the atmospheric system on the South Devon Railway. On death of Brunel in 1859 was appointed chief engineer of the South Devon Railway. He carried out the extensionn from Tavistock to Launceston and the branches to Moreton Hampstead, Ashburton and St Ives. In 1868 appointed chief engineer to Cornwall Railway. On its amalgamation with the GWR in 1876 he became resident engineer of the Western division of the GWR including the GWR docks at Plymouth which he extended in 1878-81. He also reconstructed the Moorswater and St Pinnock viaducts on the Cornwall Railway. He retired at the end of 1891. Marshall also Brian George in Chrimes.

Marsh, Thomas Edward Miles
Born and died in Wiltshire: born Biddestone on 3 April 1818; died Bath 19 December 1907. Civil engineer. Trained under G.E. Frere on construction of Western division of the GWR. Later became resident engineer on the works at Bath and, from the opening of the line until December 1841, he was responsible for permanent way up to and including Box Tunnel. After a brief period on the Caledonian Railway, river Wye works and a colliery near Newport, South Wales, in 1844 he became chief engineer of the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation Co for the survey and const of the Newport-Pontypool Railway until work was suspended in 1846. He then worked under Brunel as resident engineerr on the Wiltshire, Somerset & Weymouth Railway. In 1847 Brunel appointed him inspector of all permanent way work and material. On the death of Brunel in 1859 he was entrusted with similar work for other engineers in England, Canada and South America, and for Hawkshaw in India and Mauritius. In 1860-3 was chief engineer to the Sittingbourne & Sheerness Railway, and Queenborough pier. Marshall also R. Angus Buchanan in Chrimes.

Meadows, James
In 1796 James Meadows married Elizabeth Owen in Manchester Parish Church and was made Chief Agent and engineer of the Ashton Canal. James junior was born in 1808. James senior was involved with early railways including the Beard and Woodlands Rail-way of 1816. James senior died on 2 May 1831. James Meadows took over many of his father's tasks concerned with the Ashton Canal, but by this time canals were in decline and became subsidaries of the railway companies, (Mradows was briefly General Manager of the MSLR see Hodgkins: J Rly Canal Hist. Soc. 2003, 34, 241) but in 1849 he beacme Manager of the Rochdale Canal. Lamb, B. The Meadows family 1796-1869. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2004, 34, 688. B. Lamb. A discrepancy and an answer— James Meadows and George Dow.J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2001, 33, 528

Meek, Sturges
Born Dunstall on 9 April 1816. died London, 23.February.1888. Pupil of George Stephenson. Worked on London & Birmingham Railway from age 17 and was soon appointed assistant engineer. In 1841, on the recommendation of Locke, he was appointed engineer on a portion of the Paris-Rouen Railway. He then worked under Locke on the GNR from 1844. Following a dispute between Locke and the GNR Co in 1844 Meek went with Locke to Holland to work on the Dutch Rhenish Railway, and on several English railways including the Derby-Stoke-Crewe line of the NSR. In 1846 he became engineer of the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway, later ELR. In 1853 he succeeded Hawkshaw as chief engineer of the LYR which, in 1859, was arnalgamated with the ELR of which he was also engineer. He was responsible for many important works: Accrington viaduct, 1848; North Docks branch, Liverpool, 1855; Chatburn-Hellifield line, completed 1879; Meltham branch, 1868; doubling Halifax branch, 1869; Newton Heath carriage works, 1877; Cheetham Hill (Manchester)-Radcliffe, 1879; Denby Dale new viaduct, 1880; Brighouse-Wyke line, 1881; Rochdale--Bacup, 1870, 1881; Bacup branch widening, 1857, 1881. He was a man of absolute integrity and enjoyed universal confidence as an arbitrator. Retired after the passing of the LYR 1882 Act and was succeeded by W Hunt, his chief assistant since 1876. Michael R. Bailey and John Marshall in Chrimes. Marshall.

Metcalfe, Sir Cbarles Herben Theophilus
Born in Simla, India, on 7 September 1853; died Godalming, Surrey, 29 December 1928. Educated Harrow School and University College, Oxford, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Cecil Rhodes. From 1878 to 1881 artided to Sir Charles Fox & Sons. Later engaged as assistant engineer on the Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway and on the Hesketh Marsh reclamation. From 1884-6 resident engineer on the Liverpool, Southport & Preston Junction Railway and in 1886 joint engineer with Sir Douglas Fox for the Liverpool, St Helens & South Lancashire Railway. In  June 1888, as partner in the firm of Sir Douglas Fox & Partners, he became joint engineer with Sir Douglas Fox on the BechuanaIand Railway, his first experience in South Africa where he remained connected until his death. His firm surveyed and supervised the whole of the railway from Kimberley to the Congo as well as the Beira & Mashonaland Railway and they built the great bridge over the Zambezi at the Victoria Falls. It was a result of Metcalfe's business sense that the route of the railway was directed westwards to the Congo instead of northwards to Tanganyika, so gaining enormously in traffic. At the time of his death he was consulting engineer to the Rhodesia Railway, Mashonaland Railway, Beira Railway and others. Marshall..

Meyer, Sebastian William
1856-1946: a comparable figure to Colonel Stephens: involved in East & West Yorkshire Union Railway, the North Sunderland Railway, the Dearne Valley Railway, the Tickhill Light Railway and further similar lines actually constructed and with several proposed lines. A biography by A.L. Barnett (published RCHS) is fulsomely reviewed by "AE" (Alan Earnshaw?) in Backtrack Volume 7 page 166.

Surnames beginning "Mi"

Miller, James (b. 1860)
Born in 1860 at Auchtergaven, Perthshire. Miller trained with local architect Andrew Heiton, then in offices in Edinburgh. In 1888, he became staff architect for the Caledonian Railway Company, designing stations and hotels in the West of Scotland, e.g. Botanic Gardens Station, Glasgow (1894, demolished 1970) and Wemyss Bay Station (1903-4). In 1888, he joined the Caledonian Railway's Drawing Office in Glasgow, where he designed a number of railway stations under the supervision of the engineer-in-chief, George Graham, and his successor Donald Alexander Matheson. In 1892 he set up in full-time practice on his own, renting an office at 223 West George Street, Glasgow; where he continued to do work for the Caledonian Railway, as well as other Scottish railway companies. In 1894 he gained commissions for stations on the West Highland Railway. His work is also evident for the G&SWR at West Kilbride station and in the Turnberry Hotel. In 1896, he designed the exuberant St Enoch Square Underground Station. Winning the competition for the 1901 Kelvingrove Exhibition buildings (1898), he became associated with the sculptor Albert Hodge, employing him on the sculpture and plasterwork for the Industrial Hall. Both their reputations were made and further joint collaborations followed, including Caledonian Chambers, 75-95 Union Street (1901-3), Clydebank Municipal Buildings (1902) and the former North British Locomotive Company, 118 Flemington Street (1903-9). In 1907, Miller was awarded the commission for rebuilding Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Miller designed the palatial interiors for the RMS Lusitania. A remarkable late mansion was constructed for Euan Wallace, sometime Minister of Transport, at Kildonan near Barrhill in Ayrshire: this shows similarities to Castle Drogo in Devon, but is at risk for lack of continuous care. Latterly Miller lived in Stirling, at Randolphfield, and died there on 28 November 1947. See also feature on Wemyss Bay station in Rly Arch., 2009 (24) 19. The Glasgow Art Nouveau style is evident in some of his work. Robert C. McWilliam in Chrimes.

Miller, John (b.1805)
Born in Ayr on 26 July 1805, died in Edinburgh on 8 May 1883. Cut his teeth on Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock & Ayr Railway, especially on the cuttings south of Johnstone (see David Stirling: The honest men and bonnie lasses: the railways of Ayr. Backtrack, 2011, 25, 711-17. Included in the Oxford Companion: biography by Jack Simmons, but not in Marshall. Rutherford (Backtrack, 2004, 18, 688) emphasises his significance in terms of engineering the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway, notably his viaducts across the Almond and Avon valleys, and his contribution to locomotive development through ordering locomotives from R.&W. Hawthorn (a note observes that Miller's name is in the Hawthorn Order Books maintained at the NRM. His firm was involved in the Edinburgh & Berwick and Waverley routes of the North British Railway. Major source: Ruddock and Simpson's extensive biography in Chrimes Sekon (Evolution of the steam locomotive) notes his involvement in the Cowlairs banking engines, but spells his name "Millar". He was also (with Thomas Grainger, who had taken Miller into partnership) engineer of the Ballochmyle Viaduct in Ayrshire (see Gordon Biddle, Britain's historic railway buildings: an Oxford gazetteer of structures and sites. OUP. 2003. 759pp.) Portrait in Rly Mag., 1899, 4, 326 article which shows him in later life.

Miller, John (b.1872)
Born in County Tyrone on 29 February 1872; gained a BSc in Belfast in 1904. Lectured in mathematics at the the Central Technical College of the City & Guilds of London Institute until 1909 when he emigrated to USA and eventually became Chief Engineer of the Long Island Railroad, but in 1916 joined Henry Worth Thornton on the Great Eastern Railway, and became its Chief Civil Engineer in March 1919. In 1925 he became Chief Civil Engineer at York (the LNER did not have a single "chief" civil engineer). At York he encouraged the uptake of modern signalling, introduced the Morris-Bretland Tracklayer, and encouraged the careful maintenance of the railway environment with the removal of rubbish and the use of curbing. Marshall records that he was responsible for improving the York to Northallerton section of the ECML by quadrupling and colour light signalling and for the South Tyne electrication. He died in Woodford Green on 16 May 1942. Mike Chrimes in Chrimes.
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia
See Rutherford: Backtrack, 2001, 15, 228.

Milligan, Robert
Born Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire in 1827; died on 6 July 1876. Pupil of John A Brine, civil engineer, Birkenhead, and was afterwards engaged on roads in Scotland. In 1851 he was appointed second engineer to the projected gas works at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and he prepared surveys of the city. On completion of these works he was employed to survey the Mana Railway, the first in South America, through a most unhealthy district between the Bay of Rio de Janeiro and the base of the great Serra of Petropolis. At the end of 1852 he was sent by the Visconde de Mana to examine the province of Sao Paulo as to the feasibility of connecting the coffee-producing districts of the interior with the port of Santos by railway. He laid out a line from the top of the Serra do Mar to Jundiahy which scarcely differed from that constructed later. In 1853 he was appointed chief engineer and traffic manager of the Mana Railway, then open for public traffic, and to the steam ferries connecting it to the city. In 1868 he was obliged to return home because of failing health. Marshall..

Mills, Charles
Charles Mills, son of William Mills who had been resident engineer of the Strathspey Railway, later worked in Andalusia, engineer and general manager of the Mexican Railways, and from 1876 chief engineer of the Great Norther Railway (Ireland). Charles trained under his father on the GNR(I); then moved to the Highland Railway in 1884 working on the Aviemore line when work for this was postponed he moved to Mexico, moving back to the Highlands to work on Findhorn Viaduct. When completed he moved to the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway in 1898. He retired in about 1903.  Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204.

Mitchell, Joseph
Born in Forres on 3 November 1803. Died London on 26 November 1883 (see ODNB entry by Ronald M. Birse rev. Mike Chrimes and Ted Ruddock in Chrimes: Marshall states "Inverness and is clearly incorrect). Educated at Inverness Academy and learnt practical masonry under Telford building locks for Caledonian Canal. Subsequently one of Telford's pupils. Responsible for roads and bridges in Highlands, and also for the construction of many churches. Engineer to many Scottish railways, and responsible for surveying the original Highland Railway's mainline across the Grampians and constructing the original Highland Railway line to Keith. Worked in partnership with his two assistants William and Murdoch Paterson. Supported the creation of Inverness Public Library. Memoirs published as Reminiscences of my life in the Highlands.See also Anne-Mary Paterson: Reaching Keith. Backtrack, 2008, 22, 468 which includes a portrait. Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia.

Mitchell, Thomas Telford
Born in Inverness ??1815; died Perth 31 Decermber. Youngest son of John Mitchell, engineer and general inspector for Highland roads and bridges, brother of Joseph Mitchell (see above). Served a pupilage under his brother and was later employed by him and James Leslie of Edinburgh. He then became resident engineer for 2 years on the Newtyle & Coupar Railway and resident engineer for eight years on the Slamannan Railway (NBR) under John MacNeill (qv). Next, on the staff of Stephenson, Mackenzie & Brassey, contractors, he had. charge of the Scottish Central Railway tunnel at Perth and of the Scottish Midland Railway from Perth to Forfar. On the death of his brother Alexander in 1848 he succeeded to the Perth business as a civil engr. He constructed the railway from Dunblane to Callander, 13 miles, and on his own account contracted for the construction of several branch lines in Perthshire and about 30 miles of railway in Galloway.

