THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST   A UK Registered Educational Charity

Kevin Jones' Steam Index

Edward Cecil Poultney

Born in South Africa on 28 August 1879; died. 19 October 1966. Inventor and author of British express locomotive development and contributor to proceedings of Institution of Locomotive Engineers. Riddles noted that Poultney had trained on the Furness Railway. He was awarded an MBE for being Assistant Director, Machine Tool Production in the USA during WW1. Later this was upgraded to OBE. Graces Guide shows that he waas a regular contributor to The Engineeer. Director of Locomotive Valve Gears Ltd (Locomotive Mag., 1948, 54, 54). Obituary from Engineer via Graces Guide:
It is with sincere regret that we have to record the death on of Mr. E. C. Poultney at the age of eighty-seven years. There can be but few readers of THE ENGINEER to whom his name is not familiar for Mr. Poultney was for over fifty years a regular contributor on the subject of steam locomotives. Mr. Poultney received his initial training in Vickers shipyard at Barrow and later became a pupil of Mr. W. F. Pettigrew, the engineer of the Furness Railway. After having served a period as a draughtsman in the office of the railway he joined Rendel, Palmer and Tritton as an inspecting officer in the Midlands area. In 1914 he became managing director of a steel foundry company and in 1915 left this country for the United States, where he was concerned with the production and purchasing of locomotive and machine tools for the Ministry of Munitions. He later became an assistant director of production and purchasing in the United States and for his services in this connection Mr. Poultney received the M .B. E. in 1917 and the O.B.E. two years later. In 1919 he joined the American Car and Foundry Co and worked for a year in both the United States and India for that company. Throughout his career Mr. Poultney was keenly interested in locomotive valves and valve gear and was closely concerned with the design and development of locomotive poppet valve gear. From his earliest days he was an enthusiastic technical writer on the subject of locomotives, indeed his first article on the subject of Furness locomotives was published in the Railway Magazine as long ago as 1903. From 1921 onwards he was a regular contributor to the technical Press and authoritative articles by him on steam locomotives were published in practically every technical journal in this country.
Patents
with Locomotive Valve Gears Ltd and Albert Reidinger
660,035. Applied 11 January 1949, Published 31 October 1951.Improvements relating to reversing gear for steam locomotives
with Yorkshire Engine Co. and Arthur Hewitt Gilling
197,345 Applied 8 November 1921, Published 8 May 1923 Improvements in or relating to fluid pressure braking apparatus
with Yorkshire Engine Co., Arthur Hewitt Gilling and Harold Arthur Akroyd
262,360 Applied 4 June 1923; Accepted 6 December 1926. Improvements in, and relating to, steam locomotives.
Second unit with second set of cylinders and valve gear with storage for fuel & water in tender position

Papers
Locomotive power. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1944, 34, 66. Paper 445
In the discussion Poultney got a roasting from Cox and was subject to further criticism from Johansen.

Locomotive performance and its influence on modern practice. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1927, 17, 172. Paper 213

Poppet valve gears as applied to locomotives. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1930, 20, 704,
Abstract of a lecture presented at meeting of North Eaastern Centre held at the Hotel Metropole, Leeds, on Friday, 21 March 1930

Notes on the railways in the Union of South Africa (referring specially to recent locomotive practice). . J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1936, 26, 135 (Pap 349a)

Contributor to other's papers

Fry, Lawford Some constructional details of a high-pressure locomotive. J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1928, 18, 336
Holcroft, H. (Paper No. 430): Smoke deflectors for locomotives. J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1941, 31, 462-89. Disc.: 490-509.
Poultney uses the term "blinkers" and considered that there appeared to be no difference in smoke lifting terms between those fitted with smoke deflectors and the taper-boiler locomotives.

