APOLLO Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 J.G.Robinson for me, having read his biography, "A Lifetime's Work". A decent man by all accounts, trained by the GWR at Swindon, before a stint in Ireland (Waterford & Limerick Rly) then from around 1900 he became boss of Gorton on the GC. Born in Newcastle in 1856, retired 1923, died in 1943, aged 87. A true engineer, and designed some wonderfull locomotives. We will never again see the likes of these type of men Brit15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted February 14, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 14, 2012 Rowland Emett. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Andre Chapelon, if only to ride on the footplate of his magnificient SNCF 242A1, when working at maximum output, sends shivers down the spine. He must have been a special engineer to get his name on a British loco. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Dugald Drummond for me. We have much in common; Sons of Scotland, an eye for a handsome loco and a bit of a penchant for 'industrial' language... Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted February 14, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 14, 2012 Joseph Armstrong. I would like to have worked with both Gooch and Churchward, and I would like to have designed the Queen class. I also rather like his committment to supporting Swindon as a community. Not sure about having 6.000 people attend my funeral though, that must have been rather exhausting ;-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 He must have been worn out by the end of it! Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Someone (anyone) who could have managed Oliver Bulleid better, reined him back from some of his wackier ideas and focussed his undoubted innovatory talents onto more practical operational steam applications. Just might have salvaged something from the Leader project (even if it meant putting a diesel engine in them, might have consumed less oil that way!), and made the rebuilding of the Pacifics unnecessary. But somebody should really have got to grips with him over oil baths and chain driven valve gear, and off-centre boilers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Sir Joseph Bazalgette. An ex-railway engineer who went on to design and build the London sewer system that still functions today, and lay out the London we see today with wide roads and parks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold LH&JC Posted February 14, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 14, 2012 Timothy Hackworth, an under recognised engineer if you ask me. While the Stephenson's busied themselves with other projects Hackworth kept the S&D going and came up with some very interesting locos, the Wilberforce class for example that featured jackshaft drive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Reid Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 John Farquharson McIntosh - Continued the Caledonian tradition of no outside cylinders / valve gear to complicate things just massive inside cylinders, and any colour as long as it was blue (black of course for freight only loco's). Was in his office and in front of his desk several times, even worked in his drawing office, where the real designer of the loco's - Tom Weir - turned thoughts into reality. Sadly though McIntosh stopped working at St.Rollox, 60 years before I started! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scots region Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 I'm going to have to go for Mr Porta, the true 'Van Gogh' of railway engineering Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 I'm going to have to go for Mr Porta, the true 'Van Gogh' of railway engineering Ah, the great Will Hay.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Not an engineer, but a great railwayman nonetheless - Sir Felix Pole, one time general manager of the GW. Regards, Peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Maybe Thomas Russell Crampton who seems an interesting chap with some original ideas and a varied career. In terms of his railway career and locomotive designs then I think Charles Reboul Sacré would be an interesting character to have been but I wouldn't have liked to meet his unfortunate end, (or to have had his middle name.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Mr Heath Robinson,nuff said. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 CME Hugh Smellie must be proud. Not only did he design some Scottish engines, he has thousands of clones attending model railway exhibitions... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium kevinlms Posted February 19, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 19, 2012 Francis Webb Would loved to have been a fly on the wall when he was allegedly attempted to be bribed by Westinghouse (of brake fame) and thrown out of his office. Regrettably, it led to Webb trying several versions of brake (anything to avoid Westinghouse products), some of which were downright dangerous. Overall a man who did his hardest to make as much as possible in house. Wonder how much he is spinning with all the imported equipment these days? Kevin Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Someone (anyone) who could have managed Oliver Bulleid better, reined him back from some of his wackier ideas and focussed his undoubted innovatory talents onto more practical operational steam applications... Based on the evidence, that would be a certain Sir N Gresley... For myself I rahther concur with the thoughts expressed above regarding how much more fun it most likely was early on. I plump for Archibald Sturrock, he got to equip the young GNR as their first CME, then he married into wealth, retired young (outliving his successor in office, Patrick Stirling) to enjoy the life of a wealthy landed gentleman. