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Kevin Jones' Steam Index

Ralph Dodd and Isaac and other Dodds

Ruary Mackenzie Dodds. From reivers to railways—the forgotten Dods Dynsty. Backtrack, 25, 256-61.

Dodds, George [duplicate entry]
Died in 1835. Engineer of the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway and instigator of Murdoch, Aitken constructing two Killingworth-type locomotives: Monkland and Kirkintilloch. See C.F. Dendy Marshall History of the railway locomotive down to the year 1831: Chapter 21 including Fig. 94. See also Ransom's Iron road. See also Lowe (also for son William) and NBRSGJ, 1999 (62) 16 for involvement in canal boat haulage. Had another son Robert who worked as a lad on constructing Blucher.

Isaac Dodds
According to Marshall was born in Hewarth, Co. Durham on 9 August 1801 (Baker and Fell, Backtrack, 2009, 23, 740 give Felling Co. Durham and 9 July 1801 as birth) and died in Eccleshall (Staffordshire) on 1 November 1882. He became Locomotive superintendent of one of Britain's earliest railways, the Sheffield & Rotherham Railway from 1839 to 1842. Before that he been involved with the Horsley Coal & Iron Co. in the construction of a locomotive for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, but following an accident it was sold to the Dublin & Kingstown Railway where it was named Star. Isaac Dodds in 1839 began the practice of fixing the boiler only at the smokebox end, thereby allowing for expansion. He also invented a 'wedge' valve gear applied on a NMR locomotive in 1839. Also mentioned in Illustrated Interviews: No. 39. Luke Longbottom. Rly Mag., 1901, 8, 193. where son (T.W. Dodds according to Lowe) applied his father's wedge motion on the North Staffordshire Railway (but it was never made to work satisfactorily). The son also started locomotive manufacture at Stoke according to Longbottom. He established Dodds & Son in Rotherham to manufacture lo comotives (Lowe).
Patents
6470/1833 Improved valves for steam engines
6755 (1835) Machinery for cutting out and shaping gun stocks.
6826 (1835) Improvements in fire arms and the boring of cannon
8219 (16 September 1839) Railways, construction and manufacture of wheels, engines and machinery to be used thereon [wedge motion valve gear]. with William Owen via Hollick Title via Woodcroft

See: E. L. Ahrons, The British steam railway locomotive 1825-1925 (1927)
S. Snell, A story of railway pioneers (1921).

Ralph Dodd
Ralph Dodd has an entry in the ODNB, originally by Robert Hunt and revised by Mike Chrimes who considers that he was born in either North or South Shields in 1782 and died in Cheltenham on 11 April 1822. He was involved in early tunnel projects under both the Tyne and the Thames (between Gravesend and Tilbury where work actually took place between 1799 and 1802) and on the Thames & Medway Canal. He was co-patentee with George Stephenson of an early locomotive patent (3,887 28 February 1815: Construction of locomotive-engines with Stephenson [Connecting rod: cylinder to wheels]) . His successors adopted the name Dodds, including Isaac, a nephew. See also J.G. James: Ralph Dodd, the very ingenious schemer. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1974, 47, 161-78.

Robert Dodds
Son of George Dodds wwho as a lad assisted in constructing Blucher. Appointed Resident Engineer of the Ballochney Railway and in 1828 under his supervision ran the first horse-drawn passenger coach in Scotland. In 1830 he brcame the first Superinntendent of the Wishaw & Coltness Railway and remained in the post for fifteen years.

Thomas Weatherburn Dodds
Born Hewarth, Co Durham on 2 May 1826; died Sheffield on 6 September1899. Civil engineerr, manufacturer, inventor, and locomotive superintendent, NSR. Son of Isaac Dodds, pupil of Sir James Falshaw, then engaged on railway works in the Midlands. In 1845 went to Glasgow with his uncle John Stephenson of Stephenson, Mackenzie & Brassey, and assisted in building the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway and Caledonian Railway. In 1850 taken into partnership with his father with whom he re-formed the Holmes Engine & Railway Works at Rotherham. Here they manufactured steeled rails and other plant for railways. They designed and built the rolling stock of the Santander & Alar Railway in Spain, and in conjunction with Alfred Jee built part of the line. In the early 1860s they erected converting furnaces at Pittsburgh for Andrew Carnegie. Took out many patents for inventions and took a leading role in the promotion of steel for rails, boilers, ship plates and artillery. They claimed to have built the first locomotive turntable to work on smooth outer ring, to have introduced various self-acting switches (points), and to have led in the replacement by spring buffers of the old leather ones stuffed with horsehair. Dodds was one of the first to make a success of burning coal instead of coke in locomotives. The depression of 1866 forced closure of the works and in 1870 he accepted the position of engineer and locomotive superintendent of the NSR and as engineer to the Trent & Mersey Navigation. In 1882 he went to Transvaal for 6 months, reporting on railway works. In 1884 was appointed general manager of Santa Fe Colonial Railways. Returned to England 1887. 1892 he was sent to South America to investigate costs on the Buenos Aires & Pacific Railway of which he eventually became general manager with a seat on the board. In 1896 he was forced by ill health to retire. Marshall.
Patent
627 (9 March 1871) [modification to father's wedge motion]