Mocatta, David Alfred
Born in London on 17 February 1806 into distinguished Portuguese Jewish family of bullion dealers. Trained as architect under Sir John Soane. Noted for his stations on the London Brighton & South Coast Railway including that at Brighton and the embellishments to the Ouse Valley Viaduct. He was involved with the design for a grand central London railway terminus to be situated in Farringdon Street. He died on 1 May 1882. Julia Elton in Chrimes. Biddle Victorian stations pp. 68-9.

Molesworth, Guilford
Director General of Railway Department and then from 1871 Consulting Engineer to Indian railways. Narrow gauge activities covered in Ransom's Narrow gauge steam. Also biography. Died on 21 January 1925 aged 96. Was a Knight. (Locomotive Mag., 1925, 31, 64)' Molesworth, E.J. Life of Sir Guilford Molesworth. Spon, 1922.

Moorsom, William Scarth
Marshall notes that he was born near Whitby in 1804 and died in London on 3 June 1863. He was educated at Sandhurst and is usually known by his rank of Captain (Royal Engineers). Whilst a serving officer he was based for a time in Nova Scotia and appears to have been influenced by American ideas: see Tester Modellers Backtrack, 1992, 1, 204: he used flat-bottom rail, for instance. He was closely associated with the London & Birmingham (with Robert Stephenson) and Birmingham & Gloucester Railways. In the case of the latter he was responsible for ordering 4-2-0s from Norris in Philadelphia to work the Lickey Incline. He was engineer of those lines which eventually became part of the Great Western Railway from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury and Chester. Other lines associated with him included the Cromford & High Peak Railway and the lines from Plymouth to Falmouth and Penzance. He contributed a paper in 1840 on the Norris 4-2-0s in Min Proc Instn civ. Engrs. Mike Chrimes provides an Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry. See also LMS Journal (19) 2 (especially Note 3). Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes. Brother Constantine Richard Moorsom.

Morgan, Charles Langbridge
Born in Worcester on 1 January 1855 (Who Was Who). Died at Hove on 9 November 1940 aged 85. He was educated at private schools in Australia and England, He commenced his professional career in 1870 as a pupil of Edward Wilson, and acted as assistant on works for the Great Eastern Railway and Great Western Railway. From 1877 to 1883 he was engaged as chief engineering assistant to E. Wilson & Company, on contracts for railway construction in various parts of Great Britain. During that period he acted as resident engineer on the construction of the Banbury and Cheltenham Railway In 1883 he entered the railway service as assistant to the Chief Engineer of the Great Eastern Railway. In 1896 he became Chief Engineer of the London, Brighton and South Coast Rly and of the Newhaven Harbour Company., which position he held until 1917 when he retired and was elected to the Board of Directors of that railway. He was responsible for many engineering improvements on the system, including the construction of the line from Stoats Nest to Earlswood, which provided a route to Brighton independent of the South Eastern Railway, and the complete reconstruction of the Brighton Company’s side of Victoria station, London.  Hamilton Ellis notes that he was closely involved in the LBSCR option for high voltage overhead electrification. He held the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, R.E. (Railway Staff Corps) and in 1917 was gazetted a Deputy-Director of Railways, visiting Italy and France for the War Office. In 1918 he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and received a Knighthood in the New Year's Honours, 1923. Later he became a member of the Disposals Board, and he was also a Commissioner of the Newhaven and Seaford Sea Defences. On the Grouping of the railways, Sir Charles was elected a Director of the Southern Railway. Obit. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1940, 30, 424-5. In his case Bonavia (A history of the Southern Railway. London: Unwin Hyman. 1987) adds very little, although when viewed with other Board members of the Southern Railway it does add to its peculiar character, His life story was in The Engineer 23 February 1917. Sir Charles was elected an Associate Member of Institution of Civil Engineers on the 9 January, 1883, transferred to Member on 30 April, 1889. He served on the Council from November 1912, became a Vice-President in November 1919, and was President of The Institution in the Session of 1923-24.

Surnames beginning "N"

Newlands, Alexander
Born in Elgin on 11 January 1870 and died in Glasgow on 28 August 1938 (Marshall). He was apprenticed with Gordon & Macbey of Elgin and joined the Highland Railway in 1892. He was associated with many of the later civil engineering works on the Highland Railway including the Kyle of Lochalsh extension. He was appointed Chief Engineer of the Highland Railway in 1914 and was responsible for the dismissal of F.R. Smith, the Locomotive Superintendent. He eventually became the Chief Civil Engineer of the LMS in 1927 until his retirement on 1 July 1933. Books The British railways. London: Longmans 1936 (Ottley 560: reviewed in Locomotive Mag., 1936, 42, 98) and The railway highway (Ottley 214): the former is a monograph on railway economics; the latter an address to the Permanent Way Institution. He was succeeded by Wallace.  (Loco. Mag., 1933, 39, 195). Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia. Chrimes in volume 3.

Nimmo, Alexander
Born in Kirkcaldy in 1783 and died in Dublin on 20 January 1832. Educated at Kirkca1dy Grammar School and St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities. He began a career as a school teacher, but on the recommendation of Telford he was appointed to the parliamentary commission to fix the boundaries of the Scottish counties. Following this he took up surveying and was appointed to survey and report on reclamation of Irish bog land, and then prepared an accurate chart of the coast of Ireland and surveyed and built harbours and piers in over thirty places in Ireland and at Porthcawl. In 1830-2 he prepared surveys for a railway from Liverpool to Leeds and the Humber which was not built, and the Manchester & Bolton Railway. He also acted as consulting engineer for the Mersey & lrwell Navigation; St Helens and Runcorn Gap; Wigan & Preston; and the Birkenhead & Chester Railways. (Marshall).

Norris, Richard Stuart
1812-78 (Brian Reed in Crewe locomotive works and its men. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1982): Norris was born at Bolton and was employed on early GJR surveys by Locke. In 1836 he became chief draughtsman in Locke's Liverpool office, but was considered as on the GJR payroll from December 1833, and thus in length of service the senior of all men associated with Crewe. After the GJR was opened he was appointed resident engineer of the Northern Division, and as such had charge of the erection of early Crewe houses and streets, also of the town and works extensions. In the early 1850s he was made both engineer and superintendent of the Northern Division, with headquarters variously at Warrington and Liverpool. Towards the end of his active career he came somewhat under the strictures of Richard Moon, as did various other old-timers. He retired from railway service in 1862 after the ND-SD locomotive consolidation, and settled near Kenyon Junction, where he died on 26 January 1878. .

Surnames beginning "O"

Ogilvie, Alexander Milne
Born Clocksbriggs, Forfarshire, 15 February 1812; died at Westleton, Suffolk on 15 February 1886. Educated Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh Univiversity. Served a pupilage under Samuel Fowls, engineer to the trustees of the river Weaver and Bridge Master of Cheshire. Here he became acquainted with Thomas Brassey (qv) with whom he became partner. With Brassey and other contractors was engaged on lines forming the GER, chiefly Colchester-Ipswich; ., Ipswich-Bury St Edmunds; Haughley-Norwich; Spdbury-Bury St Edmunds-Cambridge; Epping-Dunmow. Also N Devon R, Portsmouth Direct, and Salisbury-Yeovillines of the LSWR. He also built the LNWR Weaver-Widnes line with its great bridge over the Mersey; and many foreign contracts, chiefly in Argentina. P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin and M. Chrimes in Chrimes. They note the existence of two brothers who also worked on railway projects. Also in Marshall.

Onderdonk, Andrew
Born New York on 30 August 1848, and died Oscawana-on-the-Hudson on  21 June 1905. Engineer and contractor; famous for his work on the CPR in British Columbia. Educated Troy Institute of Technology. Worked on New Jersey Central RR, built roads, and laid out several towns in New Jersey. After building a sea wall at San Frandsco he arrived in Ottawa in 1879 as tenders were being opened for the CPR contracts through British Columbia. Onderdonk's tenders were not successful but with overwhelming finandal backing from bankers he purchased the contracts from the lowest bidders for $215,000. On 22 April 1880 he arrived at Yale, British Columbia, where he made his headquarters and built the difficult 127 miles of line through the Thompson and Fraser canyons from Savona to Port Moody. He was the first to employ Chinese coolies on the CPR. He enforced a high standard of disdpline on his contracts. For rapid ballasting he devised the 'wing plough' which unloaded gravel from a train of flat cars at high speed. He established a nitro-glycerine factory at Yale and rebuilt it after it blew up and nearly wrecked the town. On relays of horses he would inspect up to 100 miles of works in a day, twice a month. In 1882 he built the 250-ton steamer Skuzzy and winched it through the Hell's Gate canyon in September 1882, the only steamer to 'navigate' this section of the Fraser river. It was used to transport materials. By 1885 the line was completed to Port Moody. In 1886, he built the Entre Rios Railway north of Buenos Aires. After this he built 9 miles of drainage tunnels in Chicago, and the Chicago North-western Elevated Railway. Returning to Canada in 1895 he built the Trent Valley and Soulanges Canals, including one of the largest rock cuttings in North America, and the double-track tunnel at Hamilton on the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway, and carried out part of the rebuilding of the Victoria Bridge over the St Lawrence at Montreal in 1898. In 1905 he was general mmanager of the New York Tunnel Co, building a tunnel under the east branch of the Hudson River. Marshall

Outram, Benjamin
Born in Alfreton, Derbyshire on 1 April 1764. Died in London on 22 May 1805. Builder of early railways and tramroads. Son of Joseph Outram (1732-1810) who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin after whom subject was named. Trained as a civil engineer on canals and roads. He became well known for the laying of iron rails for trarnroads and railways. In conjunction with William Jessop, John Wright and Francis Beresford he founded the Butterley Co near Ripley, Derbyshire. Rly Canal Hist. Soc. Bull., 2009 (420, July-August) comments on pronunciation of name and whether it was "oo" or "ow" or even "Art-tram". Author of Minutes to be observed in the construction of railways see Ottley 386. Marshall. ODNB entry by Philip Riden R.B. Schofield: Benjamin Outram. Rowan Patel, The early development of the Outram-pattern plateway 1793–1796. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2018, 326-

Overton, George
Chance discovery in Pratt's History of inland transport and communication; also in Dawn Smith (with erroneous spelt Ottley: see 260 and 7052), and in Skempton. Welsh civil engineer who surveyed tramroads and preliminary work on Stockton & Darlington Railway (or it might have been a canal) in 1818.

Owen, George
Born Tunbridge Wells in 1827 and died in Oswestry on 5 May 1901 aged 74. Engineer of the Cambrian Railways, 1864-98. He began his career in the office of Charles Mickleburgh of Montgomery where he worked with Benjamin Piercy, producing most of the surveys for the Cambrian system. He also introduced David Davies to Thomas Savin as contractors. On leaving Montgomery he began business as an engineer and surveyor in Oswestry, and was appointed resident engineer of the Cambrian Railways under Piercy. He completed the Oswestry & Newtown and the Newtown & Machynlleth lines and fought the parliamentary battles of the Oswestry & Whitchurch line. This involved the crossing of Whixall Moss, a similar challenge to Chat Moss on the LMR. He also completed the Wrexham, Mold & Connah's Quay Railway and was engineer of the Wrexham & Ellesmere Railway. He also prepared plans for the Tanat Valley Light Railway. He retired in 1898. Owen lived in Oswestry and took an active part in local government. P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin in Chrimes.  Marshall. Between 1879 and 1882 he also acted as locomotive superintendent (Reohorn Backtrack, 2016, 30, 469).

Surnames beginning "P"

Pain family
The Culm Valley Railway in 1811 was the brainchild of 27-year old Arthur Cadlick Pain, Simon Pain's (letter to Backtrack, 16, p. 174) great-grandfather. He convinced the Bristol & Exeter Railway and the "great and good" locally to invest on the basis that he could build the over seven-mile railway in twelve months for £22,500. Sadly this proved to be very optimistic and it finally opened in late 1874 at a cost of £47,000. As a result its financial position was doomed and it was finally swallowed up by the GWR in 1880.
Still espousing the light railway philosophy, A.C. continued with railway building and amongst many others he engineered the 3ft gauge Southwold Rallway which opened in 1879 and he remained chairman until its closure in 1929; he had been succeeded by my grandfather Claude as its engineer in 1912.
A.C. is best remembered in railway circles as the engineer for the Axminster & Lyme Regis Light Railway which opened in 1903 where he was ably assisted by two of his sons, Edward and Claude. The 600ft Cannington Viaduct was the first [sic] one early viaduct constructed almost exclusively of concrete. A paper which was read to the Institution of Civil Engineers by Edward in 1904 on its pioneering design and construction.
In later years he concentrated his skills on other public works, notably public water supply, and was chairman of the Mid Wessex (later Mid Southern) Water Company, which he had founded in 1893, until 1935. I have a splendid portrait of him painted at that time which hung in the boardroom for over 60 years. He lived in Frimley, Surrey, being very active in the local community and was also a JP for many years. He was obviously a man of great energy and warmth much loved by all; he finally died aged 93 in 1937.
Arthur C. Pain was engineer of the Axminster & Lyme Regis Railway. He was aided by his sons Edward & Claud. Edward Dury Pain presented Construction of a railway viaduct entirely on the Cannington construction. Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs, 1905. See Backtrack. Michael Messenger Light railwayus before 1896. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2013 (218) 2.

