American engineers Steamindex home page

Adams, Frederick Upham
Born in Boston, Mass. on 10 December 1859; died at Larchmont, New York on 28 August 1921. In 1892 he published a treatise on atmospheric resistance and its relation to the speed of trains which led the Baltimore & Ohio Ralroad to build a prototype which was tested in 1900, but failed to achieve the speeds predicted. Michael Harris. Steam Days, 1999, (114) 114...

Allen, Horatio
Born in Schenectady on 10 May 1802 and died in Motrose, New Jersey, on 1 January 1890. Graduate of Columbia University with high homours in mathematics. Began his engineering career working on Delaware & Hudson Canal. In 1826 he visted Britain to study the Stephenson type of locomotive and met George Stephenson. He ordered one locomotive from Robert Stephenson and three from Foster, Rastrick of Stourbridge: one of these, the Stourbridge Lion, was the first locomotive to run on a public line in the USA. In 1832 he arranged for the construction of the world's first articulated locomotive, a 2-2-0 + 0-2-2 at West Point Foundry (see Macnair Backtrack, 2012, 26, 756), for use on the South Carolina Railroad. Marshall.

Baird, Matthew
Born in County Londonderry (Derry) in 1817, but moved with parents to Philadelphia in 1821. Superintendent of the workshops of the Newcastle & Frenchtown Railroad in 1836. In 1834 bought an interest in Baldwin Works and on death of Baldwin he became sole proprietor. Associated with initial use of firebrick arch in 1854 (US Patent 18,883 issued 15 December 1857). Retired in 1873 and died in Philadelphia on 19 May 1877. Marshall and Wikepedia.

Baker, Abner B.
Granted US Patent 1008405 on 14 November 1911 for a variable-cut-off valve gear for engines

Baldwin, Matthias William
Born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey on 10 November 1795 and died in Philadelphia on 7 September 1866. Founder of famous locomotive building firm. See John Marshall and H.M. Le Fleming in Illustrated encyclopedia of world railway locomotives. Memorial statue in Pennsylvania State Railroad Museum see Humm J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2015, 38, 252.

Barton, T.F.
Chesapeake & Ohio R.R. superintendent of Motive Power. see Locomotive Mag., 1936, 42, 142-3 for 4-8-4 passenger locomotives

Bean, William L.
Mechanical engineer of the New York, New Haven & Hartford RR. Held patents for cast steel smokebox. Locomotive Mag., 1928, 34, 80. Patents: (all had same title):  Locomotive-smoke-box structure USP 1650684 priority 2 June 1925; USP 1686788 priority 2 June 1925; USP 1549899 priority 31 March 1925 and  USP 1788559 priority 5 March 1925.

Beatty, Sir Edward Wentworth
Born at Thorold, Ontario, on 16 October 1877; died in Montreal on 23 March 1943. He was the son of a shipowner, and educated at Upper Canada College and at the Harbord Collegiate and Parkdale Collegiate Institute (now the University of Toronto). After studying at Osgoode Hall law school, Beatty was called to the bar of Ontario in 1901, when he joined the legal department of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), almost twenty years after his father had sold his Great Lakes shipping company to the railway, and where he remained as general shipping manager afterwards. Beatty moved rapidly through the ranks becoming general counsel for the railway in 1913, vice-president in 1914, and a director in 1916. Two years later the outgoing CPR president, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, chose Beatty as his successor in preference to older and more experienced officials. Beatty's youth, as well as his lack of practical railway experience, made this one of the most controversial decisions of the day, and throughout the inter-war years the CPR's profitability fell in the face of vigorous competition from the newly nationalized Canadian National Railway (CNR) and highway trucking systems. Beatty was blamed by many for CPR's problems, and he was little helped by unsympathetic comparisons to his chief rival, Henry Thornton, the charismatic and outgoing president of the CNR. Beatty always resented what he viewed as wasteful and unfair competition from the state-backed CNR. He laboured to end it through a merger of the two systems, free from direct state control, and it was a bitter blow to him when a royal commission permanently blocked his attempt at a Canadian railway monopoly in 1932. On the more positive side, Beatty tried to improve CPR's profitability by cutting railway expenses, expanding its more remunerative shipping operations, and moving into passenger airline services. The CPR was in fact beginning to recover when Beatty suffered a massive stroke in 1941, forcing him to retire from the presidency a year later. A life-long bachelor, Beatty volunteered much of his time, abilities, and money to various causes. He served as chancellor of Queen's University (1919–23). As chancellor of McGill University (1921–43), he did not hesitate to use his position to remove prominent leftist academics from the faculty as part of his ongoing battle against socialism and state ownership. ODNB entry by Gregory P. Marchildon.

Bell, Joseph Snowden
1843–1928. Book. The early motive power of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Glenwood Publishers, 1975. 157pp. Papers: The variable blast nozzle on American locomotives presented at the annual meeting of the American Locomotive  Superintendents Association in 1915 (via The Engineer, 1915 3 September 1915). Three-cylinder locomotives presented at American Master Mechanics in 1913 via Warren in discussion on Holcroft paper

Benger, F.A.
Attended Queen's University and in 1913 became an apprentice at the Canadian Pacific Railway Angus shops in Montreal. Appointed engineer Canadian Pacific Railway in 1946. Locomotive Mag., 1946, 52, 47,  Benger plug, was devised by him: type of washout plug differed from the standard cap plug in that it consisted of two components, a threaded steel T male tail piece, and a bronze female threaded cap. These were applied to the lower corners of the firebox. The firebox openings had a machined facing and were cut flush with the bottom of the water leg, allowing for an unhampered flow of washwater. There was no threaded lip as used with the standard cap plug which sometimes prevented scale from flushing clear. Benger became Chief Mechanical Officer Internet and Locomotive Mag., 1953, 59, 64

Besler, William John
Born in Galesburg, Illinois on 30 March 1865; died 20 May 1942. Graduated Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1888. Joined Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and became a Diviision Superintendent in 1893. In 1900 he joined the Pittsburg & Reading Railroad and became the General Superintendent in 1903. He moved to the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1903 as its General Manager and became Chairman in 1926. With his brother George he developed a lightweight steam engine which was demonstrated in an aircraft in 1932 and in a steam railcar in 1936 and was proposed for use in a locomotive.  See Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1937, 43, 311-12 which refers to sixteen-cylinder 4-8-4 locomotive for Baltimore & Ohio Railroad with an Emerson water-tube boiler. The cylinders were to take the form of Besler steam motors to be enclosed within oil baths. Also Miles Macnair. From road unto rail. Part 7. The Besler brothers and some hybrids. Backtrack, 2020, 34, 580.
Patents (all GB)
404,472 Improvements in or relating to steam boilers of the forced feed type with Doble Steam Motors Ltd. Applied 7 February 1833. Published 18 February 1934
437,759 Improved method of controlling the feedwater supply to steam generators. Applied 8 June 1934. Published 5 November 1935.
463,298 Improvements in or relating to engine driven railway trucks. Applied 24 August 1936. Published 25 March 1937.
Besler Systems
461,527 Engine driven trucks for rail vehicles. Applied 25 April 1936. Published 18 February 1937. Dehn, F.B.
464,960 Improvements in motor-driven railway undercarriage trucks. Applied 1 May 1936. Published 28 April 1937.
Online material on Internet shows aircraft and railcar in operation and latter under construction.

Bissell, Levi
Marshall states that Bissell was born in about 1800 and died in New York City on 5 August 1873. Best known for the Bissel[l] Truck, more correctly Bissell truck (two "l" on Patent specification), the American Bissell also devised in about 1840 an air spring for locomotives. This was a small cylinder placed over the axlebox, with its piston rod bearing onthe latter. Sufficient air would then be pumped into the cylinder tomake a pneumatic shock absorber. To ensure a hermetic seal the piston had leather packing, with molasses (treacle) as a lubricant. This device was never adopted, and probably never worked, although at one time Matthias Baldwin contemplated its use as a means to circumvent the Eastwick & Harrison patent for equalizing beams.
The Bissel (Bissell) Truck (both spellings are used), which was widely adopted, was a leading pair of carrying wheels which swivelled around a point just in front of the first driving axle. It was the rear frame of this truck which (by means of two horizontal radial links) was connected to the swivelling point. On a curve the truck slid laterally on short inclined planes.The advantage of this truck was that it did not force the driving axles into an unnatural alignment on curved track. Sekon (Evolution of the steam locomotive pp. 216-17) quotes from an advertisement placed by Bissell "in truly American style" in the columns of the "sober railway newspapers" to note the application of the Bissel truck to locomotives on the Metropolitan Railway and to eight-wheeled carriages on the UK Great Eastern Railway. Patent (British): GB 1273/1857.  USP 62727 of 1857. He also appears to have shown an interesdt in compressed air as a form of traction: see Nicholls. Backtrack, 2001, 15, 403 and GB Patent 13710/1851 Means of obtaining travelling carriage and other vehicles — applicable to other like purposes. (Woodcroft)
See: A. Sinclair, The Development of the Locomotive Engine (1907)
J.H. White, American Locomotives: an Engineering History 1830-1880 (1968).

Bothwell, George Allan.
Of Ontarion Canada invented a geared locomotive with US Patents 832586 and 882618. See Backtrack, 2017, 31, 347

Bowen, Henry Blane
Born in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, on 17 May 1884; died Montreal 20 January 1965. Received technical training at Manchester School of Technology and Ecole de Commerce, Lausanne, Switzerland. Apprenticed at Crossley Bros Ltd, Manchester, 1901-4. In 1905 entered Canadian Railway service. On 15 May 1906 he joined the CPR as a machinist's apprentice at the new Angus shops in Montreal. He was soon on the move again and in December 1906 he transferred to Winnipeg and begin as a draughtsman. During the next thirteen years he progressed to foreman on 5 August 1908; shop engineer on 15 February 1909; chief draughtsman on 1 May 1911; to chief engineer 1 September 1918. On 12.4.1909 he married Eleanor, daughter of William Osborne Cross, Montreal. They had 2 sons and 1 daughter. On 1 January 1920 he was made works manager at Weston shops and on 1 July 1928 became assistant superintendent of motive power at Winnipeg, and on 1 September 1928, he moved to Montreal to become chief of motive power and rolling stock on the retirement of C.H. Temple. In the course of twenty years as head of the department, until retirement on 31 May 1949, he was responsible for the construction of 462 locos, many of them of new design, outstanding among which were the Fl and F2 4-4-4s (1927); H1 4-6-4s (1929); T1 2-10-4s (1929) and VS 0-8-0s (1930). He was responsible for a number of innovations such as nickel-steel boilers and high-strength alloys in the 4-4-4s. Following the use of H1d 4-6-4 No 2850 as the royal train engine in 1939 the class became known as Royal Hudsons. The great 2-10-4s were named the Selkirks:: Locomotive Mag., 1940, 46, 210..  It was Bowen's staunch advocacy of steam power which resulted in the long retention of steam locos on the CPR, while other lines were changing to diesels. His first wife died on 23 May 1950. In August 1950 he married Mrs Louis Papineau. John Marshall. See letter in Locomptive Mag., 1936, 42, 233.

