EddieB Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 I think this is someone I was thinking of "doing" - Sir Sam Fay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 13, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 13, 2011 I think this is someone I was thinking of "doing" - Sir Sam Fay. I think I beat you to it It was indeed Sir Sam Fay - who started on the L&SWR, 'sorted out' the basket case' M&SWJR, and when on to become General Manger of the GCR. Back to you Eddie. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 Right, time for another Swindon man. He started his career as an apprentice at the GWR Locomotive Works at Wolverhampton, transferring to Swindon shortly after. He subsequently left the railway for British Timken and later became an Inspector for South African Railways and Harbours. Just before the outbreak of WW2 he returned to Britain, to Derby, but to the aero division of a major enginerring firm. He is best remembered for a work of reference on steam locomotives, published in the mid-seventies (with a supplement produced nine years later) and a more pictoral work towards the end of the same decade. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 14, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2011 OOh heck - just been having a delve in the British Steam Index and shoved my own name in the search engine for a bit of amusement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted August 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 14, 2011 Is it true? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 14, 2011 Author Share Posted August 14, 2011 Is it true? Is what true? Well for starters, this person's name isn't Mike, Michael or any derivatives thereof.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 No takers yet? (A gold star for anyone who can tell me where I've put my copy of one of the books referred to!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Giveaway time. The major reference work was first published in 1975 with the help of a gosling and its mother. The publisher of the Supplement has a railway connection to a Kraftwerk track. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 21, 2011 Author Share Posted August 21, 2011 Time to call time on this one I think, given the absence of attempts. (I can't believe everyone's foxed - more likely no one wants to set the next question). James Lowe started his railway career on the Great Western at Wolverhampton, before moving to Swindon. He then moved on to British Timken, before becoming an Inspector for South African Railways and Harbours. He left the railways to work for Rolls Royce in Derby, setting up his own engineering company after the Second World War. He is best remembered for his book "British Steam Locomotive Builders", first published by Goose & Son in 1975, a Supplement by TEE Publishing following in 1984. So, we move on.... I'll try a new one, hopefully this is someone more widely known (or ought to be), and if you're current with kcart, you'll be well on the way there. To title him as Railway Engineer, Locomotive Superintendent and later Traffic Manager hardly does justice to the pivotal role he played for a particular company. He was born in Basel, Switzerland, where his father was professor of English, but came to Bideford in Devon aged just eleven following the death of his parents. He served an apprenticeship for a firm best known for making steam cranes, but who also built several small locomotives. In his mid-twenties he was appointed engineer and Locomotive Superintendent to the predecessor of the company he is best known for. He turned his hand to many aspects of railway engineering and took out patents for various things from fish plates to wagon brakes. The high cost of timber in wartime led to innovations and further patents in the development of reinforced concrete structures - including signal posts and station name boards (but not hotels). It is recorded that his wife came up with the distinctive livery bestowed upon the locomotives of his company, taken from the colour of a particular plant that grows widely in the region it served. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 Without much confidence, I'm thinking the M&GN works at Melton Constable, which leads me to the name William Marriott?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 22, 2011 Author Share Posted August 22, 2011 Without much confidence, I'm thinking the M&GN works at Melton Constable, which leads me to the name William Marriott?? Spot on. His apprenticeship was served at Ransomes & Rapier in Ipswich. The golden ochre livery was inspired by the gorse bushes of Norfolk. There's an article about his concrete station nameboards in the current issue of Backtrack (i.e. kcart), which is surprisingly absorbing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 An English Barronet, best known for the railway he constructed around the grounds of his Derbyshire home. The railway was built to demonstrate his ideas for lightweight railways that would be quick and cheap to build to other land owners and in particular the military, though only one other line was ever built to his principles. His locomotives incorporated many novel features including a cylindrical launch type firebox, radiating axles, and his own design of valve gear. Shortly after his death his railway was dismantled with much of the rolling stock going to another line that was at the time in the process of changing gauge. Parts of 2 locos still exist on that line today but incorporated into other locos and totally unrecognisable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 22, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 22, 2011 An English Barronet, best known for the railway he constructed around the grounds of his Derbyshire home. The railway was built to demonstrate his ideas for lightweight railways that would be quick and cheap to build to other land owners and in particular the military, though only one other line was ever built to his principles. His locomotives incorporated many novel features including a cylindrical launch type firebox, radiating axles, and his own design of valve gear. Shortly after his death his railway was dismantled with much of the rolling stock going to another line that was at the time in the process of changing gauge. Parts of 2 locos still exist on that line today but incorporated into other locos and totally unrecognisable. You are going to have to do better than that Paul. Sir Arthur Heywood of course. The second Ratty connected answer in the past month. I spent my holidays up there volunteering in the 70's before I got married. Many happy memories. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 Has to be a balance between obscure and solvable, but all are easy if you know the answer Jamie, and I did leave out a few obvious clues!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 22, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 22, 2011 Here goes with another one. My name sounds as if I could be an enthusiast. For some reason when I came to the UK I decided to launch my new idea in a town that had been laid out on a grid system near another larger port. I later left and was involved in a financial scandal back home. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 24, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 24, 2011 I'll obviously have to provide another clue. When I came to this country I set up a works to manufacture the technology that I brought with me. My works manager's name is now above thousands of shops around the world, though not in the same business. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 26, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 26, 2011 Another clue. I brought a whole new technology to this country from the US in 1860. I was later involved in the project to build the Union Pacific railroad but got cought up in the Credit Mobilier scandal. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 26, 2011 Author Share Posted August 26, 2011 George Francis Train. Too many clues in the end - I was thinking Port Sunlight rather than Birkenhead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 27, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 27, 2011 Well done and now over to you then Eddie,, The works manager was called Starbuck, though I don't think there's a connection. He manged the UK's first tram factory in Cleveland Street, which was later taken over by George F Milnes and the building now has a blue plaque on it. Train was part of the consortium that set up the UP and also set up a consytruction company called Credit Mobilier that then made a lot of money for itslef by charging the UP very well to build its railway. Another pair of brothers in the consortium manufactured shovels so made money twice over. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 Staying with septics Americans, this is an inventor, engineer and founder of a major company that bears his name and represents a link between equipment or components of these locomotives (sorry, not the best scans): Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 27, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 27, 2011 How about Mr Westinghouse. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 That didn't take long! Yes, George Westinghouse invented the air brake system widely used worldwide and adopted by the Great Eastern Railway, where it became indispensible for the tightly-time "Jazz" services (the Westinghouse pump being clearly visible at the front of the tank of the J69 preserved at York) . He was also a pioneer of AC current and his company built and supplied electrical equipment for electric and diesel locomotives, including the metre-gauge 1-Co-Co-1 electrics of the Paulista Railway in Brazil (later FEPASA class 2050, as seen here at Sorocaba in 1992). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 28, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 28, 2011 Back to the UK this time. I was General Manager of a major pre grouping railway for 23 years during which time many new lines were built. When I retired I asked that one particular area traversed by one of the new lines to be painted as the background of the portrait that the company had painted for me. I died in premises owned by the railway company. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 28, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 28, 2011 Very frustrating this as I can't find the right book to check the name I have in mind (assuming it is the man in the picture I have seen). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 28, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 28, 2011 Very frustrating this as I can't find the right book to check the name I have in mind (assuming it is the man in the picture I have seen). I haven't actually seen the picture, the information is in a book that carries a reproduction of a photo of the gentleman, not a reproduction of the actual portrait. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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