Karau, Paul. Common light railway architecture. Br. Rly J., 1984, 1, 60-3.

Palmer, Sir Frederick
Born Llandovery, Carmarthenshire on 31 January 1862; died Lingfield on 7 April 1934. Apprenticed on the GWR 1877-9 and continued as assistant engineer until November 1883. He was then selected by Alexander Rendel as assistant engineer on the East Indian Railway and in 1889 became resident engineer on the Ghat section. He was personal assistant to the chief engineer, F.E. Robertson, from 1891 until 1893 when he was promoted to district engineer on surveys and construction. Responsible for the construction of the Moghalserai-Gaya line, begun in 1896 and completed in 1900, including the Sone bridge of 96 spans of 100ft, the longest bridge in India. He returned to England on leave and while there was appointed chief engineer to the port of Calcutta. Here he was responsible for many improvements. Returned from India in 1909 to become chief engineer to the new Port of London Authority where he was responsible for the King George V Dock and the new lock, docks and passenger landing stage at Tilbury. The plan was evolved in 4 yrs after which he resigned to enter into partnership with Sir Alexander Rendel while retaining connection with the PLA as consulting engineer. He was connected with the design of the new Hooghly bridge, Calcutta, completed in 1942, and other important works abroad, Marshall: Long entry in Chrimes by R.C.D. Baldwin which notes Palmer's artistic talent.

Palmer, Henry Robinson
Born in 1795. Died in Westminster on 12 September 1844. Founder member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Proposed a partly railway-based route from Limehouse to Dover in 1832 which started at Limehouse, took a ferry to downstream of Woolwich; thence was rail-based from there to Upnor Castle; then went by ferry to Chatham where another railway went on to Canterbury; final progress onto Dover and places in Thanet was to be by road (the same coach was to be used throughout) Jeremy Clarke. Backtrack, 2019, 33, 600. Patented monorail system on 22 November 1821: 4618/1821. Systems at Royal Victualling Yard, Deptford and at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. ODNB entry by Ronald M. Birse revised by Mike Chrimes. Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631). See Grahame Boyes Early Railways [1] 192. Hennessey, R.A.S. One track to the future. Backtrack, 2005, 19, 437-41. Adrian Garner. Monorails of the 19th century.

Parry, Edward
Marshall: born Hendy in Flintshire on 8 November 1844 and died at Leamington on 11 August 1920. Educated at private school in Chester. Began civil engineering career on Midland Railway. Between 1879 and 1889 he was county surveyor for Nottinghamshire. He was responsible for the construction of the Nottingham Suburban Railway and was resident engineer for the Nottingham to Rugby section of the GCR London Extension (Emblin Backtrack, 2008, 22, 110). Most of his works were faced with vitrified blue bricks. Leicester Central station is described in Robert Emblin. Putting on the style. Backtrack, 2012, 26, 534.

Paterson, Murdoch
Born in Inverness in September 1826. Died Culloden Moor on 9 August 1898. Educated at Royal Academy, Inverness. Apprenticed to Joseph Mitchell: worked with him on construction of Highland Railway, including line from Inverness to Keith. After Mitchell's retirement through a stroke in 1862 Paterson worked on the Kyle and Northern lines. Had an elder brother William (1812-1881) who trained under John Macneill and like Murdoch worked with Mitchell. See Marshall and Anne-Mary Paterson (great grand niece): Reaching Keith. Backtrack, 2008, 22, 468 which includes a portrait and later full biography by same Author published by Highland Railway Society (reviewed Archive, 2011 (69), 13) and noted in NBRSGJ and Ted Rudock biography in Chrimes...

Pearson family
The Pearson family culminated in Weetman Pearson's contribution for which he was awarded a peerage in 1910 as Baron Cowdray. Weetman Dickinson Pearson was born on 15 July 1856 at Woodfield House, Shelley, near Huddersfield, eldest son among the eight children of George Pearson (died. 1899 according to ODNB), Railway contracts associated with him began with rhe King's Lynn Docks & Railway, and grew to include the Avila & Salamanca Railway in Spain, the East River tunnels for the Long Island Railroad and the Great Northern & City tube. The firm originated with grandfather Samuel who was a small railway contractor and the firm was founded in Bradford, Yorks. and constructed works for the LYR and Great Northern Railways (Joby). His father owned Brickendonbury near Hertford (the workplace for much of KPJ's working life) and according to Joby was "weak but affable".. On 1 May 1927 Lord Cowdray died in his sleep at his home, Dunecht House, Aberdeenshire, having suffered for some time from heart disease. He was buried at Echt on 3 May. ODNB entry by G. Jones. None of the Pearson family are in Chrimes. Sir Edward Ernest Pearson was born on 10 May 1874 and died 19 Novembewr 1925. He was educated at Rugby and was contractor for Great Northern & City Railway. He lived at Brickendonbury and was responsibe for the final state of the mansion as a private dwelling. The Science Museum holds an archive of the family's construction activities at Wroughton "near" Swindon.

Peniston, William Michael
Born c1815 and died in Pietermaritzburg c1869.  Born in Salsibury and trained under Timothy Bramah. Worked as an Assistant Engineer on teh Bristol & Exeter Railway. Resident Engineer for line from Bristol to Bridgwater and later for Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Railway. Involved in Pernambuco (Recife & Sao Francisco Railway) in Brazil and in railway from Durban to the coalfields in northern Natal. Mike Chrimes and Tony Murray in Chrimes.

Peto, Samuel Morton
Railway, and other major works, builder and contractor. Born in Woking on 4 August 1809. Following an apprenticeship with his uncle as a builder he went into partnership with his cousin Thomas Grissell: a partnership that lasted 16 years. Contracts included that between Hanwell and Langley on the GWR, Foord Viaduct, Folkestone in 1843, most of the London & Blackwall Railway, Curzon Street (Birmingham). He frequently accepted payment in the form of shares in lieu of cash payment. He became involved in many East Anglian lines, including the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway, and acquired Somerleyton Hall as a residence and the harbour at Lowestoft. He became an influential East Anglian figure and became associated with the Gurney banking family. He was Liberal MP for Norwich from 1847 to 1854, but resigned to take Government work in the Crimea. He was involved in many overseas contracts and in the construction of the Crystal Palace. He became an MP for Bristol from 1865-8 and more dangerously became involved in the LCDR which collapsed on 12 July 1866 following the failure of the bankers Overend, Gurney & Co. on 11 May. Peto was declared bankrupt and was forced to apply for the Chiltern Hundreds. He retired from public life and lived in Tunbridge Wells (a sort of pleasant Siberia) and died on 13 November 1889 and is buried at Pembury. See Gray Backtrack, 16, 220. Statue in Norwich station (illustrated) see Backtrack, 2011, 25, 740. See also Joby.
Cox, John G. Samuel Morton Peto (1809-1889): the achievements and failings of a great railway developer. 2008.
Reviewed by Mike Chrimes J Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2009, (204) 57.
Sparkes, Douglas C. Hitting the buffers - Samuel Morton Peto 1809-1899, railway builder extraordinaire. Baptist Historical Society, 200pp, Reviewed by Roger Hennessey in Backtrack, 2014, 28, 446

Phillips, Joseph
Born in London on 8 September 1828. Died in Folkestone on 18 October 1905. Specialist contractor in the erection of ironwork and involved in the erection of Crystal Palace at Sydenham, the Newark Dyke railway bridge and Birmingham New Street, and part of the consortium to construct the Forth Bridge. Biography in Chrimes by Mike Chrimes which mistakenly refers to a son "Peter" whom according to Ottley and Humm was "Philip". Humm, Robert. Not in Ottley —1;: Philip Phillips and the Forth Bridge. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2009, 36, 166-72.

Pole, William
Born on 22 April 1814 in Birmingham; educated at Mr Guy's private school in the city before being apprenticed in 1829 to Charles H. Capper, engineer, an agent for the Horseley Iron Company, where Pole obtained much of his technical education and worked in the drawing office. He moved to London in 1837 and worked as a draughtsman for several engineering firms. Between 1839 and 1843 he taught himself advanced mathematics, as well as a number of European languages. In 1841 at the meeting in Plymouth of the British Association for the Advancement of Science he became interested in the operation of the Cornish pumping engine and published A Treatise on the Cornish Pumping Engine (1844). He presented two related papers to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1843, one on friction losses in beam engines and the other on the density and pressure of steam.
In 1844 Pole became professor of engineering at Elphinstone College in Bombay and set up an engineering course for Indian students, who in 1846 assisted with the survey for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Due to ill health Pole left India in 1847. On return Pole revised the mathematical part of Edwin Clark's book The General Description of the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges (1850) for Robert Stephenson and in 1852 was awarded the Society of Arts silver medal for his calculations on the forces in the crank of a steam engine. In the same year he became assistant to James Meadows Rendel, and worked on railway schemes in India, as well as on projects in Italy and Germany.
After Rendel's death in 1856 Pole became assistant to John Fowler, whom he accompanied to Algeria to survey for the proposed French railways in that colony. In 1858 he opened his own office at 3 Storey's Gate, Westminster.
From 1859 to 1867 Pole was professor of engineering at University College, London. In 1865 he was secretary to the royal commission investigating the principles of railway legislation.
In 1860 he gave lectures to the Royal Engineers at Chatham and in 1865 to the Royal School of Naval Architecture. The latter series was subsequently published as Iron as a Material of Construction in 1877. He was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1840 and a member in 1856. Pole presented nine papers to the Institution on subjects ranging from steam engines to aerial navigation. He also wrote a biography of Sir William Siemens (1888), edited and completed the Life of Sir William Fairbairn, Bart. (1877), contributed five chapters to The Life of Robert Stephenson by J. C. Jeaffreson (1864), and assisted Isambard Kingdom Brunel's son, also Isambard, with the life of his father which was published in 1870. He gave a paper on colour blindness to the Royal Society in 1859, and was elected FRS in 1861 and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1877.
From 1871 until 1883 Pole acted as consulting engineer in England for the Japanese government, designing structures and providing advice about the setting up of the railway system in Japan. He was made a knight commander of the Imperial Japanese Order of the Rising Sun in 1883 in recognition of his work. In 1873 he aided W.H. Barlow with calculations for a bridge across the Forth at Queensferry and in 1880 gave scientific evidence to the court of inquiry concerned with the Tay Bridge disaster. Much of his engineering practice was concerned with water supply to towns and he advised on the schemes for Liverpool and Manchester. He contributed to musical theory publishing The Philosophy of Music in 1879 which was reprinted in 1924 long after his death in London on 30 December 1900. Main source Stanley Smith biography ODNB. Also James Sutherland biography in Chrimes. McKean Battle for the North on his assiance to Bouch in calculations for the Tay Bridge design.

Quartermaine, Sir Allan
Born 9 November 1888; died 17 October 1978. Educated University College, London. Hertfordshire County Council Surveyor’s Department; Tees Side Bridge and Engineering Works; Great Western Railway; WW1: Royal Engineers (Egypt and Palestine, 1915–19); Commanded No 1 Bridging Company, RE, SR, 1925; Director-General, Aircraft Production Factories, 1940; Chief Engineer, Great Western Railway and Western Region, British Railways, 1940–51. Declined top British Railways civil engineering job. President Institution of Civil Engineers, 1951–52; Member Departmental Committee on Coastal Flooding, 1953–54; Member Royal Fine Art Commission, 1954–60. Pearson Man of the rail page 69 stated that he "watched with admiration the capable way he went about his task [recruiting civil engineers] quietly, withot fuss, and with an economy of effort..." and "Of medium height, lea, pale, thin-faced, with a charming, courtly manner, but deccisive when he spoke...".

Surnames beginning "Ra"

Ratter, John
Born in South Shields on 15 May 1908; died 25 December 1985. Educated St Peters School, York and Durham University. Civil engineer with London and North Eastern Railway and London Passenger Transport Board, 1929–39; WW2 served with Royal Engineers, France, Africa and Italy, and in War Office; Deputy Director of Transportation, with rank of Colonel. Various appointments with LNER, LPTB and Railway Executive, 1945–53; Chief Civil Engineer, British Transport Commission, 1953–54; Technical Adviser, BTC, 1954–58; Member: BTC, 1958–62. British Railways Board, 1963–70. President International Union of Railways, 1960–62. Railway Adviser, World Bank, Washington DC, 1970–74. Legion of Merit (USA), 1944; Légion d’Honneur (France), 1963; Order of Merit, German Federal Republic, 1968; Comdr, Order of Leopold II, Belgium, 1969 CBE 1945 (OBE 1944). Who Was Who and British Railways engineering.