Brandt, C.A.
Cited by Phillipson in 1930 but key reference found post-dates this: Trans. ASME, 1940, 62 (3) 379.

Brooks, Charles E. [Ned]
Born c1887 in Constantinople and migrated to Canada with his parents as a child. Completed his education at Trinity College, Port Hope, Ontario and McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. His railway career began with the Grand Trunk Pacific as a machinist in Western Canada. He progressed in various roles at Rivers and Portage La Prairie, Manitoba., Watrous and Regina, Saskatchewan., Wainwright and Edmonton, Alberta., and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Following the absorption of the bankrupt GTP into the newly created, Canadian National Railways, he was appointed Mechanical Assistant (Locomotives) to the Operating Vice-President in 1920, and in 1923 was made Chief of Motive Power at the CNR Montreal headquarters.That year the CNR took delivery from the Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) of the U-1-a class 4-8-2 Mountain type, and the following year CLC delivered the five T-2-a class booster equipped 2-10-2s, which at the time were the heaviest and most powerful locomotives in the British Empire. Brooks made an inspection tour of USA and Europe in 1923, and was particularly interested in the development of diesel engines. Visiting the William Beardmore Company in Glasgow, he found them developing a new light weight diesel and saw its potential. Orders were placed and the following year the CNR Shops at Point St. Charles installed one in a railmotor. Encouraged, some more railmotors followed, and in November 1925 ED61b class No.15820 made a 2,937 mile (4,727 km) delivery run from Montreal to Vancouver in 72 hours, never shutting down the engine and breaking world records for endurance, economy and sustained speed over distance. Brooks oversaw the development of the general purpose U-2-a class 4-8-4 Confederation (Northern), and order for 40 being shared by CLC and Montreal Locomotive Works in 1927. This was a highly successful design, over 200 eventually being built, in various sub-classes. Brook's masterpiece was No.9000, the first mainline diesel-electric in the world, completed in 1928. This V-1-a class locomotive comprised two 4-8-2 (2-Do-1) units back to back, each with a Beardmore V-12 diesel rated at 1,330 hp at 800rpm, driving a Westinghouse generator. In August 1929 the units commenced daily service on the International Limited, between Montreal and Toronto. In 1932 they were separated and ran other services until retirement in 1939. Brook’s last locomotive was the K-5-a class booster equipped 4-6-4 Hudson in 1930. With 80 inch driving wheels, they were capable of 100 mph and were specially built to compete with Canadian Pacific on the Toronto – Montreal corridor. At 330 tons, they were a formidable machine. With the Depression inhibiting further development, the motive power and car equipment roles were combined under Brooks’ leadership. He was Chief of Motive Power and Car Equipment when he died prematurely on 10 April, 1933, aged 46. Information supplied by Michael Venn of Melbourne, Australia. See also description of twin unit diesel ectric locomotive with Beardmore engines. Locomotive Mag., 1931, 37, 199.

Brown, William Henry
Born Little Britain, Pennsylvania on 29 February 1836; died Belfast 25 June 1910. His parents were Quakers of limited means. Educated Central High School, Philadelphia, later teaching himself engineering and surveying. During the Civil War he served as an engineer. In 1864 he entered the service of the PRR with which he remained for forty years: for the last 25 of which he was chief engineer. His last major work was the Broad Street terminal and station, Philadelphia, 1891-6, with a vast train shed with a roof span of 300ft, the world's largest. Brown was a great believer in stone bridges in preference to steeL Among his important bridges is one across the Susquehanna, five miles west of Harrisburg. Other important works included rebuilding Jersey City station four times, a bndge across the Hackensack River, the elevated line through Newark, New Brunswick, and Elizabeth; Delaware River bndge and RR, a new line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, two new stations in Harrisburg, and the low grade line through the Allegheny mountains at Gallitzen. He retired on 1 March 1906. Marshall

Bruce, Alfred
Best remembered for his Steam locomotive in America, published in 1952 (reviewed Locomotive Mag., 1953, 59, 130) which remains a standard reference today. Bruce was born in West Boylston, Mass., and earned a degree in mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1901. Soon after graduation, he found work at the Rhode Island Locomotive Works as a draughtsman. In 1904, he moved on to Schenectady. He changed jobs again the following year from the Northern Pacific Railway to American Car and Foundry and then back to the American Locomotive Company's New York City office in 1908. He would remain at Alco for another 38 years, designing steam locomotives. In 1924, he was appointed designing engineer for Alco. Retirement in 1946 gave him time to write his book. He died at the age of 76 on 19 January 1955, in Riverhead, Long Island, N.Y. Introduced by Glancey in an off-hand way.

Brush, Charles Francis
Born Euclid, Ohio on 17 March 1849; died 15 June 1929 in Cleveland. Educated: Cleveland Central Catholic High School; University of Michigan, and Case Western Reserve University (1880). Devised an electric arc lamp and a generator that produced a variable voltage controlled by the load and a constant current. In 1876 he secured the backing of the Wetting Supply Company in Cleveland to design his dynamo for powering arc lights. Brush began with the dynamo design of Zénobe Gramme but his final design was a marked divergence, retaining the ring armature idea that originated with Antonio Pacinotti. US Patent 189,997: After comparing it to the Gramme dynamo and other European entrants, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia judged Brush's dynamo superior due to its simpler design and maintainability after completing tests in 1878. Brush produced additional patents refining the design of his arc lights in the coming years and sold systems to several cities for public lighting, and even equipped Philadelphia's Wanamaker's Grand Depot with a system. His lights were easier to maintain, had automatic functions and burned twice as long as Yablochkov candles. His generators were reliable and automatically increased voltage with greater load while keeping current constant. By 1881, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Montreal, Buffalo, San Francisco, Cleveland, and other cities had Brush arc light systems, producing public light well into the 20th century. In 1879, the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation, using Brush's inventions, was formed in Lambeth, London, England. This company eventually moved to Loughborough England and became Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd. In 1880, Brush established the Brush Electric Company in the U.S. and, though successful, faced stiff competition from Thomson-Houston Electric Company, whose arc lights could be independently turned off, and by Edison, whose incandescent lights had a softer warm glow, didn't flicker and were less costly to maintain than arc lights. In 1882, the Brush Electric Company supplied generating equipment for a hydroelectric power plant at St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, among the first to generate electricity from water power in the United States. Thomson-Houston bought out Brush in 1889 and eventually merged to become part of General Electric in 1891. After selling his interests in Brush Electric, Brush never returned to the electric industry. From Wikipedia prompted by George Toms. Loughborough locomotives (Railway Wld, 1979, 40, 169). In Britain the Brush name came to be associated with diesel electric locomotives and there is literature on flash overs and arcing on both the generators and motors: how appropriate

Buchanan, William.
Locomotive Superintendent of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroads: retired after 52 years of railway service. Loco. Mag., 1899, 4, 91.

Calthrop, Samuel Robert
Born in Swineshead Abbey, Lincolnshire on October 9, 1829. Educated St. Paul's School, London and Trinity College, Cambridge. Refused to accept the Athanasian Creed and not ordained and emigrated to the USA where he became a Unitarian Minister. Invented a streamlined train whilst in Roxbury (Mass.). He died in Syracuse in 1917.
Patent US. 49,227/1865 Improvement in construction of railway trains and cars, granted 8 August 1865
Michael Harris. Steam Days, 1999, (114) 114..

Campbell, Allan
Alexander and Allan Campbell were mid-nineteenth century New York civil engineers. Allan worked in South America in both Chile and in the Argentine with William Wheelwright on railways which even had aspirations to cross the Andes

Campbell, Henry Roe
Born in Woodbury, New Jersey on 9 September 1807; died in Woodbury on 6 February 1870. Originator of the 4-4-0 which he patented on 5 February 1836 (USP 9355X) (Locomotive Mag., 1903, 8, 372). Chief engineer of the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad 1832-9. Chief engineer Vermont Central Railroad 1848-55. Marshall updated Wikipedia.

Carnes, John
With Harper established a machine works in 1860 which manufactured logging equipment in Lima, Ohio, where Shay type was manufactured. Locomotive Mag., 1947, 53, 135.

Casey, William Frederick Joseph
Two patents on steam of air operated reversing gear for locomotives: GB 26,821/1913 Improvements in reversing gear for locomotives and the like and GB 7446/1915 Improvements in reversing gear for locomotives. See also Locomotive Mag., 1914, 20, 174-5

Cassatt, A.J.
President of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1899 until his death in 1906. R. Bell shows links between the greatest of English railways (the North Eastern) with this American line. Several NER officials visited Pennsylvania.

Cavin, Gustave
Two patents on steam of air operated reversing gear for locomotives: GB 26,821/1913 Improvements in reversing gear for locomotives and the like and GB 7446/1915 Improvements in reversing gear for locomotives. See also Locomotive Mag., 1914, 20, 174-5

Chapman, E.E.
Mechanical Assistant, Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway: presented paper at a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in Kansas City on 16-19 June 1941 on the Santa Fe Iexperience of high powered Diesel-Electric locomotives.See Locomotive Mag., 1942, 48, 149. .

Cloud, John W.
Mechanical engineer Pennsylvania Railroad at Altoona from 1886 until March 1887 when succeeded by Vogt. Marshall from entry on Axel Vogt.

Coffin, Joel S.
Born in 1861; died 1935. Coffin pulled the Lima Locomotive Works together, starting in 1916 when he and partner Samuel G. Allen purchased the assets of the nearly broke Lima Locomotive Works. Lima was largely an industrial locomotive builder which had only stepped into Class One locomotive construction during 1911. They were not encumbered with the many unique characteristics of locomotive builders like Baldwin and American Locomotive. Their legacy was greatly successful and in many ways contributed to the downfall of the giant Baldwin Locomotive Works, but also made ALCO a sharper competitor. The prototype Super-Power locomotive was Number A-1, of the new 2-8-4 wheel arrangement. In theory, it was the first locomotive that could produce more steam per pound of coal than what the locomotive engine could use to pull the train. It was a highly successful design and quickly embraced by the railroads

Coffin, Lorenzo
Born iin Alton, New Hampshire, USA, on 7 July 1823; died in Fort Dodge, Iowa on 15. January 1915. (Marshall augmented Internet). Not an engineer in the ordinary sense but a tireless campaigner for safety on North American railroads. He identified the three main causes of accidents on: the link and pin couplers, absence of continuous brakes, and alcohol. He fought for the adoption. of the janney automatic coupler and the Westinghouse air brake. In the end he succeeded when the US Senate passed the Railroad Safety Appliance Act on 2 March1893. It Immediately brought about a reduction of 6096 in accidents to railway employees which, in 1881, had totalled 30,000. Passengers also benefited from the improvements.
S H Holbrook, Story o{ American Railroads, New York, 1947; J F Stover, American Railroads, Chicago, 1961.