Lomonossoff, G.V. and Lomonossoff, G. Condensing locomotives. Proc. Instn Mech Engrs, 1945, 152,  275-88. Disc.: 289-303.
Poultney queried the terminology used and whether turbines and condennsing were suitable for locomotives

T. Robson. Counter pressure method of testing locomotives. J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1943, 33, Paper 441 pp. 198-9
Mainly recitation of all things wonderful at Swindon, but it was a  B17 under test

Books

British express locomotive development, 1896-1948. London: Allen & Unwin, 1952. 174pp.
Very brief preface by R.A. Riddles. Began as a series of articles in Modern Transport entitled Landmarks of express locomotive progress published between 1947 and 1950. Starting date selected on basis of railway races to Aberdeen. 
Author's Preface Acknowledgments Some Early Recollections
1. The Railway Races of 1895 ~.
2. The Caledonian Dunalastair
3. Early Four-Cylinder Locomotives
4. The Atlantic Type Locomotive
5. Six-coupled Locomotives
6. The coming of the Big Engine
7. Four-Coupled Express Passenger Locomotives
8. The Keystone of the Arch
9. The North Star-Swindon 1906
10. Some Notable Locomotives 1903-1911
11. Boiler Proportions and Locomotive Performance
12. Compound Locomotives
13. Superheated Steam
14. Boiler Steam Pressures
15. Notable Locomotives 1910-1920
16. Locomotives of 1921-1930
17. Boiler Proportions, Valve Sizes and the Balancing Problem
18. Modern High-Powered Locomotives

Steam locomotion: the construction, working principles, and practical operation of steam locomotives, edited by C.R.H. Simpson. London, Caxton, 1951.2 v. (viii, 329 + vi, 333 p) + 39 plates (incl. 1 col. & 7 folding). 118 illus., 287 diagrs., 7 tables.
Both E.C. Poultney and C.R.H. Simpson were experts in this field of technical writing. A work of encyclopaedic proportions.

Referreces to

The "Poultney" locomotive. Locomotive Mag., 1926, 32, 70-3.. illustratiion, diagram (side elevation)
Proposed 2-8-2+0-8-0

Langridge, Eric. Under ten CMEs, V. 2. Chap. 5. Problems with the "Britannias" pp. 141; 143.
"About this time we were looking into E.C. Poultney's persistent request that a Horwich 2-6-0 'Crab' should be fitted with Reidinger infinitely variable cut-off poppet valve gear: Poultney seemed to come into the matter on the marketing side and utimately persuaded the powers that be to fit five engines. Poultney had previously been interested in Lentz rotary valve gear which the LNER had fitted to several engines from new, but not with great success, owing to the few positions one could set the cut-off at, and also so the expensive pieces making up the gear. Poultney had previously been interested in Lentz rotary valve gear which the LNER had fitted to several engines from new, but not with great success, owing to the few positions one could set the cut-off at, and also so the expensive pieces making up the gear. As described in Volume One, Chapter Six, I had met Poultney previously when in one of the depressed periods in the LMS drawing office I had applied for a job with Lentz. Poultney was a voluminous writer on locomotive matters: I presume he had had some engineering training for his articles and books were informative. He was fond of joining in ILocoE discussions; I kept in touch and occasionally helped him over some LMS query.
Volume 1 pp. 125-6: "An advertisement appeared in the press for a draughtsman at Lentz valve gears, which I answered. Poppet valves were beginning to draw attention due to Gresley (Lentz) and Beames (Caprotti) fitting up their locomotives with different versions of these gears. Caprotti was run by Beardmore's in England, but Lentz appeared to have no regular makers here. So I went up to Lentz's office in Westminster, where I was interviewed by Lindars, whom I guessed to be of Austrian origin, and Poultney, who was a writer of articles in the Engineer in Pendred's time. They were quite keen on having me, but I should have to work in the Paris office of Dabeg, an associate company (feed water heaters, I remembered). Lindars was very charming, but had very steely eyes; Poultney did the talking. Years later I noticed Lindars' name as conductor at a Halle Concert in Manchester, so perhaps he was an aspiring Richter. Anyhow, going home to think it over, it seemed a bit risky, particularly as Stamp had launched his 'rehousing-of-staff' scheme, really to do with people  who had moved from one centre to  another and granted me a loan"

Miles Macnair is sharp in his commnts on Poultney and his steam tender activated on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. Backtrack, 2017, 31, 155