Rattray, David Campbell
Born in Dundee in 1858. Educated at High Schools. Apprenticed to Pearse Brothers of Dundee. Became a pupil and then assistant on CR & GSWJR. Studied civil engineering at Glasgow University. Moved to LYR. In 1890 he moved to the MSLR in Manchester and in 1893 became district engineer in charge of that railway west of Penistone. In 1897 he returned to the LYR as assitant to W.B. Worthington and in April 1905 he became Chief Engineer. He retired immediately prior to the Grouping and died in Southport on 11 January 1927. Marshall.

Rendel, Alexander Meadows
Born in Plymouth on 3 April 1829; died 23 January 1918. Educated King’s School, Canterbury; Trinity College, Cambridge (Scholar and Wrangler). Civil engineer, mainly on Indian railways. Began his engineering career under his father, James Meadows Rendel . On the death of his father in 1856 he succeeded him in the business. In 1856 he was appointed engineer to the London Dock Co, and was responsible for the Hermitage Wharf, the Shadwell Basin, and extension of the Victoria Dock, later Royal Albert Dock. In Scotland he was responsible for the Edinburgh Dock and the Albert Dock at Leith and for many years was consultant to the Leith Harbour & Dock Commissioners. He also built docks at Workington, Llanelli and Kirkcaldy and completed the docks at Milford. In 1857 he was appointed consulting engineer to the East India Railway and in 1872 became consulting engineer to the Secretary of State for India. From then on he was responsible for the construction of many thousands of miles of railway and for many important bridges in India, including the Alexandra Bridge over the Chenab; the Lansdowne Bridge over the Indus at Sukkar, a cantilever bridge, regrettably of flawed design, which presented immense problems in erection; the Hardinge Bridge over the Ganges and the Empress Bridge over the Sutlej. He was also consulting engineer for the Uganda, Egyptian Delta Light, and Mexican Railways. In 1912, on the death of his partner F.E. Robertson, Rendel took as partners Frederick Palmer and Seymour B Tritton, his business associates for many years. Marshall and Chrimes in Chrimes (part: under father) and Chrimes. Contemprary notice of Tritton joining consulatance: Loco Mag. 1912, 18, 249.

Rendel, Sir Arthur
Engineer of the great Goktiek Viaduct in Myanmar or Burma with steel supplied by the Pennsylvania Steel Co. Vital statistics still missing.

Rendel, George Wightwick
George Rendel was the second son of James Rendel. He was born in Plymouth on 6 February 1833 and educated at Harrow; then was apprenticed at Armstrong's Elswick Works finishing in his father's office on work on the East Indian Railway. His main contribution was in naval architacture. .See Horne in Backtrack Mike Chrimes in Chrimes.

Rendel, James Meadows
James Meadows Rendel was born in at Thornbury Farm, Drewsteignton in South Devon in 1799 . His father was a supervisor of roads; his uncle was a millwright. He was a surveyor under Telford and an expert in hydraulics. By 1849 he had become London Consultant to the East Indian Railway. Died in Kensington on 21 November 1856. For his contribution to floating bridges see Rendel's floating bridge by Alan Kittridge reviewed in J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 36, 184. See Horne in BackTrack. Mike Chrimes in Chrimes.  Michael R. Lane in ODNB.

Rigby, Joseph Drown
Born c. 1809 in Westminster. Railway contractor who came to prominence through being paid for Swindon station contract by being given the lease for its refreshment rooms. Later worked on London, Brighton & South Coast and Somerset Central Railways and on harbours at Holyhead and Plymouth. Died 1878. P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin in Chrimes.

Surnames beginning "Ro"

Roberts, Donald
Trained under his father (William). He had been resident engineer on the Fort George branch and on the Dornoch Light Railway. Between 1902 and 1908 he worked on the Southern Division of the North Eastern Railway. He then moved to the Central Argentine Railway as chief assistant for new railways. His work included planning the new works at Rosario. In 1911 he moved to Canada before becoming Sir William Arrol & Co.'s agent for the Admiralty. During WW1 he joined the Railway Construction Corps and afterwards worked as a civil engineer for Harland & Wolff, the LNER and the Admiralty. Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204. .

Roberts, William
Engineer-in-Chief Highland Railway from 1898 to 1913. Trained as civil engineer under Peter MacBey of Elgin. In 1870 he was involved in surveying Sutherland & Caithness Railway and was its resident engineer until 1874' He then worked for Hector Mackenzie on the Dumfermline & Inverkeithing Railway, the Eglinton Tunnel, Stobcross Dock and the East India Railway before returning to the Highland. Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204. .

Roberts, William, junior (Billy)
Trained under his father (William). He had been resident engineer on the Wick & Lybster Light Railway. In 1905 he joined the North British Railway where he worked on the Grangemouth Loop and Methil Docks. He moved to Argentina in 1909 working on the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway. During WW1 he served in the Cameron Highlanders and the Railway Construction Corps and afterwards became county surveyor for Sutherland. Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204. .

Robertson, Henry
Born Banff, 16 January 1816; died Pale Hall, Llandderiel, near Bala, Gwynedd, 22.March.1888. Educated in Banff and Aberdeen University. Began career as railway contractor, carrying out contracts at Port Glasgow under Locke. Later he did much to develop the N Wales mineral district In 1842 he was asked to advise on the revival of the Brymbo ironworks. He recommended a railway to the River Dee at Connah's Quay. He projected the North Wales Mineral Railway, Wrexham-Chester with a branch to Brymbo (opened November 1847), afterwards extended to Ruabon and Shrewsbury. Robertson was responsible for carrying out all the GWR extensions in North Wales. He projected and carried out the Shrewsbury-Hereford line, opened 1852-3, and the LNWR Central Wales line from Craven Arms to Llandovery, opened 186H!. About 1850 he became engineer of the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway, then worked in conjunction with the Shrewsbury @ Chester. He also projected and built the branch to Coalbrookdale, Horsehays, and other parts of that district He carried out the Ruabon-Dolgellau line, opened 1861~, and the branch to Bala and Blaenau Ffestiniog, opened 1 November 1882. He designed and carried out the fine viaducts carrying the GWR over the Cefn and Chirk valleys and the Kingsland road bridge over the Severn at Shrewsbury, then one of the largest single-span iron bridges in Britain, of 212ft, built in 1881 by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Co, Darlington, His last major work was the projection and carrying out of the Dee extension and the Wirral Railways to connect with the Wrexham, Mold & Connah's Quay Railway over the Hawarden bridge. As proprietor of the Brymbo Ironworks, in 1883 he transformed it into the largest steelworks in North Wales. He also owned and operated several collieries in North Wales. He was one of the original partners in the Manchester firm of Beyer, Peacock & Co, locomotive builders, and took an active part in its running until his death. He was also partner in the firm of Robertson @ Mackintosh, civil engrs, London. He was chairman of the Llangollen & Corwen Railway, Corwen & Bala Railway, Vale of Llangollen Railway, Minera Lime Co, Broughton & Plas Power Coal Co, Wirral R Co, Brymbo Steel Co, and Brymbo Water Co, and was a dir of the Wrexham, Maid @ Connah's Quay R. As a politician Robertson was Liberal MP for Shrewsbury 1862-5, and from 1874 and 1880. He was JP for Merionethshire and Denbighshire. MIME 1848, MICE 5.6.1849.

Robertson, Vernon Alec Murray
Born Calcutta on 29 December 1890. Died 12 February 1971. Educated Dover College and Crystal Palace School of Practical Engineerng.Who's Who. Joined Engineer's Department of SECR in 1912. After service with LNER became Chief Engineer to London Underground Railways and London Passenger Transport Board. Chief Civil Engineer, Southern Region. Retired in 1951; succeeded by F.E. Campion. Moody in Southern Electric: the History of the World's Largest Suburban Electrified System.

Ross, Alexander
Marshall: born Laggan in County of Inverness on 20 April 1845. Died in London on 3 February 1923. Educated at Aberdeen and at Owen's College, Manchester. Began railway career on GNSR, but moved to LNWR in 1871, thence to the NER in 1873, but returned to the LNWR in 1874. He moved to the LYR in 1884 and became Chief Engineer on the MSLR in 1890 where he was responsible for many of the works on the London Extension (Emblin Backtrack, 2008, 22, 110). Also designed stations on London Extension see Backtrack, 2010, 24, 326. He was Chief Engineer on the GNR between 1896 and 1911 when he became a consulting engineer. Paper: Assimilation of railway practice in respect of loads on bridges up to 200 feet span  presented at Institution of Civil Engineers Conference in 1903. His later works included the Herford Loop and Breydon Water Viaduct. The massive girder viaducts across the Hertford to Stevenage road, and the flyover at Langley Junction are presumably amongst his last remaining works still visible.(KPJ). Chrime in volume 3.

Ross, Alexander Mackenzie
Born in 1805 in Ulladale. Worked on North Midland Railway where he displayed his ingenuity in designing a wrought iron trough to carry the Cromford Canal over the railway (see Rapley J Rly Canal Hist. Soc. 2003, 34, 342). He was also involved in the Chester & Holyhead Railway and the Victoria Bridge on the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada. Chrimes states that controversy surrounding last led to his premature death in August 1862

Ross, James
Born in Cromarty in 1848. Ross became a major railway contractor, and worked with Alexander Hogg on crossing the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Later was involved in the electrification of urban tramways (including in the City of Birmingham) and became an iron and steel magnate. He died in 1913. Sinclair, Neil T. Beyond the Highland Railway. Backtrack, 2010, 10, 204.

Rowlandson, Charles Arthur
Born Kirby Moorside, Yorkshire, 24 January 1846; died Bayswater; London, 2 January 1932. Chief engineer, GCR. Educated Tonbridge School. Became an articled pupil of Humphreys & Tennant, marine engineers, Deptford, London, in 1862 and was made leading draughtsman in 1867. In 1868 he went to Bombay as enginee to the Inland Revenue department and supervised the erection of machinery for printing stamps. Ill health forced his return to Britain. In 1872 he was appointed engineer of large ironstone mines at Liverton, Yorkshire, for Sir Charles Fox & Sons, later Sir Douglas & Francis Fox. He remained there until 1882, spending some of his time inspecting engines, bridges and other railway equipment in the North of England. During 1882-5 he was resident engineer on the Scarborough to Whitby Railway including the viaduct over the Esk at Whitby. In 188S he was appointed resident engineer of the Mersey Railway, later taking charge of the operation of the line. He also acted as resident engineer for the electrical contractors, Thomas Parker & Co of Walverhampton, during construction of the Liverpool Overhead Railway. During construction of the GCR extension to London he was appointed resident engineer on construction of the London end of the line and of the terminus at Marylebone, including some difficult tunnelling work. In 1896 he became chief engineer of the GCR and was responsible for many important works including the GCR/GWR Jt section, widening works, the Doncaster avoiding line, new lines in S Yorkshire and the equipment of Immingham Dock. Retired on 31 December 1911 Marshall.

Surnames beginning "Sa"

Samuel, James
Born in Glasgow on 21 March 1824 and died in Fulham, London on 25 May 1874. Educated Glasgow High School and Glasgow University. Articled to Daniel Mackain at Glasgow waterworks. In January 1846 appointed Resident Engineer to the Eastern Counties Railway. From 1858 on involved in civil engineering projects in Asia Minor, the USA and Mexico. (Marshall) . Advocated light railway vehicles and was involved in this with William Bridges Adams. Employed 2-2-0 locomotives on Morayshire Railway. Involved with John Nicholson in early application of compounding: Woodcroft lists GB 13029/1850 Construction of railways and steam-engines; machinery for the same. 5 April 1850. Hunt et al The standard compounds LMS Locomotive Profile No. 13 questions whether these were true compounds. Author of paper on light locomotives and steam carriages: Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1848, 1. Andrew Dow's The railway p. 134 describes steel sleeper.  See also Locomotive Mag., 1903, 8, 141.

Sargent, Henry
US Patent of 1834 cliamed priority over Palmer's monorail system. Barton, H.H.C. Monorails. J. Instn Loco,. Engrs., 1962, 52, 8-33. Disc.: 34-59.Paper No. 631). Adrian Garner. Monorails of the 19th century.