Cole, Francis J.
Born in England in 1856: Died in Pasadena, California on 11 November 1923, After working on the West Shore and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads he moved to the Rogers Locomotive Works and from 1902 at ALCO where he made major contributions to locomotive design. In 1914 his Locomotive ratios was published. see Locomotive Mag., 1926, 32, 54, . Marshall Atkins Dropping the fire considers that the Cole experimental and demonstrator (with superheater) 4-6-2s built by the American Locomotive Co. for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1907 and 1910, and which led to the celebrated PRR K4 class in 1914 led not only to the Gresley Pacifics, but also to the Britannia class in terms of overall concept (Atkins' italics). Book: Locomotive ratios (1914). Patents:

Collin, John B.
Mechanical engineer Pennsylvania Railroad at Altoona from 1866 until his death on 20 March 1886. Marshall from entry on Axel Vogt. Patent: Sanding device for locomotives, US Patent 271,039, 23 January 1883. Wikipedia 2012-11-08

Cook, T.R.
Had been engineer of Coverdale and Colpitts, consulting engineers, New York City, had been made service manager of the Baldwin Locomotive Works' Paschall station, Philadelphia. Cited by Poultney in theoretical paper on locomotive power presented to I Loco E in 1943

Cooper, Peter
Born and died in New York 12 February 1791 to 4 April 1883. Inventor and builder of the first American steam locomotive. No formal education. At 18 was apprenticed for five years to John Woodward, a New York coach builder. After experience in various businesses he bought a glue factory which he ran with success. In 1828, with two partners, he erected the Canton Ironworks at Baltimore. In 1829 he built Tom Thumb for the Baltimore & Ohio RR, the first steam locomotive to be built in America apart from the experimental machine built in 1825 by John Stevens. It was tested on 25 August 1830 from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills and back. In 1836 he sold the property to the B&O for stock at $45 a share which he soon sold for $230. He now expanded his interests until they induded a wire works at Trenton, NJ, blast furnaces at Pittsburgh, Pa, a rolling mill and a glue factory in New York, foundries at Ringwood, NJ, and Durham, Pa, and iron mines in NJ. In 1854 he rolled the first structural iron for fireproof buildings in the USA Cooper was responsible for the success of the New York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Co of which he was president for 20 years. He also became president of the North American Telegraph Co. As a philanthropist he was an early advocate of paid police and fire departments, sanitary water services and public schools. In 1857-9 he founded the Cooper Institute in New York for the advancement of science and art. Marshall

Corliss, George Henry
Born 2 June 1817 in Easton, New York and died 21 February 1888 (Wikipedia) and H.W. Dickinson A short history of the steam engine. Inventor and manufacturer of high power stationary steam engines as used by Ramsbottom in the rail rolling mills at Crewe. Holley attempted to apply Corliss valve gear to the locomotive, but without success.

Cover, Howell T.
Chief of Motive Power Pennsylvania Railroad 1946-1955

Crawford, D.F.
Invented a mechanical stoker which exploited the Westinghouse compressed air supply to drive it: worked on Pennsylvania Railroad

Crerar, Peter
Born in Breadalbane, Perthshire in about 1785; died in Pictou, Nova Scotia on 5 November 1856. Emigrated to Canada in 1817. Brought railways and locomotives to the Albion Mines at Stellarton to convey coal to the tideway.  See Herb MacDonald in Chrimes and in Early Railways 1

Crocker, Charles
Born in Troy, New York State, on 16 September 1822; died Montery, California, on 14 August 1888. Son of Isaac Crocker, merchant of Troy. He had little education. At an early age he began by helping his father. In 1836 he moved to Marshall County, Indiana, and earned his living at various trades. In 1845 he discovered a bed of iron ore in Marshall County and established a forge under the name of Charles Crocker & Co. When gold was discovered in California he sold this business and led a party including his two younger brothers, Clark and Henry, overland to the Pacific coast. arriving there in 1850. In 1852 he gave up mining and opened a store in Sacramento. In October 1852 he returned to Indiana for a while and married Mary A Deming, By 1854 he was one of the wealthiest and most prominent men in Sacramento. In 1855 he was elected to the city council. and in 1860 to the state legislature. Soon afterwards he became associated with Leland Stanford, Colis P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to connect with the Union Pacific then being built westward from Ornaia, Nebraska. Crocker took charge of construction work, leaving problems of financing and general policy to his associates. Crocker had great energy and strongly supervised large groups of men. He lived in the construction camps. faring no better than his men. and seldom left them except for pressing business. He was constantly moving up and down the line supervising contractors and workers. Under his supervision records were made for speed of track laying. At one time it averaged 3 miles a day through rough country. Work began on 22 February 1863 and was completed on 10 May 1869; seven years ahead of the time allowed by the US government. In 1871 Crocker was elected president of the Central Pacific Railroad of California. In 1884 he brought about the amalgamation of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads and took an active part in constructing the line between San Francisco and Portland. In addition to his railroad interests Crocker was concemed in real estate. banking and industrial interests throughout California. He had great interest in irrigation projects. He built a house in San Francisco costing $1,500,000. destroyed in the fire of 1906.  In 1866 he was seriously injured when thrown from his caniage in New York City and never fully recovered.  Marshall

Dickerman, William Carter
Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 12 December 1874; died New York on 25 April 1946. Gained a degree in mechanical engineering in 1896.He began his career at the Milton Car Works (later American Car and Foundry), where his father was the general manager.During World War I, he was put in charge of all ACF production, and became vice president in charge of operations in 1919.Throughout his career Dickerman demonstrated a life-long interest in the technical aspects of the steam locomotive, backed by his education as an engineer, in his work in behalf of technical societies, and in many appearances as a lecturer on the subject of railroad motive power.of Schenectady, was President of the American Locomotive Company. Dismissed diesels as a technological dead end, and went on to list the improvements that would increase the possibilities of the steam locomotive: roller bearings, integral steel castings, streamlining, superheaters, and coil springs. ALCo executives thus believed that they were committed to technological innovation. But in fact this technological innovation was limited to marginal improvements in the familiar, traditional steam locomotive technology. It did not extend to the development of radically new forms of motive power, such as diesels. In management's opinion, diesels would always be relegated to specialized applications, such as yard switching. See Locomotive Mag., 1931, 37, 234-6.

Dillingham, Benjamin Franklin
Born at Cape Cod on 4 September 1844; died in Honolulu on 7 April 1918. Went to sea as a mariner, but settled in Hawaii wheree he constructed the Oahu Railway to convey pineapple and some passengers. Wikipedia and Locomotive Mag., 1925, 31, 215-17.

Dixon, W.F.
Of Paterson in New Jersey. Acquired his mechanical expertise at the Rogers Locomotive Works. He was sent to Russia by an American syndicate to establish a locomotive manufacturing plant at Sormovo on the west bank of the Volga near Nizhni Novogorod

Dreyfuss, Henry
Born in New York on 2 March 1902; died Pasadena on 5 October 1972. Notable industrial designer of industrial goods including J3a Hudson type for New York Central Railroad. Extensive literature by and about. online info and Glancey

Dripps, Isaac L
Born in Belfast on 14 April 1810; died Altoona, Pennsylvania on 28 December 1892. Whilst a child his parents emigrated to Philadelphia and educated in city schools. At 16 apprenticed to Thomas Holloway, then the largest builder of steamboat machinery in Philadelphia. In 1830 the company formed a subsidiary, the Camden & Amboy Railroad Co in New Jersey, and ordered a Planet type locomotive from Robert Stephenson & Co. In 1831 it arrived in Philadelphia in parts which Dripps transported to Bordentown where he erected it, although he had never seen a locomotive. It was named John Bull. In 1832-3 he added a leading pony truck and pilot (cowcatcher), He drove it on its trial trip on 12 November 1831. According to Le Fleming he experimented with coal burning, inventing the smoke-box deflector plate and the spark-arresting chimney with deflecting cone. His boiler design of 1832 shows the first combustion chamber and a large, wide firebox with sloping back plate, a remarkable forecast of the boiler of a century later. The Monster of 1836 was a 0-8-0 with coupled wheels in two groups connected by gearing. He stayed on the C&A for 22 yrs, at first in charge of locomotive building in Hoboken shops (see Robert L Stevens). He became superintendent of machinery, responsible also for the company's steamboats. Later he became superintendent of motive power and machinery. In 1853 he became partner in Trenton Loco & Machine works. Here he designed and built a wide-tread-wheeled loco for running on different gauges. In 1859, after closure of the firm, he was appointed superintendent of motive power and machinery, Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago RR, and moved with his family to Fort Wayne. During the next 10 years he completely rebuilt the mechanical department, making the shops the most modern in the USA. On 1 April 1870 he became superintendent of motive power and machinery at the Altoona shops of the PRR where he constructed the most extensive railway shops in the USA. Failing health forced him to resign on 31 March 1872, but he continued to serve the PRR as consultant until 1878 when he had to retire. He invented numerous mechanisms, tools, etc, for locomotives, freight and passenger cars and steamboats, but never patented any. Marshall

Dudley, Charles B.
Ph.D chemist with the Pennsylvania Railroad, was the driving force behind the formation of ASTM in 1898. For the Pennsylvania, Dudley investigated the materials that the railroad bought in large quantities. He soon recognized the need for standard material specifications for the railroad's suppliers. Dudley founded ASTM as a place where standards for industrial materials could be developed. Dudley's consensus principle — bringing together the main parties involved in using a standard into one forum to develop a standard — was the very foundation of ASTM. Dudley became the first president of the Society, then headquartered in Philadelphia. ASTM's first standard, Structural Steel for Bridges was written in 1901 by ASTM's first technical committee on steel.

Eames, Fred W.
About a year after John Y. Smith’s brake went on the market, Fred W. Eames received his first patent (No. 153,814, dated 4 August 1874). It appears that the primary difference between Eames’ brake and Smith’s was that the latter used a piston, mounted on the car, while Eames’ used diaphragms mounted separately on each truck. Eames established the Eames Vacuum Brake Company 14 February 1876, and began manufacturing the brakes in his father’s machine shop on Beebee’s Island at Watertown, New York. Off Internet..

Eames, Lovett
Born in New York on 10 September 1810; died in Kalamazoo on 6 September 1868. Baldwin 4-2-0 named Lovett Eames exhibted at Alexandra Palace. Ran demostration trips on GNR to promote Eames brake see above.Locomotive Mag., 1937. 43, 402

Eastwick, Andrew McCalla
Born 14 September 14 1810 in Philadelphia; died 8 February 8 1879. Attended the public schools until his twelfth year. His first employment was in a machine shop, and while working through the day he night school. He next entered the service of Philip Garrett, a Philadelphia locomotive builder and evenyually became a foreman. When 21 he was admitted to partnership, the firm name being Garrett & Eastwick, locomotive builders. In 1835 they took as foreman Joseph Harrison, and in 1837, when Garrett retired, Eastwick admitted Harrison to partnership, forming the firm of Eastwick & Harrison. In 1840 two Russian engineers (Colonels Melnckoff and Kroft) travelling in the United States, were impressed with the locomotives built by Eastwick & Harrison and following negotiations Eastwick and Harrison with Thomas Winans, of Baltimore, entered into contract in the sum of three million dollars with the Russian Government through its agent, Major George Whistler to build locomotives and rolling stock for the St. Petersburg and Moscow railway. In 1844 Eastwick went to Russia. The success of the undertaking won the favour of Czar Nicholas, and other contracts followed, but at the end of the first contract, in 1849, Eastwick returned to Philadelphia. having retired from active business, severing his connection with the firm.

