THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST   A UK Registered Educational Charity

Kevin Jones' Steam Index

John Ralph Bazin

According to Marshall he was born in London on 26 July 1879 and died in Dorchester (Dorset) on 28 October 1965 (ILocoE obituary states 1964). He was educated at Christ College Finchley and became a Premium Apprentice at Doncaster in 1897 under Ivatt where he was a friend of O.V.S. Bulleid (see H.A.V. Bulleid on his father) In 1905 (Report dates 21 January) Bazin and T. Smith reported on a visit to the GWR and TVR to study steam railcars. He held several posts of increasing importance on the running side of the GNR, including Assistant District Locomotive Superintendent at Colwick, and from September 1906 DLS at Peterborough, and in 1908 was appointed Assistant Works Manager at Doncaster and in 1916 became Acting Carriage & Wagon Superintendent. In 1909 he had applied unsuccessfully for the position of Locomotive Running Superintendent on the GNR(I).and was short-listed for the post of Locomotive Superintendent on the GNR(I) in 1912 (Clements and McMahon Locomotives of the GSR (2008).. In May 1919 he beacme Works Manager at Inchicore and in November 1921 he succeeded Watson as CME on the GS&WR. He introduced the "modern 4-6-0" to the Great Southern Railway in Ireland with his three B1 two cylinder (outside Walschaerts valve gear) two cylinder locomotives. Also rebuilt some of the troublesome Watson 4-cyliner 4-6-0s with two cylinders. He retired in 1929. As a young man he was a keen photographer. Nock in his monograph on the Ivatt Atlantics notes that Bazin wrote an article on superheaters for the class in the Rly Mag for 1911..
See Letter Backtrack by Charles Bayes.
According to Phil Atkins, Bazin was an enthusiastic amatuer astronomer, a member of the British Astronomical Association (Royal Astronomical Society according to ILocoE obituary), with a particular interest in variable stars. He also once came across an incidental/oblique reference to him in a book as a witness to strange sounds emanating from a house in Doncaster in 1916.

Patent with Albert George Burnell
315,543 Improvements in and relating to feed water heaters. Published 18 July 1929 Applied: 9 June 1928
feed-water heater

Papers

Presidential Address. J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1930, 20, 215-28.
Surveys the Rainhill Trials of 1829 and notes the lack of educational facilities available through the Institution. No information on Bazin's Irish activities.

J.R. Bazin (205-6): Paper by McDermid (J. Instn Loco Engrs, 1933, 23, Notes on device fitted to GNR 0-8-0s: the blast-pipe was of aof special construction and had what was really a conical plunger fitted centrally into the orifice which could be moved up and down by a vertical rod. It worked off a spindle and bell-crank at the base of the blast-pipe and was onnected to the reversing lever so that when the engine was in full gear the conical plunger was dropped, increasing the area of the blast pipe orifice and as the engine was noteched up it was raised and formed a sort of central choke. It worked very well in controlling the exhaust jet but the heat in the smokebox damaged the linkage

Obituary : J.R. Bazin. J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1964/65, 54, 366.
Portrait: J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1930, 20, fp. 814.; also group at Swiss Locomotive Works Winterthur same volume Plate between pp. 637 & 8