Scott, James
Born Keighley on 20.October 1846; died Sudbury, Middlesex, 27 November 1903. Between 1862-6 pupil of his father, Thomas Scott, engaged on constructionof the Metropolitan Railway between Euston and Paddington; and MSLR Marple-New Mills-Hayfield line Between1866-8 employed as contractor's engineer on contract No 1 of the MR London extension from the North London Railway to St Pancras goods yard. 1868-73 contractor's engineer on contract No 1 of the MR Settle Carlisle line; 1873-8 on widening LNWR main line from Kings Langley to Bletchley; and on the Clydach-Brynmawr section of the LNWR Abergavenny-Merthyr line. 1878-83 on Weymouth-Abbotsbury Railway and widening CLC at Liverpool. 1883-8 on Baltinglass extension of GS&WR, Ireland, and on the Heanor-Ripley extensionof the MR, also Nottingham Suburban Railway. 1888-95 contractor's agent on MR Dore & Chinley contract No 2 induding Cowburn tunnel, 2 miles 182 yds. 1895-9 contractor's chief agent on GCR London extension contract No 4, RugbyWoodford including Catesby tunnel 1 mile 1,237 yds. From 1899 he was engaged on MR Thackley tunnel and widening between Keighley and Bradford; GCR NortholtNeasden; and MR widening Finchley Road-Welsh Harp. Marshall.

Scott, James Robb
Born in the Gorbals, Glasgow in 1882, illegitimate son of a Glasgow architect. Articled to Leadbetter & Fairley of Edinburgh around 1900. He then joined Belcher & Joass in London before joining the LSWR in 1907 as chief architectural assistant where he was responsible for the Victory Arch at the entrance to the reconstructed Waterloo Station. Chief Architect to the Southern Railway and thus responsible for a wide range of stations from a fairly traditional style at Ramsgate to Art Deco at Wimbledon and on the Chessington branch. Died in 1940. See Mel Holley: Fit for the purpose. Steam Wld, 2008 (249), 4-5.

Scott, [Sir] Walter
Born Abbey Town, Cumbria on 17 August 1826 and died whilst on holiday in Meltone, France, on 8 April 1910. Began work as a mason and by 23 became a contractor on his own account working on railways in North East England, later as Walter Scott & Co. worked on railways in Essex and London (including City & South London Railway). Established publishing works at Felling in County Durham, famous for its editions of standard classics (business acquired in lieu of debt payment for constructing printing factory). Knighted in 1907. John Marshall and John R. Turner's Sir Walter Scott (1826-1910), civil engineering contractor. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1993, 65, 1-19. R.W. Rennison biography (with portrait) in Chrimes.

Skempton, Sir Alec Westley

Stanley, Henry Charles
Born in Edinburgh on 15 August 1840. Died in Brisbane on 22 September 1921. Trained Edinburh University then pupilage with B. and E. Blyth during which time he worked on some Caledonian Railway branches. Emigrated to Australia in 1863 where he worked in Queensland, latterly as Chief Engineer of Queensland Railways.  Chrimes biography in Chrimes (pp. 727-9).

Stannard, Robert
Born in Norfolk and baptised at Newton Flotman on 10 December 1780. Worked with Brassey. Involved in accident with locomotive Northumbrian on Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Died in Southampton on 2 January 1863. Mike Chrimes. 729-30.

Stephenson, John
Marshall notes born in 1794 and died on 8 July 1848 at Rotherham. Civil engineer, friend (but not related to) George Stephenson. Worked on Stockton & Darlinton Railway, Summit Tunnel on Manchester & Leeds Railway, Chorley cutting (including its flying arches). Member of the firm Stephenson, Mackenzie & Brassey.

Stephenson, Robert  (Civil Engineer)

Stevenson, Francis
Born in Scotland on 27 August 1827 and died in London on 1 February 1902. Marshall. Educated Edinburgh Academy. Aged thirteen he was articled to R.B. Dockray, then engineer on the London & Birmingham Railway and in 1843 became member of engineering staff. Engaged on construction of Northampton-Peterborough line, opened 1845, also resident engineer on Coventry-Nuneaton Railway, completed 1850. Later transferred to Euston. In 1855 became assistant to William Baker whom he succeeded as chief engineer in charge of all new works and parliamentary business in l879. His extensive knowledge of the history of the LNWR induced the directors to appoint him in 1886 to take charge of the maintenance of the whole system. He was a lover of nature and of old buildings and always strove to blend his works into the landscape. Became MICE 5.2.1867. Responsible for second Stockport Viaduct (not widened as stated elsewhere): see Wells Backtrack, 2019, 33, 372 who states Francis Thompson). Succeeded by Thornhill..

Stevenson, Robert
Born Glasgow 8 June 1772: died Eninburgh 12 July 1850. Famous civil engineer, and contributor to early railway schemes. Probably responsible for the encouragement in the use of wroughr iron (then known as malleable iron) for rails and tram plates. Grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, See Marshall and Miles Macnair's William James..

Stileman, Francis Croughton
Christened in Winchelsea on 4 April 1824 (previous date in Marshall. of  l5 May 1824 is incorrect Michael R, Bailey in Chrimes) and died in London on 18 May 1889. Articled to J.R. McClean when according to paper by Stileman he, himself,  set out the first section of the Furness Railway from Barrow to Dalston and Kirkby which opened in June 1846. This important detail is missing in Marshall. fuller short biography by Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes.  Having worked as Resident Engineer on the South Staffordshire Railway. On the retirement of McClean in 1868 he became chief engineer of the Furness Railway and its associated docks.

Strapp, John
Resident Engineer London & South Western Railway: Mortimer in Colburn's Locomotive Engineering and the Mechanism of Railways and Dawn Smith in The Biographical Dictionary of Britain’s Railway Personalities, Organisations & Events, 1597 - 1923: excluding Ireland, Isle of Man & Channel Islands. Glebe Publications, Peterlee., who states that appointed Chief Engineer in 1853, but dismissed for not detecting fraud in 1870.

Sylvester, Charles
Author of a report to the Liverpool & Manchester Railroad Committee in 1824 following a visit to Hetton Colliery to obseve locomotives at work. He observed runs hauling 16 wagons of 1½ miles at 4½ mile/h and at 5¾ mile/h. Unfortunately, he also came up with a theory that gradients steeper than about 1:360 were excessive for steam traction. This greatly increased the cost of the L&BR. See Backtrack, 9, 436 and Sylvester, Charles in Report on Rail-roads and Locomotive Engines Addressed to the Chairman of the Liverpool & Manchester Projected Rail-Road. Liverpool, 1825. 39pp. Ottley 262

Surnames beginning "T"

Tancred, Sir Thomas Selby
Born in Ireland on 1 October 1840. Family emigrated to New Zealand in 1851. Went to Christ's College in Christchurch and then trained under George Hemans, following which he returned to New Zealand.in 1870 to take up farming, but retained an interest in civil engineering. He reported on bridges across the Ophi, Temuka, Waitaki and Rangitata Rivers. In 1872 he was briefly PWD engineer in Canterbury. He was one of three contractors on the Forth Bridge: the other being Joseph Phillips and William Arrol (for this  see also Charles McKean Battle for the North). His work covered other British and Irish railways and extended to the USA and Mexico.. It included the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton; the Tralee & Fenit; Waterford. Dungarvon & Kerry; Tehuantepec; Wite Pass & Yukon and the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient railways. He died on 11 April 1910. Chrimes in volume 3.

Tarver
Appointed engineer of Metropolitan District Railway: formerly with Cleveland Bridge: See Locomotive Mag., 1906, 12, 110.

Telford, Thomas

Tempest, Percy Crosland
Born in Leeds on 24 February 1860. Educated Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. Chief Engineer of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway. On retirement of Sir Francis Dent in 1920 became General Manager and was initially joint General Manager of the Southern Railway with Sir Herbert Walker, but retired from 1 January 1924.. Formerly Permanent Way Engineer of the South Eastern Railway. Born in Yorkshire. Trained on LNWR. Ardent advocate of Channel Tunnel (Engineer to Channel Tunnel Co. from 1916). Knighted in 1923.. Died on 2 November 1924. Marshall. Bonavia History of the Southern Railway.. Charing Cross to Bagdad has a contribution from him. See also Chrimes for concise biography by Mike Chrimes

Thom, Riach
Reverent gentleman from Kilmarnock: model of Marvo railway (top-supported monorail) built:in 1904. Information from Hennessey, R.A.S. One track to the future. Backtrack, 2005, 19, 437-41; and references therein

Thompson, Francis
Born at Woodbridge in Suffolk on 25 July 1808. Francis Thompson was the architect of stations on the North Midland and Chester & Holhead Railways, including the noteworthy Chester Station and the masonry for the Conway Tubular Bridge. He was also architect for several significant structures in Canada. He died on 23 April 1895 back at Woodbridge. Daunt Backtrack, 2012, 26, 317 states that was grandfather of Edward Thompson, CME, LNER. See O. Carter: Francis Thompson. Backtrack, 1995, 9, 213. See also biography by John Rapley in Chrimes pp. 775-7. Biddle Victorian stations..

Thomson, Peter
Born at Forgue, near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, c1815; died in Liverpool on 13 May 1876. Railway contractor. Son of a builder. At age 22 he joined his elder brother George, by then a noted railway contractor, and later became a partner. He also joined the firm of Rennie, Logan & Co of Newport, Monmouthshlre. In 1847-9 he went to Heywood, near Rochdale, and had charge of construction of part of the Liverpool & Bury Railway and of the extension of the LYR Oldham branch. In 1849 he returned to Liverpool where he made his headquarters. He worked on the Tlthebarn Street extension and station of the LYR at Liverpool; part of the Liverpool-Southport line and the North Docks branch; and LNWR works at Liverpool. Other works induded the Leeds, Bradford & Halifax Junction Railway (GNR); LNWR and MR works in Leeds, 1848-9; the MR between Whitacre and Nuneaton; Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway; part of the South Wales Railway between Newport and Swansea; docks at Newport and Penarth; at Liverpool again the LNWR Edgehill-Bootle line and Canada Dock branches; LYR North Mersey branch; LNWR Huyton-St Helens; most of the MR Chesterfield-Sheffield line; Leeds new station and its connection to the NER; part of the MR (Leeds & Bradford R) Shipley-Bingley; part of the MR through Darley Dale and Rowsley-Buxton with difficult engineeering works through the Wye valley. With his brother he became proprietor of the ironworks at Normamon. After the death of George Thomson at Cheltenham in 1867 he had to carry the whole of the responsibility for the works. His great practical knowledge led to his being frequently consulted by principal engineers. On his retirement he became a director of the LYR. In Novemeber 1875 he was appointed chief magistrate of Liverpool; he was also a JP for Lancashire Marshall.. Gordon Biddle Victorian stations. pp. 50-6.

Thornhill, Edward Bayliss
He had joined the LNWR in 1862 and became chief civil engineer on the death of Francis Stevenson. He retired in 1909 being succeeded by Ernest Trench. Malcom Reed.

Thornton, James
Born in 1798? at Cowick, Yorkshire, and died at Cheshunt in 1880. Described on census returns as a 'railway contractor' or 'public works contractor'. He was living with his family at Eastwick in 1841 when the Northern & Eastern Railway reached Harlow on 9 August and Bishop's Stortford on 16 May 1842. Thus it is highly probable that he was a contractor on this line. His wife came from Norfolk and their children were born in Denver (Norfolk), Oldham, the Wakefield area and Harlow where James rented a substantial house in what is now Old Harlow.

Tite, [Sir] William
Born in City of London on 7 February 1798. Articled to architect David Laing and then set his own practice in 1824. Died in Torquay on 20 April 1873. The Royal Exchange in London was probably his most significant work. Many important railway stations, notably for London & Southampton Railway and Lancaster & Carlisle Railway. See Biddle, Gordon Sir William Tite and railways. Part 1. Backtrack, 2008, 22, 530-6. and Part 2 Backtrack, 2008, 22, 630-5. Biddle also contributed the Tite entry in Chrimes and Tite's own section in Victorial Stations pp. 62-7. ODNB biography by S.P. Parissien.

Tolmé, Julian Horn
Born in Havana, Cuba on 28 January.1836; died Lindfield, Sussex on 25 December1878. Civil engrineer artided to Locke and Errington 1855-60 being employed largely under the latter, then chief engineer, LSWR. On the death of Errington in 1862 he joined W.R. Galbraith, one of the partners, to continue the work of the firm. Galbraith was appointed engineer of the LSWR and Tolmé was left to carry on the firm. The partnership was dissolved in 1869. Among works carried out by Tolmé were the Thames Valley Railway (Strawberry Hill-Shepperton) ; Mid Hants Railway (Winchester-Alton); Garstang & Knott End Railway; completion of the Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway; Harborne Railway, Birmingham; Wigtownshire Railway; and, in conjunction with A.S. Hamand, was engineer for Birmingham District Tramways; Halesowen Railway, and Whitby, Redcar & Middlesbrough Union Railway (See Williams. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2014 (219) 32.). With F.S. Gilbert he was engineer of the Metropolitan District Extension to Hammersmith. One of his last works was laying out the Devil's Dyke branch near Brighton. Marshall...