Eaton, Richard
Born 1814; died 1878. Locomotive Superintendent Great Western Railway of Canada 1853-66; then of Grand Trunk Railway until 1873. Introduced coal burning and steel boilers (Internet). See also British-built broad gauge locomotives in Canada. Locomotive Mag., 1940, 46, 301

Eddy, Wilson
1813-1898. Master Mechanic Western Railroad, subsequently Boston & Albany Railroad. Developer of large boilers. Skeletal information in Marshall who quotes White..

Edmonds, George S.
Superintendent of Motive Power on the Delaware & Hudson R.R. at time of high pressure (water-tube boiler) triple expansion 4-8-0 No. 1403 L.F. Loree was in service. Also designer of locomotives with less visible clutter, more akin to British lines..

Ely, Theodore N.
Chief of motive power, Pennsylvania RR retired from railway work in July 1910, with a record of 43 years of service. After employment on other engineering work, he entered the railway service in 1868 on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago, at Pittsburgh, whence he soon afterwards moved to the Philadelphia and Erie division of the P.R.R. After divisional superintendence on various sections of the line from 1869 onwards, in 1893 he was appointed chief of motive power of the whole system, including Pennsylvania Lines East and West of Pittsburgh and Erie. The position he has vacated is now abolished, and A. W. Gibbs, formerly general superintendent of motive power on lines East of Pittsburgh, succeeded him with the new title of chief mechanical engineer Locomotive Mag., 1911, 17, 258

Emerson, George H.
Chief of Motive Power Baltimore & Ohio RR: Instigated Class J1 4-4-4 Lady Baltimore and 4-6-4 Class V2 Lord Baltimore. See Locomotive Mag, 1935, 41, 102-3. See also Macnair, Backtrack, 2020, 34, 580.

Ennis, Joseph Burroughs
Born Wortendyke New Jersey in 1879. Died 22 September 1955. Began work as draughtsman with Rogers Locomotive Co. in 1895. Major designer of ALCO locomotives, becoming Chief Mechanical Engineer in 1912 and Vice President for engineering in 1917. He was a senior vice president between 1941 and his retirement in 1947. Marshall..

Fitch, John
Born in Windsor, Connecticut on 21 January 21 1743; died 2 July 1798. was an American inventor, clockmaker, entrepreneur and engineer. He was most famous for operating the first steamboat service in the United States. He was largely unsuccessful in patenting his steamboat designs. He also designed a model steam locomotive which predated Trevithick and this is preserved in the State Museum in Columbus, Ohio. See Wikipedia and Crittenden Loco. Mag., 1941, 56, 198.

Fleming, Sandford
Born: 7 January 1827 in Kirkcaldy, When 18 he emigrated to Canada where he joined the Northern Railway but his time was marked by conflict with the architect Frederick William Cumberland, with whom he started the Canadian Institute and who was general manager of the railway until 1855. Starting as assistant engineer in 1852, Fleming replaced Cumberland in 1855 but was in turn ousted by him in 1862. In 1863 he became the chief government surveyor of Nova Scotia charged with the construction of a line from Truro to Pictou. When he would not accept the tenders from contractors that he considered too high, he was asked to bid for the work himself and completed the line by 1867 with both savings for the government and profit for himself. In 1862 he placed before the government a plan for a transcontinental railway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans The first part, between Halifax and Quebec became an important part of the preconditions for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to join the Canadian Federation because of the uncertainties of travel through Maine because of the American Civil War. In 1867 he was appointed engineer-in-chief of the Intercolonial Railway which became a federal project and he continued in this post till 1876. His insistence on building the bridges of iron and stone instead of wood was controversial at the time, but was soon vindicated by their resistance to fire. By 1871, the strategy of a railway connection was being used to bring British Columbia into federation and Fleming was offered the chief engineer post on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although he hesitated because of the amount of work he had, in 1872 he set off with a small party to survey the route, particularly through the Rocky Mountains, finding a practicable route through the Yellowhead Pass. One of his companions, George Monro Grant wrote an account of the trip, which became a best-seller. By 1880, with 600 miles completed, a change of government brought a desire for a private company to own the whole project and Fleming was dismissed by Sir Charles Tupper, with a $30,000 payoff. It was the hardest blow of Fleming's life, though he obtained a promise of monopoly, later revoked, on his next project, a trans-pacific telegraph cable.Nevertheless, in 1884 he became a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway and was present as the last spike was driven. After missing a train while traveling in Ireland in 1876 because a printed schedule listed p.m. instead of a.m., he proposed a single 24-hour clock for the entire world, with the 24 hour divisions (labelled A-Y, excluding J) arbitrarily linked to the Greenwich meridian, which was designated G\\ He died: on 22 July 1915 in Halifax, Canada Marshall. Crampsey (portrait)

Fontaine, Eugene
Patented a friction drive 4-2-2 with steeply inclined cylinders. Engravings available on Internet, but photograph in Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1932, 38, 449 shows locomotive at St. Thomas on Canadian Southern Railway. Locomotive constructed by Grant.

Ford, Henry
Ford dabbled in railway operation by acquiring the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton RR and running it in a highly paternalistic manner. As well as maintaining the steam locomotive fleet in superb condition he electrified seventeen miles with concrete overhead structures supporting the 22kV ac catenary. The locomotive was configured as a Do-Do+Do-Do and weighed 375 tons. Hennessey, R.A.S. The meta motors: a lost railway technology. Part 1. Backtrack, 2009, 23, 612...

Forney, Matthias Nace
Marshall notes that he was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania on 28 March 1835 and died in New York City on 14 January 1908. Between 1861 and 1864 he worked for the Illinois Central Railroad where he patented an 0-4-4T (back tank) with outside cylinders. Le Fleming noted that he was a promoter of the New York Elevated Rly., who brought out in 1872 the type oflocomotive for use thereon. This was an 0-4-4 back tank with vertical boiler. Most American tank engines carried their tank at the back and the term "Forney" became general for tank engines in the USA. He took out many patents according to Marshall and had extensive interests in journalism (periodicals and books) about railroads. See also Hennessey Backtrack, 2004, 18, 454.

Fry, Lawford Howard
Born in Canada in 1873, died New York 10 July 1948: was an international authority on railway motive power.Brought to Britain at an early age, and received his general education at Bedford Grammar School from 1886 to 1890. Two years’ apprenticeship in the locomotive shops of the South Eastern Railway’s Ashford works under James Stirling.,Obtained his theoretical training at the Central Technical Institute and at the University of Göttingen and the Technische Hochschule at Hanover. In 1897 he went to the USA and after three years’ further training at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, under S.M. Vauclain, was for the next six years assistant to the latter, being chiefly in charge of testing. He came to London in 1906 as the technical representative in Europe for the Baldwin Company. Seven years later he returned to America to take charge of the metallurgical department of the Standard Steel Works at Burnham, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1930. Subsequently he joined the Edgewater Steel Company, of Pittsburg, as railway engineer, an appointment he resigned in 1943 to become director of research at the Steam Locomotive Research Institute in New York, where under his personal and energetic direction work on locomotive research was greatly accelerated and valuable results obtained. Mr. Fry contributed a number of articles to the journals of the engineering institutions of which he was a member, and he presented two papers to the IMechE, the first in 1908 on “Combustion and Heat Balances in Locomotives”, and the second in 1927 on Experimental Results from a Three-cylinder Compound Locomotive, for which he was awarded the T. Bernard Hall Prize in the following year. He was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which awarded him the Worcester Reed Warner Medal in 1938 for his “contributions relating to improved locomotive design and utilization of better materials in railway equipment”. He was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. (Obituary, Proc. Instn Mrech. Engrs., 1949, 160, 407). Locomotive Mag., 1948, 54, 128

Books
Locomotive proportions. 1911.
Reprinted from The Engineer
A study of the locomotive boiler. Simmons Boardman, 1926.
Frequently cited by more theoretically minded locomotive engineers in 1930s

Fry also contributed to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers

Gibbs, Alfred Wolcott
Born 27 October 1856 in Fort Fillmore in what is now New Mexico; died on 19 May 1922 of a heart attack at his home in Wayne, Pennsylvania. He was educated first at Rutgers College (1873–1874) and then at the Stevens Institute of Technology (1874–1878), graduating in Mechanical Engineering. He joined the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1879 as an apprentice. Gibbs was appointed General Superintendent of Motive Power of Lines East in 1903, replacing William W. Atterbury. He eventually attained the position of Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He was instrumental in the design of a number of important PRR locomotive classes, including the E6 4-4-2 Atlantic type, the K4s 4-6-2 Pacific type, and the L1s 2-8-2 Mikado type. Wikipedia 2016-01-28. Cousin of George Gibbs,

Gilbert, George
Developer of a competitor to the Shay type of logging locomotive, known as the Climax type, which also used vertical or steeply inclined cylinders to drive through bevel gears and shafts. (Rutherford, Backtrack, 1998, 12, 387 (388))

Gilbert, Rufus Henry
Born in Guilford, New York, on 26 January 1832. Trained as a medical practitioner, but became superintendent of the Central Railroad in New Jersey and sought to develop an elevated passenger carrying pneumatic tube system for New York. Died on 10 July 1885. Wikipedia  16-07-2015 and Miles Macnair. Backtrack, 2015, 29, 470 

Graham, Joseph
Born Crawford County, Pennsylvania on  22 May 1842; died Sacramento, California in May 1939. Assistant engineer under J.H. Strobridge and Samuel Montague in construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. When a child his parents had emigrated by steamer from Erie to Illinois, and when aged 5 he worked as a 'water boy' for his father's construction gang, then building the Galena & Chicago Union  Railroad, at first in Illinois. He also worked with his elder brother who was engineer on the Rock Island & Peoria Railroad. In 1860, to further his education, he attended Fulton Seminary, but left in 1861 to enlist in the Civil War. In 1867 he moved to California via Panama, at the request of Montague, and worked as chief assistant to Charles Cadwalader near Truckee. He was then appointed construction engineer in charge of the California-Nevada state line east through Reno and Wadsworth. Graham and his men constructed the grading usually far ahead of the track layers. He was later in charge of grading near Humbolt station, east of Golconda, in Twelve-Mile Canyon on the Humbolt River near Palisade, the heaviest construction between the Sierra Nevada and Promontory, finished  towards the end of 1868. He then moved to the Toano Mountains until January 1869. Following completion of the Transcontinental he worked on many railroad projects in California and Oregon until retirement in 1917. Marshall.