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 G.J. Churchward So obvious I can't understand why anyone would ask - George Jackson Churchward to whom we owe the debt of most advances in British steam loco design in the 20th century. A very nice choice, but next time Mr. Churchward, please keep clear of No. 4085 and let the PW inspector do his job. Enjoy your retirement! Theodore Judah Theodore Judah: Planner of the Central Pacific, visionary of the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad in the USA. Undaunted by the challenge of building east through the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies, with railroad creation on a huge scale! I suspect "Crazy Judah" was either an incurable optimist, or clueless - at least about what was ahead of those who actually built his dream. He's an odd choice, given that he died, mired in politics less than a year after construction began, back in New York and ironically from Yellow Fever contracted while transiting the Isthmus of Panama. It's hard to admire any of the bunch of ratbags that eventually caused the transcontinental railroad to be built. The CP's "Big Four" hardly commend themselves to history and as for the UP's Thomas Durant, I blush to think of what he did. Isambard Kindgom Brunel (During the age of "The Great Man") Isambard Kingdom Brunel: For his engineering genius and foresight in design and the creation of the GWR. I would have loved to have had a "blank canvas" and the ability to make things happen in the manner in which he did. Has to be IKB for me. Ships, Bridges, the whole concept of a railway system. The boldness of stepping away from the norm, or in his vessels case reaching beyound what was believed to be acheivable. It's hard to go past Brunel for pure bravura. Born in the year that Napoleon defeats the Prussians at Jena, he becomes a master (or at least credited as creator) of: tunnels - under the Thames (alongside his father) and Box tunnel bridges - from traditional masonry to suspension and the magnificent lenticular trusses of the Royal Albert broad gauge - was it a bad idea? the atmospheric railway - it sounded better in theory than it worked in practice (if it wasn't for those rats!) engineering the main line (Brunel's billiards table) stations Paddington Temple Meads the train sheds the faux hammerbeam roofs over Temple Meads and Bath (Spa) stations [*]Shipping Great Western Great Britain - first propellor powered iron ship Great Eastern [*]Pre-fabricated military hospitals All this makes me wonder just how large a design team he had working with him. Not the labourers and workers, but people doing the engineering. It's one thing being in the right place at the right time, but the immensity of what he caused to exist is staggering. Can anyone suggest a worthwhile biography of IKB? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 19, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 19, 2012 Last year among some stuff being prepared for auction I came across a letter and on top of it a photo of IKB - examination suggested to me that the letter was written and signed by IKB himself and subsequent expert examination proved that to be the case; alas I couldn't afford to buy it when it came up in the auction as it went for several hundred £s. Now the relevance of this to the above is that it was a short note about a relatively trivial matter concerning GWR construction - so from it I would conclude that Brunel definitely got involved down to very low levels of detail. And it was all in the same handwriting - not signing something dashed off by a clerk. As for books it is difficult. Tom Rolt's volume was written long ago but is, I think, still a valid piece provided you remember when it was written and clearly without access to a lot of material which came to light later. Of the Brunel books I have read I think Steven Brindle's is pretty good and with Rolt's work makes a good pair. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Physicsman Posted February 19, 2012 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 19, 2012 Pleased to see a number of Isambard devotees on here. The only drawback was that he died aged 53. Also interesting to see the lack of anything contemporary. I might have expected somebody associated with the design of HS1 or the redevelopment of St Pancras station - not that I'd have gone for one of these. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Pleased to see a number of Isambard devotees on here. The only drawback was that he died aged 53. Some celebs appeared on 'This is your life', in thier 20's... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Physicsman Posted February 19, 2012 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 19, 2012 Some celebs appeared on 'This is your life', in thier 20's... Just as well, as some of them didn't live to see their 30's!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 19, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 19, 2012 Pleased to see a number of Isambard devotees on here. The only drawback was that he died aged 53. Also interesting to see the lack of anything contemporary. I might have expected somebody associated with the design of HS1 or the redevelopment of St Pancras station - not that I'd have gone for one of these. Jeff I didn't think that committees were allowed (says he who actually had his name on two drawings for a very minor part of the works at St Pancras International - and I do mean 'minor', very very minor ). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebottle Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 CME Hugh Smellie must be proud. Not only did he design some Scottish engines, he has thousands of clones attending model railway exhibitions... If one should happen to meet any large Glaswegian gentleman named Smellie, one should remember that it is considered more polite (and safer) in such company to pronounce the name correctly as "Smiley". Any connection with those lost souls whose anoraks have never seen the inside of a washing machine is inadvisable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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