Tomlinson, Joseph
Born in Rushington, Lincolnshire on 22 June 1816. Died Cedar Rapids, Iowa on 10 May 1905. Chrimes pp. 783-4. See also Joseph Tomlinson, born 1823: locomotive engineer.

Train, John Cumberland [Sir] Landale
Born 10 November 1888. Died 30 December 1969. Educated Dulwich College. Served apprenticeship on North British Railway from 1908. Served as Sapper in WW1. Joined GNR in 1919. Who Was Who. Formerly Chief Engineer (Southern Area) of the LNER, but from 1942 Chief Engineer LNER and following Nationalization became Railway Executive member for Civil Engineering (Hughes LNER). Unlike Riddles he transferred his expertise to the British Transport Commission: Bonavia wrote in A history of the Southern Railway. London: Unwin Hyman. 1987.: Civil engineering was placed under JC.L. (Sir Landale) Train, who had been Chief Engineer of the LNER. Train was a tall craggy Scot who could look very distinguished in full Highland dress on festive occasions. He could be abrupt, though rather less taciturn than B-W, but anyone who took him for just a rough-neck engineer would have been sadly mistaken. Despite the furious opposition of the Divisional General Managers of the LNER, he had managed to bring all civil engineering on that line under his control instead of being decentralised under the DGM. He was, in short, a skilful politician and adept at surviving crises. Almost alone among the Executive Members he insisted on frequent inspections, usually by officer's saloon, and cultivated good relations with the BTC and also the Chief Regional Officers whom most of his colleagues tended to by-pass wherever possible. This served him in good stead eventually, leading to his becoming a Member of the British Transport Commission on the abolition of the Railway Executive, while some of his less politically adept colleagues suffered downgrading to chief officer status or were retired earlier than was absolutely necessary. Oddly enough, Missenden took – it was said – a dislike to him. Certainly at Executive meetings, while the Chairman would address the others as 'David' or 'Robin', the Civil Engineering Member was always 'Mr Train'". He  was at the breakthrough of the New Woodhead Tunnel (Glossop Chronicle & Advertiser 25 May 1951). He chaired the B.R. Productivity Council: see Locomotive Mag., 1955, 61, 133.
Papers
Permanent way and signalling in Railway Executive. Unification of British Railways: administrative principles and practice. London: Modern Transport. 1951.
Organization in relation to engineering output and efficiency on the London and North Eastern Railway. Instn Civ. Engrs., 1944, 2, (Railway Engineering Division)
Report of paper on the Modernisation Plan to the Lonon Lecture and Debating Society (Western Region) in Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1955, 61, 185.
Patent
342,890 Improvements relating to cant gauges for railways. Applied 30 January 1930. Published 12 February 1931.
Contribution to Other's paper
Cox, E.S. of locomotive reciprocating parts. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1943, 33, 221-2. (Paper No. 432)
A class 5 locomotive was deliberately slipped on greased rails at a speed equivalent to 100 mile/h to establish the effect of coupled wheel lifting at speed. This paper was also published in Proc. Instn mech. Engrs, 1941, 146 148-62 and J. Instn civ. Engrs, 1941/42, 17, 221-50. J.C.L. Train (221-2) commented at length on his concern about the effect of high speed trains, but had accepted Gresley's reassurances. He considered that the steam locomotive was at a disadvantage compared with other forms of motive power due to their reciprocating parts. Advocated multiple cylinders to lessen risk..:

Trench, Ernest Frederic Crosbie
Born Ardfert Abbey, Kerry (Ireland) on 6 August 1869. He was educated at Monkton Coombe School, Bath, and in Lausanne, Switzerland. From 1888-92 he studied at the Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin; and in 1893 became pupil of E.B. Thornhill, then Chief Engineer LNWR and eventually succeeded Thornhill from 1 October 1909. In the time under Thornhill he worked on the Spen Valley line between Huddersfield and Leeds, first as a pupil, then as assistant engineer. In 1899 he was appointed assistant resident engineer on the Midland Railway and supervised several important widening works including the Alfreton second tunnel on which he read a paper to the ICE in 1895. In January 1903 he was appointed chief engineer on the North London Railway on which he carried out extension works. In March.1906 he returned to the LNWR, first as assistant engineer succeeding Thornhill in 1909. He remained in this position until the grouping on when he became chief engineer, LMS. His obstructiveness towards designs for a range of standard locomotives soon after grouping contributed towards the resignation of George Hughes and the transfer of LMS locomotive design from Horwich to Derby. From 1 February 1927 he adopted the position of consulting engr, LMS, until he retired on 31 March 1930. His last public act was the unveiling of the centenary plaque on Robert Stephenson's Menai bridge on 3 November 1950. Died 15 September 1960. Marshall.

Trench, Louis
Born in Ireland in 1846; died Ealing, London, 25 January 1940. Sometime chief engineer of the GWR; later engineer on LNWR. Cousin of E.F.C. Trench (above). After graduating from Cambridge he served as a pupil of James Barton, an engineer in private practice in Ireland, and was engaged on the construction of the Dundalk, Newry & Greenore R. When this was taken over by the LNWR Trench went to England and worked for the LNWR on several important works. Became a divisional engineer in charge of maintenance of the South Wales division and later of the Birmingham division. In February 1891 he was appointed chief engineer of the GWR and was involved with the final abolition of the broad gauge without interruption of traffic. A disagreement led to his resignation in October 1892 and return to the LNWR. In 1894 he supervised construction of the Spen Valley line between Huddersfield and Leeds with his cousin E.F.C. Trench as assistant. Later he went to Euston, London, as assistant for new works to E.B. Thornhill. When Thornhill retired in September.1909 he was 63 and too near retirement for appointment as chief engineer, so his cousin, 23 years junior, was appointed. He assisted his cousin for 2 years until retirement in 1911. He was a strong, upright man, with an imcompromising outlook and no patience with fools. But he gained the confidence, esteem and affection of many. Marshall..

Trubshaw, Charles
Charles Trubshaw came from an architecural family. He was born in 1841, the son of an architect, who was also called Charles and was educated by him His father was the architect and surveyor to the County of Stafford. He became an ARIBA in 1865 and worked for the LNWR until in 1874 when he became the Architect of the Northern Division of the MR. Both Hellifield and Skipton stations were designed by him. The magnificent Midland Hotel in Manchester followed a visit to the USA with William Towle the Midland Railway Hotels' Manager. According to Biddle Britain's historical railway buildings Trubshaw was responsible for architecture on the whole of the MR between 1884 and 1910. The latter is contrary to Dixey who stated that he retired in 1906.  The hotel and station at Bradford Forster Square were also his work. Leicester London Road Station is probably his best survivng work (see Jenkins). He died in Derby on 15 February 1917. Charles Trubshaw: a Victorian railway architect. S. John Dixey. Bedside Backtrack, 65-8.

Trubshaw, James
Born in Colwich, Staffordshire on 13 February 1777; died 1853. He was engineer to the Trent & Mersey Canal and built the Grosvenor Bridge in Chester. He worked with Locke being responsible for 14 miles of the Birmingham Grand Junction Railway (from Stafford to Whitmore: see Fell Backtrack, 2017, 31, 208), and surveyed and constructed the Shipton on Stour branch. See paper by Woodward in Trans Newcomen Soc., 2000, 72, 77.

Turner, Frederick Thomas
Born Hereford on 4 August 1812; died London 21 August 1877 (Marshall). Articled to John Fawcetts, became assistant to J.U. Rastrick. Latterly Civil Engineer of LCDR.

Surnames beginning "U"

Underwood, John
Born in Oldswinford, Stourbridge in January 1814; died Nottingham 15 August 1893. Began with J.U. Rastrick preparing plans and sections for part of the London-Brighton Railway and later becoming resident engineer for the section including Merstham tunnel. In 1845 Rastrick, then too busy, handed over to Underwood the completion of the Nottingham & GranthanI R, opened 15 July1850, the only section built under the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston & Eastern Junction Railway Act. Nearly 25 years later Underwood was to build the Ambergate-Codnor Park line of the MR, opened 1 May 1875, along almost exactly the same course as the original Ambergate line. Underwood took into parrnership Andrew Johnston, and for several years they practised as engineers in Nottingham. On his appointment as chief engineer of the MR in 1858 J.S. Crossley induced Underwood to join his staff. At this time the Midland was extending in many directions and he was kept busy. Under Crossley he carried out Mansfield-Worksop, Cudworth-Barnsley including the large iron viaduct near Hamsley, Chesterfield-Sheffield, Mangotsfield-Bath, and branches in Derbyshire and the West Riding. The greatest project was the Settle & Carlisle line, begun in 1869 and opened in 1876. Following Crossley's retirement in 1875 Underwood was appointed engineer in charge of new construction, working on the lines: Nottingham-Melton Mowbray, Skipton-Ilkley, the new approach into Birmingham from the west, which placed Birmingham station on the route from Derby to Bristol. He also carried out construction of several MR lines around Manchester and Liverpool and he was responsible for works in london such as Poplar Dock and its rail connections, the depots in Whitecross Street, the vast extension of Somers Town goods station on Euston Road and at St Pancras where he covered an area of about 10 acres with iron girders on columns to support one goods yard above another, using 20,000 tons of iron. He retired in 1889 because of failing sight. He was a man of genial and unassuming manners and was highly regarded by all his staff. His work was always thorough; he detested 'cheese-paring' designs often carried out by engineers on speculative lines. Underwood was one of the few important engineers who never became MICE. When often asked to do so he replied 'I did not in my early days and now I am too old'. This does not preclude a full listing of his works in Chrimes (entry by John Gough). Based on Marshall

Valentine, John Sutherland
Born in Hartshorne, Derbyshire on 22 September 1813. Worked for Raistrick on surveys for railways from Birmingham to London and Liverpool, but later moved to King's Lynn where he was engineer on several railways and was involved in a laminated timber bowstring arch bridge over the River Ouse. He was involved in railway construction in Portugal, but returned to Norfolk mainly to work on sluices in the Fens and coastal defences on The Wash. He died in Hythe, Kent on 24 March 1898. P.S.M. Cross-Rudkin in Chrimes. [noted in Dawn Smith].

Vignoles, Charles Blacker
Vignoles was born on 31 May 1793 at Woodbrook in County Wexford into a Huguenot family. His diaries are preserved in The British Library and he has been the subject of two biographies by members of his family (the earlier one by his son. Also John Vignoles in Chrimes. In 1814 he was commissioned into the 1st Royals and served in Holland, Canada and within the UK. He made his mark in surveying in Holland, and following his departure from the Services he produced a survey of Florida which was published in 1823, the year he returned to England, leaving his financial affairs in America in a mess (he both owed, and was owed, money). He worked for the Rennie brothers and surveyed the L&MR where he came into dispute with George Stephenson. Nevertheless, this did not prevent him from becoming a M.I.C.E. in April 1827. He invented a device to enable trains to climb steep gradients and was involved in engineering the Midland Counties Railway, the Manchester, Ashton-under-Lyme and Sheffield Railway and many lines in the period of the railway mania. He did a considerable amount of work overseas including in Russia. He became the first Professor of Civil Engineering at University College, London in 1841 and was elected as an FRS in 1855. He proposed a trunk route to the Llyn Peninsular to shorten the crossings to Ireland and America. John Bushby letter Backtrack, 2022, 36, 125. He made, or attempted to make, several observations of solar eclipses. He died, following a stroke, at Hythe, Hampshire on 17 November 1875. John Vignoles biography in Chrimes
Short biography by Anthony Hall-Patch. Backtrack, 1995, 9, 445.  John Marshall. ODNB entry by K.R. Fairclough. K.H. Vignoles. 'It would never have been a rail way'. Rly Wld., 1980, 41, 235.