Griggs, Geoge S.
Born in New England in 1805; died in 1870. Marshall is unusually vague, and only incorporated because included in David Ross's Willing servant. In 1834 appointed Master Mechanic of Boston & Providence Railroad. In 1839 patented a continuous brake. Patented wooden cushion driving wheels. Introduced firebrick arch in 1857, and probably invented diamond stack chimney. Locomotive Mag., 1903, 8, 355 has a photograph of Boston & Providence 4-4-0 Danial Nason designed by him..

Gzowski, Casimir Stanislaus
Born in St Petersburg, Russia on 5 March 1813; died Toronto 24 August 1898. Son of Stanislaus, Count Gzowski, a Polish officer in the Imperial Russian Guard. Studied military engineering in Russia and entered the Russian army. In November1830 he joined the Poles in the expulsion of Constantine from Warsaw, but was wounded, captured, imprisoned and exiled. In 1833 he arrived in New York. In 1838 he married Maria Beebe, daughter of an American physician, and they had five sons and three daughters. Lived in USA until 1841 when he moved to Toronto and was employed in the Canadian Dept of Public Works. Left government service in 1848. In 1853 established the firm of Gzowski & Co and obtained the contract for construction of the Grand Trunk Railway from Toronto to Sarnia, 172 miles, completed in 1859. In 1871-3 he built the international bridge at Niagara. Created KCMG 1890; was first president of the Canadian Society of Civil Engrs.Marshall

Hankins, Frederick W.
Chief of Motive Power Pennsylvania Railroad 1927-1941

Hanly, M.J.
President Motreal Locomotive & Machine Works. See Locomotive Mag., 1903, 8, 100

Harrison, Joseph Jr
Born and died in Philadelphia, USA: 20 September 1810; and 27 March 1874. After little formal education apprenticed in 1845 to Frederick D. Sanno, builder of steam engines. Sanno failed, and Harrison was then apprenticed to James Flint. His locomotive work began in 1834 when he obtained employment with William Norris, then engaged with Stephen H Long in building locomotives of Long's design. 1835 became foreman at Garrett & Eastwick, Philadelphia, who had just begun manufacturing locomotives. He was entrusted with the design of the Samuel D. lngham locomotive, the success of which led to the construction of others of the same design. In 1837 Harrison became a partner in the firm of Garrett, Eastwick & Co. In 1839 Garrett retired and the firm became Eastwick & Harrison. In 1838 they were the first to establish the standard American 4-4-0 with 'three-point suspension', patented by Harrison in 1839. Locomotives of this type rapidly became universal throughout America. In 1839 they built the 4-4-0 Gowan & Man, weighing just over 11 tons, which pulled 101 loaded coal cars on the Philadelphia & Reading RR. This achievement attracted the notice of the engineers of the St Petersburg & Moscow Railway and resulted in Harrison going to St Petersburg in 1843 where, in connection with Thomas Winans of Baltimore, he carried out a contract for 162 locos and for iron bogies for 2,500 freight cars. In 1844 Eastwick & Harrison closed their Philadelphia plant and removed some of their equipment to St Petersburg where the firm of Harrison, Winans and Eastwick completed the contract in 1851. Eastwick and Winans remained in Russia to carry out further contracts, but Harrison returned to Philadelphia. In 1859 he patented a new boiler and in 1862 set up a works for its manufacture Marshall .

Haupt, Herman
Born Philadelphia on 26 March 1817; died Jersey City on 14 December1905. Graduated at US Military Academy 1 July 1835 but resigned his commission after 3 months to become assistant engineer on survey of a railway from Norristown to Allentown, Pennsylvania, In 1836 appointed principal assistant engineer in Pennsylvania state service while continuing with railway surveys. In 1840 while constructing the York & Wrightsville Railroad he began the study of bridge construction and published a pamphlet on the subject In 1845-7 he was professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, and wrote his General Theory of Bridge Construction, published 1851. 1847 appointed principal assistant engineer on construction of the PRR and on 1 September 1849 became superintendent of transport and evolved a system of organization for the PRR. From 31 December 1850 to 1 November 1852 he was general superintendent of the road, and then became chief engineer until the opening of the whole line to Pittsburgh including the section through the Allegheny Mountain tunnel. In 1855 he was asked to examine the Hoosac tunnel project on the Troy & Greenfield Raikroad and his favourable report led to his appointment to supervise construction In 1856 he left the PRR to carry out the tunnel which, after immense difficulties, was opened on 9 February 1875. In 1858 he developed a pneumatic drill better than any other in use. During the Civil War in 1862-3 he was appointed chief of construction and transport on USA military railways (see also Wolmar). In 1867 he visited Europe to explain his system of tunnelling machinery. In 1870 appointed chief engr of the Shenandoah Valley  Railroad. 1872-6 he was g mgr pf the Richmond & Danville Railroad. In 1876 appointed by Pennsylvania Transportation Co to const a pipeline to convey crude petroleum from the Allegheny Valley to the tidewater. 1881-4 he was general manager of the Northern Pacific Railroad when he saw its completion to the Pacific. 1886-8 he was president of the Dakota & Great Southern Railroad. 1892-1905 president of Compressed Air & Power Co. His published works include: Military Bridges, 1864; Tunnelling by Machine, 1876; Street Railway Motors, 1893. In 1838 he married Ann Cecilia Keller of Gettysburg: they had 11 children. Marshall.

Heisler, Charles
Rutherford, Backtrack, 1998, 12, 387 (388) notes that from 1894 the Stearns Manufacturing Co. of Erie Pennsylvania marketed a logging type of locomotive with a Vee-type engine mounted under the boiler and driving through shafts and bevel gears: this had been developed by Charles Heisler.

Henley, Russell Gray
Born in Walkerton in King and Queen County on 17 May 1884; died in Roanoke on 6 June 1953. Served apprenticeship at Richmond Locomotive Works and when 21 entered service of Norfolk & Western Railroad. In 1924 he became assistant to the Superintendent of motive power and became superintendent on 1 June 1928. Worked with Pilcher on design of Mallet 2-6-6-4 and 2-8-8-2 for heavy coal haulage. On 1 February 1941 he became general superintendent of motive power. He was a member of ASME. Roanoke Times 7 June 1953. Glancey shows his contribution to the continuance of coal burning locomotives in Virginia. Experimental automatic 4-8-0 Locomotive Mag. 1947, 53, 133-5.

Hill, Howard G.
Started as an apprentice machinist on Texas and New Orleans Railroad and beacme a mechanical engineer and a reservist in the Railway Branch of the US Army in 1923. During World War 2 he had a key role in designing in asspociation with American locomotive building industry the locomotives and rolling stock ordered by the Army for use in Europe. His encounters with Roy Hart-Davis or Davies are outlined in Backtrack, 2017, 31, 433

Hinkley, Holmes
Born Hallowell, Maine, USA, in 1793; died 1866. Worked as a carpenter until 1823, then began as a machinist in Boston. In 1831 opened a small machine shop in partnership with Gardner P. Drury and Daniel F. Child. Produced his first locomotive in 1840, a 4-2-0. His works soon became the largest locomotive manufacturers in New England. During the mid 1850s Hinkley was one of the major locomotive builders in the USA, but production later fell rapidly and the works closed in 1889. Hinkley delegated design work to John Souther, but the firm was never in the forefront with design because they favoured inside cylinders and other outdated practices. Marshall .

Huntington, Collis Potter
Born Harwinton, Conn, on 22 October 1821; died near Raquette Lake, NY on 13 August 1900. Railroad promoter and capitalist. Left school at 14 and, went to New York and pedalled merchandise, mainly watches, throughout the southern states. 1842 opened a store at Oneonta, NY. In 1849, with his wife, he set out for California with other 'fortyniners'. In a 3-month wait in Panama he traded with success. In Sacramento he dealt in miners' supplies. In 1860 his opportunity came when he met T.D. Judah who proposed to build a railway over the Sierra Nevada mountains as part of a transcontinental route, and Huntington put his savings into the enterprise. In 1861 the Central Pacific Railroad Co was formed. Once government grants were secured Huntington and his associates Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins and Leland Stanford, known as the 'Big Four', pushed the work through. Judah died in 1863 and Huntington's party assumed control and the railway was completed to a join with the Union Pacific Railroad on 10 May1869. Huntington and his associates next interested themselves in a line from San Francisco via El Paso to New Orleans, in the name of the Southern Pacific Railroad which subsequently leased the Central Pacific and California Railroads, The line to New Orleans was completed on 12 January 1883. Until April 1890 Stanford remained president of the Central Pacific and then of the SP. Huntington was agent and attorney for the SP and on the boards of directors of the SP and Central Pacific. Outside the SP his principal interest was in the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad which he acquired in 1869, becoming president, and extending it to Memphis, Tenn, and founding the town of Newport News, Va as a deep-sea terminal. He was also president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co and of the Mexican International Railway Co, and he had many other connections. Marshall

Ingersoll, Howard L.
Of the New York Central Railroad. Introduced the modem locomotive booster in 1919. Le Fleming. Locomotive Mag., 1921, 27, 86-8
USP 1339395 Booster motor for locomotives.  Filed 22 May 1919. Patented 11 May 1920.
USP 1380348 Controlling mechanism for booster-motors 15 October 1920
USP 1596878 Method of and apparatus for operating booster-supplemented locomotives. 2 December 1922

Jabelmann, Otto
Date and place of birth still to be traced. Died in January 1943? whilst visiting England to investigate railway problems at the behest of W. Averell Harriman and concluded that British railways needed 1200 more locomotives, but that Jabelmann died before the report was completed (Savage's Inland transport  footnote on page 407). In July 1936, William Jeffers, who had become president of the Union Pacific Railroad in October 1937 named Otto Jabelmann as his Assistant General Superintendent of Motive Power, with his responsibilities being the head of the newly organized Bureau of Research. Jabelmann was to head the design of both a new freight locomotive, which became the 4-6-6-4 Challenger, and a new passenger locomotive, which became the 4-8-4 Northern. Jabelmann became Vice President of Research and Mechanical Design in May 1939, and continued to influence the design of UP's locomotives, passenger cars and freight cars. He was responsible for the design of the high speed Mallets (Challengers and Big Boys) used on the Union Pacific See (briefly): Backtrack, 2001, 15, 554. The Big Boy was the largest steam locomotive in the world  in virtually every dimension; being designed to haul heavy freight over Sherman Hill in Wyoming and over the Wahsatch Mountains of Utah. The large 14-wheel tender attached to Big Boy could carry 28 tons of coal and 24,000 gallons of water. This was enough to feed the locomotive for about an hour when hauling a train over the Wahsatch or Sherman Hill. The two mechanical stokers enabled the Big Boys to consume 9,9 tons of coal per hour. In fact, a fuel stop was usually required at Red Buttes or Harriman between Cheyenne and Laramie, a distance of 55 miles. A total of 25 Big Boys were constructed for the U.P. at a cost of about $265,000 each. The first order, No. 4000-4019, was placed in 1940. The other five, No. 4020-4024, were ordered in 1944. The 4-8-8-4s built for the U.P. were the only locomotives ever built with this wheel arrangement. The engines were used regularly until 1959. See Loco Profile No. 31. Steam electric locomotive with oil-fired high pressure boiler and condensing turbines with final drive as per diesel electric see Locomotive Mag., 1939, 45, 231.