Vignoles, Henry
Born in Isle of Man on 16 November 1827: third son of above. Educated at Repton School and Manchester Grammar School. He accompanied his father to Russia where he worked with his father and brother Hutton on the Kiev (Kieff) suspension bridge across the River Dneiper. On its competion the brother were appointed co-resident engineers on tyhe Frankfurt, Wiesbaden & Cologne Railway and in 1854 Henry became Chief Resident Engineer on the Weswtern Railway of Switzerland. This included wwrought iron trellis bridges. In 1858 he became the Chief Resident Engineer on Bilbao and Tudela Railway. His last work was on the Isle of Man on the railways from Douglas to Peel and to Port Erin. Died in London on 16 June 1899 Instn Civil Engineers obituary. Family not in Chrimes. Patent tramway rail: GB438 3 February 1879. Dow The railway

Surnames beginning "W"

Waddell family
Edinburgh family of civil; engineering contractors. Mainly associated with Mersey railway tunnel, but also worked on railways in East Anglia and in Scotland. Also assocaited with coal mining in South Wales, notably the Great Moutain mine on the Llanelly & Mynydd Mawr Railwaay. See Joby and for the motive power which was supplied until absorbed by the GWR under the Grouping: RCTS Locomotives of the Great Western Railway Part 10  there was even an 0-6-0ST named John Waddell.
John Waddell was born at The Gain farm near Airdie on 31 August 1828. which notes that he was a Scottish-born railway contractor based in Edinburgh. He ran the enterprising and respected firm John Waddell & Sons and went on to complete many routes during the rise of the railways across England during the late 19th century, especially for the NER. Notable examples of his work include the rebuilding of Putney Bridge in London (1882), the Scarborough & Whitby Railway, completion of the Whitby Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway and the Mersey Railway tunnel. On 17 February 1883 an agreement was reached with John Waddell to construct a tunnel under the River Thames between Tilbury and Gravesend, work which would have carried trains through to Dover for a potential Channel tunnel, although that proposal was eventually dropped. He died at his home, 4 Belford Park, Edinburgh on 17 January 1888, aged 60. He left three sons – George, Robert and John, who carried on his business after his death. Ted Ruddock in Chrimes. John Marshall. George Waddell was involved with moves to electrify the Mersey Railway: see A. Jarvis., Rly Wld, 1986, 47, 211.

Walker, James Scott
Born Falkirk on 28 October 1781. Died in Westminster, London on 8 October 1862, but was buried in Edinburgh. Civil engineer: work on docks, bridges and lighthouses. Denis Smith in his ODNB biography succinctly states that: "His connection with railways was brief but significant. In 1829 he was, with J. U. Rastrick, an adjudicator at the Rainhill locomotive trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. In the same year he reported on a railway route from Leeds to Selby, and in 1834 was engaged to extend the railway from Selby to Hull. Both lines were constructed under his supervision. The Hull and Selby directors described Walker as ‘at once prompt and decided, and at the same time, prudent and cautious’" Second President Institution of Civil Engineers. Reported to the Dukes of Buccleuch and Burlington on railway developemt in Furness: David Joy. Two dukes and a lord. Backtrack, 2018, 32, 292. Anthony Dawson. Rocket, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and 'public relations' Backtrack, 2021. 35, 406
See Captain Edgar Smith's observations about James Walker: Trans. Newcomen Soc., .9, 92. Marshall. who is incorrect on death date
Smith, Denis. James Walker (1781-1862): Civil Engineer. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1997, 69, 23. and same author in Chrimes
West Usk Lighthouse. Archive, 2015 (87), 55 lower

Walker, Thomas Andrew
Civil engineering contractor born 15 October 1828 at Kerrymore, Brewood, Staffordshire. In 1845, after a short course in applied science at King's College, London, he began his professional career by undertaking work on parliamentary surveys. Walker became one of the most important civil engineering contractors of the nineteenth century, demonstrating exceptional management abilities in undertaking some of the largest contracts of his day. In 1847 he was employed by Thomas Brassey on the North Staffordshire Railway and remained with him until 1854 working on the Royston and Hitchin, and Newcastle and Ashbourne, railways, and for the last two years on the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Walker returned to England in 1861. Then, as assistant to P. Pritchard Baly, in 1863 he made a survey for the Oryol and Vitebsk Railway in Russia. During 1864–5 he made extensive railway surveys for Charles Manby in Egypt and the Sudan. He returned to England in 1865 and managed the contracts for the Metropolitan Railway extension and the construction of the Metropolitan District line. He undertook these works, from Edgware Road to the Mansion House, jointly with Peto and Betts, Kelk, and Waring Brothers, completing the work by 1 July 1871. As Joby makes very clear, one major contribution was the completion of the Severn Tunnel. He had undertaken the extension of the East London Railway from the north end of the Thames Tunnel to its junction with the Great Eastern line at Shoreditch. This work involved tunnelling under the London docks and was completed in 1876. The engineer for the East London line, Sir John Hawkshaw, was so impressed with Walker's work that he entrusted him with the construction of the Severn railway tunnel. Walker's last undertaking was his greatest work. In June 1887 he obtained the contract for the whole works of the Manchester Ship Canal, at £5.75 million, but he died before its completion. Walker died, of Bright's disease, at his home, Mount Balan, in Caer-went, Monmouthshire, on 25 November 1889. He is buried at St Stephen's Church, Caer-went. Mostly from Denis Smith's ODNB biography: presumably in Chrimes. Covick, Owen. R.W. Perks and the Barry Railway Company, Part 1: to early-1887. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2008, 36, 71-83.

Wallace, William Kelly
Born 2 August 1883 in Belfast; died 23 May 1969. Irishman from Ulster . Educated under a private tutor then pupil of Berkeley Deane Wise. Worked for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway from 1904 which by then had been absorbed by the Midland Railway: he became Chief Engineer in 1924 by which tiem it was part of the LMS. He was associated with the use of reinforced prercast concrete in platforms, buildings and in bridges. The Horseshoe Bridge at Carrickfergus was thee first reinforced concrete flat slab bridge in the United Kingdom. The Greenisland Loop line included the largest  reinforced concrete viaduct in Britain. In 1930 he was moved to London to become  Chief Stores Superintendent of the LMS (Locomotive Mag., 1930, 36, 291) and from 1933 became Chief Civil Engineer. in succession to Newlands. He was an advocate of soil mechanics as an engineering discipline becoming a member of the Institution oc Civil Engineers' Sub-committee on Soil Pressure in 1938 which was to lead to the British National Committee of the International Society of Soil Mecanics and Foundation Engineering in 1949. See Mike Chrimes and M.H. Gould in Chrimes volume 3. Martin Stuart Smith LMS Journal, (13), 60. Pearson Man of the rail noted his strong sense of dry humour and that he was tall with heavy brows on a sharp face that was constantly wrinkled by his impish humour. President Institution of Civil Engineers 1955/6. Locomotive Mag., 1955, 61, 178.

Wallace, W.K. Modern British railway practice. Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1927, 33, 369-72.
Abstract of an address presented to the Belfast Association of Engineers, by the NCC's Chief Engineer. Much of the paper is concerned with British, as distinct from Irish, development, but the unique character of Irish railways is never far from the sentiments expressed by the author; and there are some snippits of information otherwise difficult to locate, such as the Ross pap saftey valve being manufactured in the NCC Workshops in Belfast. Also notes that no further 0-6-0n type would be added to NCC locomotive stock..
Presidential Address to Institution of Civil Engineers in 1955. ICE Proceedings, Volume 5, Issue 1, 10 –22 ,

Warren, James
Born London 23 November 1802 and died London 23 April 1870. Inventor and patentee of Warren truss bridge. Third son and fouth child of Daniel Warren and Happy Ingate of Welling, Bexley, Kent Inventor of the Warren truss much used in bridges in Britain and abroad during the mid 19th century. Primarily Warren was a merchant engaged with his brother, Captain Daniel Warren (born 29 April 1798; died following an accident at Waterloo station, London, on 27 January 1877) in the East India trade. Warren's first patent, 9042/1841 (4 August 1841), was for cast metal screws. Though not trained in engineering Warren became interested in developing an iron truss for bridges, particularly for railways. The principle of using diagonal bracing dates back to Roman times. The use of the name 'truss' dates back to 1654. The first application of a simple triangular frame in iron to form a bridge is attributed to Alfred Henry Neville in 1837. He obtained two French patents for trusses in 1838 and he died in 1861. Warren adapted the prindple of triangles with the apexes downwards joined by w-i ties in tension, and bases at the top joined together to form a compression member, sometimes using cast iron, the whole forming a girder which could carry a deck at the bottom or top or both. On 15 August 1848, in conjunction with Willoughby Theobald Monzani of Bermondsey, who probably helped to pay for the patent, an application was made and it was enrolled on 15 February 1849 (12,242) and became known as the Warren truss. Its first major application on a railway was to carry the GNR main line over a branch of the Trent at Newark. There were two skew spans, one for each, line, 277ft long (257ft between centres of bearings) 15ft 2in wide and 16ft deep. Full details are given in a paper by Joseph Cubitt, then GNR chief engineer, in Min. Proc. Instn civ. Engrs., 1853, 12, 601-7. The design is attributed to Charles Wild. On 27 May 1851 the contract for erection was awarded to Fox, Henderson & Co (see Charles Fox)  and it was brought into use on 15 July 1852. The upper chords of each span consisted of c-i tubes 13½in diameter at the ends and 18in in the centre. This greatly increased the weight of the girders. Signs of weakness from wear of joints began to appear about 1879 and, after further deterioration, in 188&-9 the original warren girders were replaced by steel spans under Richard Johnson, chief engineer, and were brought into use on 29 January 1890. The second important use of the Warren truss was in the Crumlin Viaduct on the Taff Vale extension of the Vale of Neath line in South Wales, under Charles  Liddell , chief engineer. It was designed and erected by T.W. Kennard (under R W Kennard). It had ten Warren truss spans, and had a maximum height of about 200 feet. See Evans, Backtrack, 2009, 23, 204. It has been dismantled, but Warren truss structures probably remain in India. See also T.M. Charlton's A history of the theory of structures,
Patents
9042/1841 Machine for making cast-iron screws (Practical Mechanics J., 1841, 230)
11363/1846 Manufacture of cast screws
12242/1848 Construction of bridges (with Monzani)
13760/1851 Improvements to railways and railway carriages
14298/1852 Manufacture of screws, construction of bridges, floorings, etc.
1223/1853 Improvements in the manufacture of iron (with B.P. Walker)
931/1854 Improvements in the construction of railways
Mike Chrimes in Chrimes (especially Patents) : originated from long entry in Marshall

Whistler, George Wasbington
Born Fort Wayne, Indiana on 19 May 1800; died St Petersburg, Russia, on 7 April 1849. Pioneer of railway engineering in USA and Russia. Educated at West Point. At early age showed skill in drawing. Began in the army, employed in topographical work, establishing the boundary between Canada and the USA between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods. Later spent much time as engineer 'on loan' by the government to civil projects. In connection with survey of the Baltimore & Ohio RR he was sent to England in November 1828 with his frend W G McNeill to study railway construction, and in May 1829 they returned to begin work on the B & O. His next major work was the Paterson & Hudson River RR, later part of the Erie system. In 1834-7 he was superintendent of the Locks & Canals Machine Shop, Lowell, building locomotives of Stephenson's Planet type. He then surveyed the Concord RR (later part of the Boston & Maine) and moved on to the New York, Providence & Boston, then the Western RR which, as chief engineer, he carried across the Berkshire mountains from Worcester to Albany, 156 miles, completed in 1841. For this line he adopted the unsuccessful 0-8-0 'Crabs' of Ross Winans. He was responsible for the introduction of the locomotive whistle in the USA. In 1842 he was invited by Tsar Nicholas I to survey and build the railway from Moscow to St Petersburg. For this he adopted a gauge of 5ft, then standard for many early lines in USA, and this became established as the standard gauge throughout Russia, while in USA the 5ft gauge lines were all rebuilt to standard g, 4ft 8½in. Construction of the 420 mile railway began in 1844. It was one of the straightest lines of its length ever built. It proved to be his undoing. The work became protracted and late in 1848 he was a victim of an epidemic of cholera and he died the following April, a year before the railway was completed. In 1847 he was awarded the Order of St Anne by the Emperor. Marshall.

White, John
Born Glasgow on 2 December 1842. Died Hampstead 20 March 1925. Educated at private schools and at Andersonian College, Glasgow. Served apprenticeship 1858-60, with Messrs. P. and W. MacLellan, of the Clutha Iron Works, Glasgow, and subsequcntly a further four years as pupil and assistant with the firm of Messrs. Robson, Forman and McCall, Glnsgow, being engaged upon the Wemyss Bay, Milngavie, Busby, and Blane Valley Railways. In 1864 appointed Resident Engineer of the Peterborough, Wisbech and Sutton Railway, under (Sir) George Barclay Bruce.. Hc then occnpied a smilar position on the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway. In 1869 entcred service of Great Southern of India Railway as assistant engineer, and remained, in India in the service of that Company, and of its successor the Sout'h Indian Railway Conipany until 1881, rising to Deputy Chief Engineer and acting as Chief Engineer of the line. During his service in India he was in charge of the construction of a large portion of the metre-gauge system of the South Indian Railway. In 1881 he retired from service in India. On return to England he performed several types of professional work including Parlianientary surveys. He visited Asia Minor to report on the Smyrna Quays. He advised the Rio Tinto Company's Railway in Spain on the design of a large steel bridge..In 1888 he entered into partnership with Sir George Barclay Bruce, engaging in general engineering practice, which included worka carried out by the firm in connexion with the Buenos Ayres Grand National Tramways, the Rio Tinto Railway, the Beira Railway, and Ceara Harbour. He was for many years assoeiatcd with Sir George Bruce, as Consulting Engineer to the South Indian and Great Indian Peninsula Railway Companies. On the death of Sir George Bruce in 1908 John. White continued the practice of t.he firm under his own name. He served on the Sectional Locomotive Committee from its formation in 1902, and on the Locomotive Conference formed at, the request, of the Secretary of State for India to prepare designs for standard typcs of locomotives for Indian Railways, and on the Sub-Committee on Iron for Railway Rolling Stock. Obituary Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1925, 109. 1081-2.