James, W.T.
F.W. Brewer's article The invention of the link motion. Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1933, 39, 373-5 notes that James invented a crude form of expansion link gear of the "Stephenson" type for the Baltimore & OHio RR in about 1838. 

Janney, Eli Hamilton
Born in Loudoun County Virginia on 12 November 1831 and died at Alexandria, Virginia on 16 June 1912. Inventor of automatic coupler, patented in 1868 and subsequently improved. Marshall. On April 1, 1873, Janney filed for a patent entitled Improvement in car-couplings claiming a knuckle style couplers which is still in use on railways. He was awarded US Patent 138,405 on April 29, 1873. An Espacenet search through up: 2332/1905 Improvements in and relating to car couplings. and 26483/1909 Improvements in and relating to car couplings which greatly post-date British uptake of this type of coupler.

Jervis, John BIoomfield
Born in Huntington, New York State on 14 December 1795; died Rome, NY, on 12 January 1885. Pioneer of railways in USA. His family moved to New York in 1788 and later worked in his father's lumber business. Served under Benjamin Wright on the survey of the Erie Canal and in 1819 was made resident engineer of 17 miles of the canal, 1823 became superintendent of 50 miles and responsible for traffic. In 1825 he became principal assistant to Wright on the Delaware & Hudson Canal & Railway. On the resignation of Wright in 1827 Jervis became chief engineer concerned with the railway from Honesdale to mines at Carbondale, Pa, 16 miles. He recommended inclined planes with stationary engines and level sections worked by locomotives. He trained other men including Horatio Allen and prepared a specification for the Stourbridge Lion, one of the first locomotives in the USA. Jervis left the DHRR in  May1830 to become chief engineer of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad. For this he surveyed a route which could be worked by locomotives throughout. He designed the 4-2-0 Experiment, later renamed Brother Jonathan: the first engine with a bogie, which was built in 1832 by the West Point Foundry Co. The 4-2-0 is known as the Jervis type. In its day it was the fastest locomotive in the world. On completion of the MHRR and the Schenectady & Saratoga, of which Jervis was also chief engineer, he became chief engineer to the Chenango (NY) Canal in April 1833, and of the enlargement of the Erie Canal in 1836. After a period on municipal water supplies he became chief engineer of the Hudson River Railroad in 1847. In 1850 he spent 4 months in Europe, after which he built the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad and the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad. In 1861 he became general superintendent of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. Resigned in 1864 but remained as consultant until 1866 when he retired. At his death his home and library at Rome became the Jervis Library by his bequest. Port Jervis, NY, is named after him. In 1927 the Delaware & Hudson named their finest loco, No 1401, after him. Author of several political and engineering works. Marshall and Le Fleming and Wikpipedia (2012-07-11)

Johnson, Alba B.
President of Baldwin Locomotive Works: retired 1919: see Locomotive Mag., 1919, 25, 135. Born in 1850s; died in 1935

Johnson, J.B.
Cited by Andrew Dow The railway p. 52 for experiments on wheel rail contact area and load dependence (Rly Engr., 1895 March). Experiments performed in 1889.

Johnson, Ralph Paine
Born 1890; died 1980 (Glancey): Chief Engineer, Baldwin Locomotive works. Designed 3765 class oil-burning 4-8-4 for Santa Fe which had to cope with 1 in 28.5 gradients and yet be capable of 100 mile/h running. Later designed T1 4-4-4-4 which were extremely fast, but suffered from oscilllating cam Franklin poppet valves and slipping.: author of:
The Steam Locomotive., 2nd ed. New York: Simmons Boardman, 1945.

Johnstone. F.W.
Inventor of articulated locomotives used on Mexican Central Railway and system of compounding. A 4-6-0+4-6-0 with a single frame and two engine units is illustrated in Kitson Clark's ILocoE Paper No. 87 C.R.H. Simpson described another Johnstone 2-6-0+0-6-2 compound with annular low pressure cylinders: Locomotive Mag., 1938, 44, 357

Jones, Harry W.
Chief of Motive Power Pennsylvania Railroad 1941-1946

Jones, L.B.
Engineer of Tests Pennsylvania Railroad. ASME paper New York, 2-6 December 1940: Train acceleration with steam locomotives. Trans. ASME, 1941, 63 (5), 431-8: limitations due to valve gear.

Keefe, Michael Callaghan
Patent: US 866284 Catcher and delivery system for railways. Applied 19 February 1907. Published 17 September 1907. Assigned to Railway Time Saving Ass. See Christensen LMS J (38) 12

Kiefer, Paul Walter
Born in Delaware in 1888; died 1968. Educated in the public schools and Central Institute, Cleveland, Ohio, followed by a course of specialized study in New York on locomotive and car design and operation. He completed a four-year apprenticeship and subsequently held various posts in the maintenance and equipment engineering departments. In 1919 he was in charge of the dynamometer car and in 1920 became chief draughtsman in the locomotive department. Later he successively became Assistant Engineer Rolling Stock, Engineer Motive Power, and Engineer Rolling Stock. In 1926 Kiefer was appointed Chief Engineer Motive Power and Rolling Stock. From 1 January 1926 Kiefer took over as Chief Mechanical Engineer of Motive Power and Rolling Stock of the New York Central System. At that time, its passenger business had grown to a point where many of its main line trains had to be operated in sections because the Class K-5 Pacifics assigned to passenger service could only haul a maximum of 12 cars. Kiefer quickly decided to proceed with an experimental 4-6-4 locomotive and selected the American Locomotive Company to build it. He followed the example of Lima's William E. Woodard and designed a locomotive with a large large grate area and a four wheel trailing truck It was successful and became the J class. The President, Pat Crowley, suggested the name Hudson for the type. The J3a series were elegantly streamlined to mattch the rolling stock of the Twentieth Century Limited to a design by Henry Dreyfuss. Glancey makes much of the train and its motive power. Kiefer published A practical evaluation of railroad motive power. He was a member of the American Branch of the Newcomen Society of England and of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He had the honorary degree of M.E. of Stevens Institute of Technology and received the A.S.M.E. Medal, 1947, for work in railroad transportation. His Mohawk 4-8-2 for fast freight and then mixed traffic duties is considered by Poultney in Locomotive Mag., 1942, 48, 208 and Locomotive Mag., 1943, 49, 10.
Book: A practical evaluation of railroad motive power. Simmonds Boardman Publishing Co. Reviewed Locomotive Mag., 1948, 54, 98.

Kiesel, William F.
Designer of fast 4-6-0 for Pennsylvania Railroad and developer of formulae for assesseing locomotive power.

Kirchhof, Julius
Chief engineer at Franklin, came originally from Austria, but had previously worked for the Dabeg Company in France, so he had Chapelon connections, and indeed Chapelon observed poppet valve tests at Franklin in 1939.
Patents relating tto poppet valve gear:
US 2243055 Locomotive valve actuating mechanism, applied 7 July 1938. published 20 May 20 1941
US 2155195 Adjustable thrust bearing for valve springs, applied 28 October 1935 published 18 April 1939

Knight, Jonathan
Born Bucks County, Pennsylvania on 22 November 1787; died East Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 22 November 1858. Civil engineer, Baltimore & Ohio RR. Largely self educated. At 21 began as a school teacher and surveyor. In 1816 appointed to survey and map Washington County, Pennsylvania. Assisted in surveys for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and the national road between Cumberland, Maryland and Wheeling, West Virginia, which, in 1825 he extended through Wheeling and through Ohio and Indiana to Illinois. This important work brought him into prominence as an engineer and in 1827 he was appointed by the Baltimore & Ohio RR Co to survey part of the route. In 1828-9 he accompanied Whistler and McNeill to England to study railways and locomotives. On return to USA he was appointed chief engineer to the Baltimore & Ohio RR, responsible for designing structures and machinery and letting contracts. On leaving in 1842 he became a consulting engineer. Marshall.

La Mont, Walter Douglas
Inventor of forced circulation watertube boiler (USP 1,545,668, applied 1918, granted 1925 and many others). Dickinson, H.W. A short history of the steam engine. 1938. Stanier considered employing this type of boiler on an advanced turbine locomotive. One such boiler installed at Imperial Chemical Industries, Nantwich (Sir Harold Hartley connection? KPJ) See Barnes. Only one British patent: 517,323 of 1940. Rutherford, Backtrack, 2002, 16, 515: skeletal diagram p. 516..

Latrobe, Benjamin Henry
Born in Philadelphia on 19 December1806; died Baltimore 19 October 1878. Son of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), an architect and civil engineer. Educated Georgetown College. In 1817 he moved to Baltimore where he studied mathematics at St Mary's College 1821-3. After a short career in law he obtained a position as engineer on the Baltimore & Ohio RR in 1831. He was soon chief assistant to Jonathan Knight chief engineer. In 1832 he was placed in charge of the survey of a line from Baltimore to Washington and later built the Thomas viaduct 9 miles SW of Baltimore, the first stone railway viaduct in the USA. In 1835 he became chief engineer of the Baltimore & Port Deposit RR for which he built 34 miles from Baltimore to Havre de Grace, Maryland. He then returned to the B & O and built the line through the mountains from Harper's Ferry to Cumberland in 1836-42. Knight resigned as chief engineer on 30 September 1842 and Latrobe was appointed his successor. From 1847 Latrobe laid out and built the extension to Wheeling, West Virginia, on the Ohio River, 200 miles of railway, including 113 bridges and 11 tunnels in less than 4 years. He next built the North West Virginia RR (1851-2) for the B & O. Latrobe originated the railroad unit of work, the 'ton-mile', and established the maximum gradient of I in 45.5 (2.2%). He retired in 1875. His son Charles Hazelhurst Latrobe also achieved distinction as a railway engineerr. Marshall

Latrobe, Charles Hazelhurst
Born in Baltimore on 25 December 1834; died in Baltimore on19 September1902. Son of Benjarnin Henry Latrobe. Educated at St Mary's College. Baltimore, and learned civil engineering under his father and then on the B & O. Later he moved to Florida as chief engr on the Pensacola & Georgia RR After the Civil War he returned to Baltimore and 186&-77 worked with his father and Charles Shaler Smith in the Baltimore Bridge Co. One of his works was the Verrugas Bridge on the Peru Central Railway 575ft long and 252ft high. Marshall

Lewis, David Miller
Inventor of draughting system which aimed to control back pressure. Took out several US Patents in 1920s: e.g. USP 1,539,125 of 1925. Company known as Lewis Draft Appliance. Lawson Billinton modified one of his K class 2-6-0s with the apparatus. British patent GB 161,943 (15 April 1920): Improvements in method of and apparatus for controlling back pressue and draft in locomotives using dash-pots (published 11 July 1922)...

Lipetz, Alphonse
Born in 1881 in Poland; died in 1950. Lipetz was educated at the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, from which he received the degree of Engineer Technologist (mechanical engineer) of the first grade in 1902. In 1903 he entered railway service in Russia as an apprentice on the Moscow-Kiev-Voronesh Railway, later serving as fireman, locomotive driver, inspector, and assistant master mechanic. From 1906 to 1909 he was assistant professor of thermodynamics and railway mechanical engineering at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, also passing examinations preliminary to degree of Doctor of Engineering. For three years he held administrative positions on the Tashkent Railway, and for the three years following was chief of the locomotive department, Ministry of Railways, Russia. From 1915 to 1920 he served the Russian Railways in the United States, first as representative of the Russian Ministry of Railways and then as assistant chief and, later, chief of the Russian Mission of Ways of Communications in the United States. Since 1920 he has been connected with the American Locomotive Company, first as European representative in Paris, and since 1925 as consulting engineer at Schenectady. Consultant to ALCO. Professor at Pudue University from 1927 (collection of papers at Library thereat). Patent US 2034585  for a pneumatic drive diesel locomotive filed 10 October 1932, published 17 March 1936. ASME papers including Tractive Effort of Steam Locomotives (Locomotive Ratios—II). Consultant on Big Boy 4-8-8-4 project. Glancey made the introduction: remainder off Internet.

Long, Stephen Harriman
Born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire on 30 December 1784; died AIton, Illinois on 4. September 1863 .Graduated from Dartmouth College in 1809. In 1814, after a period of teaching, he entered the army as an engeerr. Became an explorer and in July 1820 discovered the peak in the Rockies named after him. In 1823 he became interested in railway routes. In 1826 he patented a coal-burning locomotive. In 1827 he was assigned by the War Department as consulting engineer for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and in association with Jonathan Knight selected the route. Later president of its board of engineers. In 1829 he published his Railroad Manual, the first American work on the subject. In 1832, with William Norris and several partners, he formed the American Steam Carriage Co. Its unorthodox designs were not a success and after building about 6 engines the partnership was dissolved in 1834. He then surveyed routes for a railway in Georgia and Tennessee. 1837-40 he was chief engineer of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad. He was interested in bridge construction, on which he published pamphlets in 1830 and 1836. Marshall  

Loree, Leonor Fresnel
Marshall states born Fulton City in Illinois on 23 April 1858 and died in West Orange, New Jersey on 6 September 1940. He was a civil engineer and railway executive. Educated Rutgers College. He worked both for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the US Army Corps of Engineers. In 1884 he became engineer of maintenance of way, Indianapolis and Vincennes division of the Pennsyvania RR, and in 1888 in its Pittsburgh division which, with its large traffic in ore and coal, and many curves, was considered a severe operating problem. Loree increased operating efficiency, introducing the lap siding. His continued progress led to him being made general manager of Penn Lines West in 1896 and fourth vice president in 1901. Early in 1901 the Pennsylvania acquired a controlling interest in the Baltimore & Ohio to which Loree was elected vice president. His innovations and leadership resulted in much improved efficiency and co-operation with other railroads. He introduced Walschaerts valve gear and Mallet locomotives.  He gradually became responsible for more railroads and took a leading role in guiding the course of railroad politics in the eastern states. In 1922 he published Railroad Freight Transportation, an outstanding analysis. POn the Delaware & Hudson he was responsible (as President) for the eponymous 4-8-0 No. 1403 L.F. Loree: a triple expansion compound with water-tube boiler: see Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1933, 39, 227.

McAdoo, William Gibbs
Born in Marietta, Georgia on 31 October 1863. Died Washington DC on 1 February 1941. President of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Co. which constructed a tube tunnel under the Hudson which opened in 1908. Politician who died in Washington DC on 1 February 1941. Highly influential in finance during WW1 and instigated the USRA standard locomotives. See Thayer ILocoE Paper 105. Also Wikipedia (2015-005-06)

McCormick, George
Born Columbus, Texas, on  15 July 1872; died Houston, Texas, on 5 April 1945, He received his engineering degree at Texas A&M College in 1891 and entered the Houston shops of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway as a machinist apprentice. In 1893 he became draughtsman, and in 1894 he was transferred to San Antonio to supervise the redesigning of locomotives. In San Antonio he was captain of the Belknap Rifles. He returned to Houston as chief draughtsman and served in the Houston Light Guards. He was captain of that group when it became Company A, First Texas Volunteer Infantry, for the Spanish-American War in 1898. After the war he became chief draughtsman for the railroad. He was appointed mechanical engineer in 1900, became assistant superintendent of the El Paso division in 1911, was assistant general manager of the Houston division in 1913, and in December 1916 became general superintendent of the Southern Pacific. Because of his contributions to railroad engineering, the National Association of Manufacturers named him a "Modern Pioneer" in 1940. His inventions included retaining clips, a locomotive boiler, a safety tie bar, and various improvements in the lubrication of locomotive bearings. He served on many committees of the Association of American Railroads. On 6 June 1942, Texas A&M conferred on him an honorary doctorate of engineering. McCormick married Lelia May Hill at Weimar on December 6, 1899. On November 23, 1937, he married Mrs. Eddie Hill Ratliff of Weimar. After his retirement from the general superintendency of the Southern Pacific, he divided his time between Columbus and Redwood City, California. Mountain type locomotive: Locomotive Mag., 1924, 30, 173-4

MacFarland, Helon B.
Possibly: McFaralnd. Engineer of tests of the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa FC R.R., U.S.A. He made a long and elaborate series of experiments on every class of engine on that railroad, which were recorded very fully in a paper read by him in 1912 before the International Fuel Association at Chicago. In practically all these tests MacFarland found that the back pressure was nearly constant at all speeds, and did not increase as the speed increased. From these tests he deduced that the back pressure horse-power was equal to a constant multiplied by the speed, the constant differing with the dimensions and design of each engine. For American 4-4-2 and 4-6-2 type heavy passenger engines the constant varies from 6 to 10, according to the design, and this figure multiplied by the speed in miles per hour gives the back pressure horse-power at that speed. The engines tested were considerably larger than British express engines and the mean back pressure in psi was also considerably greater (Ahrons discussion on C.J. Allen ILocoE paper).
USP 1,173,447 Muffler for locomotives and the like. Applied 15 July 1914. Published 29 February 1916..
USP 1,125,361 Draft-inducing means for locomotives and the like.Applied 20 December 1913. Published 19 January 1915.

McNeill, William Gibbs
Born Wilmington, North Carolina on 3 October 1801; died Brooklyn on 16 February 1853. Son of Dr Charles Donald McNeill. His great-grandfather, after the Battle of Culloden, had emigrated from Scotland with the famous Flora McDonald in 1746. Educated near New York and began his career in the army where he became a friend of George Washington. Whistler. In 1823 transferred to the Corps of Topographical Engineers and was employed to ascertain the practicability and cost of building a railway or canal between Chesapeke Bay and Ohio River across the Allegheny mountains. He also surveyed the James river and Kanawha canals and the Baltimore & Ohio RR. In recognition of his work he was made a Member of the Board of Engineers and in 1828, with Whistler and Jonathan Knight he was sent to England to study railway construction and there met George Stephenson. Convinced of the practicability of railways he returned to the USA where he and Whistler became joint engineers on several projects in the eastern states. With Whistler, or alone, he was engaged on the Baltimore & Ohio; Baltimore & Susquehanna; Paterson & Hudson River; Boston & Providence; Providence & Stonington; Taunton & New Bedford; Long Island; Boston & Albany; and Charleston, Louisville & Cincinnati. In 1834 he became brevet-major of engineering. 1837 resigned from the army and became engineer to the state of Georgia, conducting surveys for a railway from Cincinnati to Charleston. In 1842 he became involved in quelling political disturbances. In 1851 he visited Europe in an attempt to recover his declining health, and in London he was the first American to be elected MICE But his health had been damaged by overwork and on his return to the USA he died suddenly. Marshall.

McQueen, Walter
One of that multitude of Scotsmen (Marshall born 1817, died 1893) who participated in the early development of the American locomotive, Walter McQueen built his first locomotive in 1840 at Albany. This was Old Puff, a Norris type machine. He was later master mechanic ('the best master mechanic in the country') at the Schenectady Locomotive Works and was evidently the life and soul of that Company, becoming superintendent in 1852 and subsequently a vice-president. He did much to develop the American 4-4-0, and in 1848 introduced the smokebox saddle. The latter, in the form of a plate, was primitive compared with Mason's later box form saddle, but nevertheless may be regarded as the forerunner of this component. See: J. H. White, American Locomotives: an Engineering History 1830-1880 (1968).

Mahone, William
Born in Vermont, USA, on 1.December 1826; died Washington 8 October 1895. Civil engineer and president of the Norfolk & Western Railroad. In 1851 he became enginee of the Norfolk & Petersburg Railroad of which he became president, chief engineer and superintendent in 1861. He served as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. Returned to railway work in 1867 and in 1870 created the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad out of three short lines from Norfolk to Bristol, thus becoming president of what in 1881 became the Norfolk & Western Railroad. In 1880 he was elected to the US Senate. In  February1855 he married Ortelia Butler and they had 3 children. Marshall .

Mann, Zadok H.
Patented with Levi B. Thyng, both of Lowell, Massachusetts: Iimprovement in the mode of constructing locomotive-engines. USP No. 628, 10 March 1833 [but 1838 given in Locomotive Mag. 1921, 27, 20]. additional info off Internet

Marsh, Sylvester
Born in White Mountain Village, New Hampshire, USA, on 30 Septeember 1803; died Concord, New Hampshiire on 30 December 1884. Builder of the first mountain rack railway Aged 19 he walked 150 miles to Boston to find employment In 1833 he moved to Chicago, then a settlement with a population of only 300, and became prominent in the meat canning industry. In 1855 he took up the idea of a cog railway to the summit of Mount Washington close to his old home. After many attempts he obtained a concession and the assistance of financiers. Work began in 1866 and on 3 July1869 the line was opened, one of the roughest and oddest railways ever built The original locomotive is preserved and the line still operates. The ladder-type rack formed the prototype of that designed by Riggenbach. John Marshall

Mason, William
Born Mystic, Connecticutt on 2 September 1808; died Taunton, Massachusetts on 21 May 1883. Locomotive manufacturer. Began in textiles, inventing improvements to textile machinery. In 1835 went to Taunton and in 1842 purchased the plant of Leach & Keith, producing textile machinery and general engineering. Began building locomotives in 1852, completing his first on 11 October 1853. The 700th was completed a week after his death. He built locomotives 'for fun' (his statement) and made no profit on them. His locomotives were noted for their beauty and symmetry of design and excellence of workmanship, and they influenced North American locomotive construction. He also manufactured railroad car wheels with tubular spokes. Marshall. See also Internet and H.M. Le Fleming in Illustrated encyclopedia of world railway locomotives.