Wild, Charles Heard
Born in 1819 and died on 19 July 1857: biography by James Sutherland in Chrimes. Horne introduces this Wild engineer several times: (Backtrack Volume 9 page 509 and Volume 11 page 51 and in Volume 11 page 441) He was pupilled to John Braithwaite. It seems likely that the design of the permanent way, and the gauge of 5' 6" in India, was borrowed from the Dublin and Drogheda Railway by Charles Heard Wild, who had been sent to Ireland to examine it; and Wild was occupied with the design of Warren girders for the EIR in 1853 and for the Great Northern Railway to cross the Trent via the Newark Dyke Bridge. Wild invented the 'under-cut' railway switch: Patent 9535/1847 Switch for railway purposes. He also held another railway patent: 11597/1849 Constructing parts of railways (Patents via Chrimes).

Wilkinson, John Sheldon
Born Spalding 22 May 1837; died Pendleton, Salford 23 June 1880. Engineer of Cheshire Lines Railways. Educated at St Alban's Grammar School, and from 1854 King's College, London. In December 1856 articled to W.M. Brydone, chief engineer GNR. After his pupilage he continued on the GNR, being engaged for 20 months on rebuilding the bridge over the Witham at Bardney on the loop line. He then became a contractor's engineer, in charge of construction on the Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway. He was later assistant engineer on the GNR for 2 years; afterwards resident engineer on the Cheshire lines. He then took up business in Manchester and built the West Cheshire Railway, completed in 1869, from Northwich to Helsby. In spring 1870 he was appointed engineer for the Chester & West Cheshire Junction Railway, opened May 1875, induding the terminus at Chester. In auturnn 1871 he took charge of the works of the Ashburys, Stockport and Romiley lines, completed 1875. His last major work was the Manchester South District Railway, opened 1880.

Willans, John William
1843-1895. Engineering contractor for Liverpool Overhead Railway who devised a steel erecting machine in 1894. Joby Railway builders.

Willet, Archibald William
Son of John: born in Aberdeen on 29 January 1858 and died in same City on 11 October 1942. Educated Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities. Pupil under his father. Joined LNWR under Francis Stevenson where innvolved in many major works. Marshall

Willet, John
Born Aikenhead, Ayrshire on 6 February 1815. Marshall notes that educated Ayr Academy and School of Arts, Edinburgh. Apprenticed to James Thomson, a Glasgow civil engineer. Then joined Andrew Thomson to work on railways many of which were to become part of Caledonian Railway. In 1843 he joined Locke and Errington to work on Grand Junction Railway. From 1849 he was resident engineer of the Aberdeen Railway, then worked for Caledonian Raiway and then independently. Father of Archibald William.

Williamson, James
Consulting engineer to Festiniog Railway from 1937: ex-Cambrian Railways (Boyd)

Wilson, Edward
Born in Glencourse (his father John was engineer to the Edinburgh Waterworks) on 12 August 1820; died on 20 August 1877. He was apprenticed to his father then with Stark & Fulton in Glasgow. He worked for several early railways: Glasgow & Ayr, Hull & Selby and London & Birmingham Railways until joining the Railway Foundry under E.B. Wilson (to whom he was not related) and through him he became engine & locomotive superintendent of the York & North Midland Railway between 1847 and 1853. He then moved to the Midland Great Western Railway in Ireland where he was in charge of locomotives and permament way. He returned to England in 1856 to join the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway as engineer: this in turn became the West Midland Railway. He became expert in draughting railway Billls and in 1866 bcame a consulting engineer to the Great Eastern Railway when it was extending from Bishopsgate to Liverpool Street and making a junction with the Metropolitan Railway. He was also engineer to the East Norfolk Railway which put Cromer on the map. Chrimes in Chrimes, who does not appear to have a good opinion of Wilson. Not in Marshall.

Wilson, William
Born Alnwick on 20 January 1822. Died London 20 September 1898. Articled to John Bourne of Newcastle upon Tyne and became acquainted with George Stephenson. Worked with Fox, Henderson & Co. on roof of Dover station, then with John Fowler on MSLR and OWWR. Chrimes (page 848) adds Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways.. Marshall lists other civil engineering with which William Wilson was associated.

Wise, Berkeley Dean
Irish Civil Engineer. Born New Ross, County Wexford on 2 October 1853; died due to mental ill health at Portrush on 5 May 1909. Apprentice engineer on the Dublin, Wicklow & Wexford Railway. Chief Engineer of the BCDR from 1877 until 1888. He was invoved in the deviation works including a tunnel at Bray Head.  In 1888 he became Chief Engineer of the BNCR where he left a considerable mark by Relaid much of the permanent way with steel rails and rebuilt bridges and introduced Wise system of interlocking signals. He persuaded the company to invest in its own quarries near Ballymoney as a source of ballast. He designed the viaduct over the River Quoilr. He also acted as engineer for the Carrickfergus & Larne, Derry Cenral, Draperstown and Limervady & Dungiven Railways as well as the Porrtstewart Tramway. He also designed several station buildings, notably at Portrush. He also improved acceess to the landscape where scenic walkways were created at Glenariff and along the cliffs of the Antrim coast known as the Gobbins which involved tunnels and bridges over gaps in the cliffs for pedestrians including Edwardian ladies. See Ron Cox in Chrimes. See Peter Myers Backtrack, 14, 693.

Surnames beginning "Wo"

Wolfe-Barry, Sir John
Born London 7 December 1836 and died in London on 22 January 1918. Hyphenated his name from 1898. Son of Sir Charles Barry, architect of Houses of Parliament. Pupil of John Hawkshaw. In 1867 established himself as consulting engineer: associated with Metropolitan District Railway underground lines, with the Caledonian Railway's underground line in Glasgow, the Barry Railway, the Ballachulish branch including the cantilver bridge across Loch Etive. His son Kenneth Alfred became a senior partner in the consultancy. Mainly Marshall. There is also an ODNB entry by Robert C. McWilliam. Included in Volume 3 of Chrimes. (biography by James Sutherland: filed under Barry). Member of Lord Rayleigh's Vibration Committee: see Hennessey. Backtrack, 2013, 27, 394.

Wolfe-Barry, Kenneth Alfred
Born London 16 March 1879 and died in London on 1 July 1936. Educated at Winchester. Studied engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge, then articled in father's firm. Associated with Piccadilly tube and Whitechapel & Bow Railway. Later railway work was mainly concerned with railways and docks in India. Marshall. Obituary: Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, 1936, 130, 543-4 (where name not hyphenated). Included in Volume 3 of Chrimes. (biography by James Sutherland: filed under Barry). Obituary Locomotive Mag., 1936, 42, 232..

Wolley-Dod, Francis
Born in Eton College as Francis Wolley on 3 May 1855, but father added wife's name Dod in 1868. He was educated at Eton and (from 1873) at the Royal Indian Engineering College in Windsor Great Park. In 1876 he joined the Indian Public Works Department: see Horne Backtrack, 16, 215. Returns to Backtrack (2007, 21, 44) when Rutherford considers his contribution to locomotive standardization in India: he presided over a conference of Indian locomotive superintendents held in Calcutta in December 1901 and this led to the Engineering Standrads Committee with standard 0-6-0s and 4-4-0s emerging in 1903, and later a line of standard 2-8-2s.

Wood, Sancton
1816-1886: architect. Built stations on Eastern Counties Railway including Bishopsgate Terminus. Notable stations at Dublin Heuston and Bury St Edmunds and probably Stamford on Leicester to Peterborough line. Biddle in Britain's historic railway buildings: an Oxford gazetteer of structures and sites. OUP. 2003. 759pp.

Woodhouse, George
Brother of Thomas Jackson Woodhouse. Born 1811. Died 17 October 1868. Engineer on Chester & Holyhead Railway. Chrimes...

Woodhouse, Henry
Permanent way engineer for the whole LNWR from 1852. Same family as Thomas Jackson Woodhouse? Reed in The London & North Western Railway: a history. Penryn: Atlantic. 1996. 248pp.

Woodhouse, Thomas Jackson
Born Bedworth, Warwickshire on 9 December 1793. Died in Turin on 26 September 1855 .(Marshall). Chrimes.. He had been resident engineer under Josias Jessop on the Cromford & High Peak Railway. He was engineer of the Dublin & Kingstown Railway. This was followed by civil engineering for the Belfast Harbour Trust and the railway between Belfast and Lisburn. In 1836 he was appointed resident engineer to the Midland Counties Railway. This work included a bridge across the Trent

Worthington, Samuel Barton
Born Stockport on 14 December 1820, died Bowdon 8 February 1915. Articled to Joseph Locke, and worked with him on many of Locke's projects including Paris & Rouen. In 1846 he became engineer to the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway in charge of all aspects including rolling stock. Following the acquistion of the L&CR by the LNWR he was in effect made civil engineer for the Northern Division. His office was moved to Manchester and he became a consulting engineer in that City following his retirement from the LNWR in 1886. (Marshall). Son Edgar became a mechanical engineer. Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes.

Worthington, William Barton
Born Lancaster on 8 July 1854, died Bushey Heath on 29 December 1939. Son of Samuel Barton Worthington to whom he was articled, following education at Owen's College, Manchester and London University. Joined staff of Blyth & Cunningham in Edinburgh where he worked on civil engineering projects for Caledonian Railway. In 1876 he was appointed resident engineer under William Baker for new works on LNWR including construction of Manchester Exchange Station. In 1890 he became Assistant Engineer on the LYR and in 1897 he became Chief Engineer where he was responsible for many new works. In 1905 he became Chief Engineer of the Midland Railway, Following retirement from the Midland in 1915 he became a Consulting Engineer. (Marshall)

Wylie, David
Resident Engineer to the Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway and to the Leominster & Kington Railway. Subsequently engineer to the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway, but died in early 1863. Letter from Keith Beddoes on page 41 of Br. Rly J., 1985 (10) 41.

Wylie, Henry Johnston
Born in Edinburgh on 5 July, 1822. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and at Glasgow University. A taste for mechanical and scientific pursuits, led to his being apprenticed to George Marten, of Glasgow; and he subsequently became attached to the staff of George and James Cramond Gunn of Edinburgh. During this time Wylie formed a friendship with James Peddie (bprn in Edinburgh on 16 October 1822), and formed partnership between them, and the joint execution of a number of important public works. Amongst these were the Selkirk and Galashiels railway, opened early in 1866, the Bridport railway, completed in 1857, the Kirkcudbright railway, opened in 1864, and, in connection with Jopp, another Civil Engineer, the Berwickshire railway, opened in 1863. Mr. Wylie also contributed materially in obtaining the Act for the Galashiels and Peebles railway, in the session 1859-60, and he had a considerable practice in the resolution of questions under reference from the Judges of the Court of Session. In 1867, in conjunction with his partner, he commenced the Kirkcudbright swing-bridge, an important work over the navigable portion of the River Dee ; and this was completed in the following year. At the close of 1868, Wylie, having been selected for an appointment in connection with the Home Department of the Indian State railways,  moved to London; but a controversy arising as to the preferable gauge to be adopted, which prevented active operations, he accepted an appointment to visit and report upon the Tasmanian railway, of which he was also the Consulting Engineer. The labour and exertion experienced in this expedition, aggravating a deep-seated pulmonary complaint, overtaxed his strength ; and his death took place at his sister’s house at Melbourne, Australia, on 3 November 1871. By sterling integrity and honourable conduct as an Engineer, by a genial and kindly disposition in private life, and by an unvarying consideration for all who came in contact with him,  Wylie secured and retained the good opinion of an extensive circle of friends and acquaintances, both for his professional abilities as well as for his worth as a friend. Wylie was elected a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 2 February 1869. Graces Guide See also Hill, Keith. The Bridport branch. Backtrack, 2009, 23, 620-7.

Wythes, George
Railway contractor. Born in June 1811 and christened at Hadzor near Droitwich on 28 July 1811 and died on 3 March 1883 and buried Bickley Parish Church, Kent. (Chrimes in Chrimes lists his considerable works as well as noting his wealth). Railway contractor who died very wealthy. According to Joby made his mark with the Great India Peninsular Railway.

Younghusband, Oswald
Born in Calcutta on 8 February 1833 and died in Milton Regis, Dorset on 2 February 1881. Pupil of William Wilson: railways in Spain, Portugal and Peru. Consulting engineer from 1868. Biography by Michael R. Bailey in Chrimes.

Last updated 2021-04-24