Miller, E.L.
E.L. Miller ordered Baldwin's second full size locomotive and the first to use Baldwin's patented "half crank" in which the wheel formed an arm of the driving crank by the use of an offset extension of the axle fastened to a wheel spoke. The engine was ordered in 1833. This locomotive, the Charleston & Hamburg's tenth, was named for Miller and was completed on February 18, 1834. The E.L. Miller was the first C&H locomotive to have a swivelling four-wheel truck (bogie) at the front and a pair of 54in driving wheels with the half crank located behind the firebox. The drivers were cast of solid bell metal, but these brass wheels which were to have superior adhesion soon wore out. No other locomotives were built with the same feature, although some were built later with brass tires. The C&H was disappointed in the performance of the engine and did not order another Baldwin product until 1836 when its 28th engine, The Philadelphia was ordered

Miller, Edward F.
Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who assessed performance of locomotive pop safety valves, notably Cole type: see Locomotive Mag., 1911, 17, 247 and ASTM report (pdf online)

Millholland, James
Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1812 and died in 1875. Marshall states that he was a pioneer of coal-burning on the Philadeplphia & Reading Railroad in 1855. As an apprentice he had assisted with the construction of Tom Thumb. In 1863 he designed an 0-12-0 (see Locomotive Mag., 1928, 34, 386). He was the innovator of a crank axle for inside-cylinder locomotives, a form of truss bridge, six-wheeled freight cars, fireboxes to burn anthracite and a form of superheating, feed-water heaters and steel tyres. Marshall cites White's American locomotives: an engineering history, 1830-1880.

Mitchell, Alexander
Born in Nova Scotia in 1832; died 1908. Locomotive engineer and originator of the 2-8-0 type. Began as a machinist in the Camden & Amboy shops. 1859-61 assistant superintendent of Trenton locomotive works, New Jersey: then joined the Lehigh Valley RR until his retirement in 1901. In 1866 he built the first 2-8-0 named Consolidation which gave its name to the type which became the most numerous in the USA. The name commemorated the consolidation of the Lehigh & Mahoning RR with the Lehigh Valley RR. In 1867 he assisted in the design of the first 2-10-0 to be built in the USA.

Muhlfeld, John Ehrardt
Born Peru, Indiana on 18 September 1872. Died New York on 19 June 1941. Trained at Purdue University. Superintendent of Motive Power Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Master Mechanic Grand Truk Railway of Canada. In 1910 established himself as a Consulting Engineer. (John Marshall). Became involved in experiments with pulverized fuel (see publication) and David Jackson's J.G. Robinson: a lifetime's work (p. 192 et seq) for experiments involving Robinson 2-8-0 type. Marshall claims that Muhlfeld was responsible for the first Mallet locomotives in the USA. Three cross compound 2-8-0s were constructed for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. A triple expansion 4-8-0 with a boiler pressure of 500 psi and a water tube firebox, but with a fire tube boiler was also supplied. These locomotives are barely mentioned by van Riemsdijk. This is mainly from Marshall (including the publications, only the last of which is a book: verified Library of Congress Catalog): remainder presumably reports. See also Le Fleming in: P. Ransome-Wallis, Concise Encyclopedia of World Railway Locomotives (1959).
Publications
Pulverized fuel for locos. New York. 1916
Tractive power and haulage capacity of steam locos. New York, 1924.
Economics of railway motive power and train service. New York, 1935.
The railroad problem and its solution. New York: Devin Adir, 1941. 290pp.
Articles in 14th and 15th editions of Encyclopedia Britannica. and probably involved in eight volume Complete Practical Railroading (Chicago: International School of Engineers, 1911)
Also may have contributed paper at 7th International Railway Congress in Washington in 1905.

Murray, William S.
Youngest of a family of five children, attended St. John's College at Annapolis and then Lehigh University of Pennsylvania, in which he completed the electrical engineering course. He then accepted a position in the shops of the Westinghouse Electric and. Manufacturing Company, where he served as an apprentice for two years and from that position was graduated to the testing department, hence he passed on to the construction department and was later placed in charge of engineering and construction for the New England district of his company. Later he was chosen for work on the first high tension transmission plants in the east, the economic feature of which suggested to Murray at that time the application of the high voltage overhead system to railroad electrification, which several years later he installed on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. This system  was then adopted as standard on all the Swiss government railroads and is also standard with the Pennsylvania system. Murray was directly connected with the New York, New Haven a Hartford Railroad Company as their electrical engineer for eight years and ou the 1st of January, 1917, accepted the office of assistant to the president of the Housatonic Power Company and was later elected to its presidency (Internet). Conducted tests on electric shunting locomotives: Locomotive Mag., 1914, 20, 217

Nicholson, John L.
Inventor of thermic syphon, sometimes known as Nicholson thermic syphon (or siphon): large number of patents: key ones between about 1816 and 1926. No biographical data other than of Chicago.

Norris, Septimus
Born in 1818 and died in Philadelphia in 1862. Locomotive manufacturer. Brother of Richard and William. He was active in the development of coal-burning locomotives and was the first to use a long-wheelbase leading bogie truck. Septimus was probably responsible for the first 4-6-0 locomotive, Chesapeake, which the Works turned out in 1846, and he patented several inventions: boiler designs and, with Jonathan Knight, a locomotive valve gear.

Norris, William
William Norris was born Baltimore, Maryland on 2 July 1802 and died in Philadelphia 5 January 1867 (Marshall). William was one of several brothers associated with the Norris Locomotive Works, Septimus was probably the most inventive. It was his elder brother, William Norris, who played the leading role in establishing the works in Philadelphia and in popularizing the Norris 4-2-0 locomotive in the 1840s. This design, which was sold to a British and several European railways, was partly derived from Bury locomotives that had earlier entered the USA. See: Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, 10, 79, 109; Dewhurst.Norris locomotives in England. Trans Newcomen Soc.,1947/8, 26, 13. See also Le Fleming in: P. Ransome-Wallis, Concise Encyclopedia of World Railway Locomotives (1959).

Osborne, Richard Boyse
Born in London on 3 November 1815; died in 1899. Eldest son of R.B. Osborne of Graig, Co. Wexford, and of his wife, Lucinda Caulfeild, daughter of John Humfrey, of Killeig, Co. Carlow. When a young man, Osborne went to Canada, and some months later to Chicago, then little more than a village. During the four years he spent in the West and South he planned and laid out several towns which have since become cities of importance. In 1838 he joined the staff of the Philadelphia and Rending Railroad, and rapidly rose until he became the chief engineer. During the time he held that position he completed the main line of the Reading railway, constructed the Port Richmond branch and large wharves, and built many important bridges, tunnels. Osborne developed the first railway bridge to use all-iron Howe-type trusses, erected in 1845 near West Manayunk, Pa. Later that year he was appointed Engineer under Charles Vignoles on the Waterford and Limerick Railway, and was responsible for the design of several iron bridges on the line, including a large skew bridge at Ballysimon. In 1850 he left Ireland for Panama, and after six months he returned to the USA, where he remained, working as an engineer and railway promoter. He settled in Philadelphia with his wife, Eliza. Grace's Guide. John Ropley (NBRSG Journal Issue 59 p. 28) suuggests Osborne introduced bogie coach to Ireland in 1848.

Parsons, William Barclay
Born 15 April 1859; died 9 May 1932. In 1871 he went to school in Torquay in Devon and for the four years following studied under private tutors while traveling in France, Germany and Italy. Parsons received a bachelor's degree from Columbia College in 1879, and a second from Columbia's School of Mines in 1882. From 1882 to the end of 1885, he was in the maintenance of way department of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad. He was Chief Engineer of the New York Rapid Transit Commission, and as such responsible for the construction of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) subway line.
In 1900 he published an account of his work as Chief Surveyor of China's Canton–Hankou Railway. "...Parsons, acting for an American syndicate, accepted the direction of a survey of 1,000 miles of railway in China, primarily on the line from Hankow to Canton. The party passed through the then "closed province of Hu-nan, and the success of the entire venture depended not alone on the engineering skill but primarily upon the ability of the leader of the expedition to meet the extremely difficult diplomatic problems involved. Nevertheless, the mission was accomplished and the small group of American engineers, to the surprise of many of their friends, returned in safety. Parsons told the story of this adventure in An American Engineer in China"
1903: New York Subway construction disaster: see Goodman
He was appointed to the Isthmian Canal Commission in 1904, and early in 1905 went to Panama as a member of the committee of engineers which subsequently reported in favor of a sea-level canal...In 1904 Parsons was also appointed, together with the famous British engineers Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir John Wolfe-Barry, to membership on a board to pass on the plans of the Royal Commission on London Traffic. He always considered his selection for the post one of the greatest of the many honors which came to him.
In 1905, he was appointed chief engineer of the Cape Cod Canal. Completed in 1914, it joined Massachusetts Bay and Buzzards Bay and demonstrated that a canal without locks could be built between two bodies of water where considerable tidal differences existed.
A part of 158th Street in Queens was named after him as Parsons Boulevard, giving rise to the station names Parsons Boulevard and Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer.
He was commissioned as a colonel in the Spanish–American War, and promoted to General in WW1. William Parsons was the Colonel of the 11th Engineers of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France during WW1. He participated in the engagement at Cambrai, where, suddenly attacked by Germans while making railroad repairs, the engineers fought with picks and shovels. The 11th Engineers also fought in the Lys Defensive (Hundred Days Offensive), and during the Saint-Mihiel (Battle of Saint-Mihiel) and Argonne-Meuse Campaigns. He was cited for "specially meritorious services" and received decorations not only from the United States, but also from Great Britain, France, Belgium and the state of New York.
Parsons founded the firm that became Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the largest American civil engineering firms.
Wikipedia (2013-04-13)

Publications (verified Library of Congress catalog)
Turnouts: exact formulae for their determination, together with practical and accurate tables for use in the field. New York, Engineering news publishing company, 1884. 39pp.
Track, a complete manual of maintenance of way, according to the latest and best practice of leading American railroads. New York, Engineering news publishing company, 1886. 111 pp
An American engineer in China, New York, McClure, Phillips & co., 1900. 321 pp.
The American engineers in France. New York, London, D. Appleton, 1920. 429 pp.

Pike, J.E.
Superintendent of Motive Power Newfoundland Railway: see Locomotive Mag., 1936, 42, 112.

Pilcher, John
Born 1868; died 1949 (Glancey). Locomotive designer with Henley on Norfolk & Western Railroad. Involved with 2-6-6-4 and 2-8-8-2 compounds for heavy coal haulage. Patents: US 1940697 Locomotive boiler structure (applied 20 October 1930; published 26 December 1933);  US 1816912 Supports for locomotive air pumps, etc (applied 19 November 1928; published 4 August 1931)

Player, John
Born in England in 1860. Taken to America in 1868, but father died in 1870 and returned to England, but by 1881 was a special apprentice in the Pennsylvania Railroad's drawing office in Altoona. By 1887 he was Senior Designer at the Brooks Locomotive Works in Dunkirk in New Jersey, a firm with which he stayed until after it became the American Locomotive Co. In 1885 Brooks supplied the Pennsylvanai Railroad with a locomotive with Belpaire boiler: by 1892 Brooks was supplying Player/Belpaire boilers or Patent Belpaire boilers. A patent for this type was applied for on 18 August 1892 and USP 499,587 was granted on 13 June 1893. Patent claimed type was resistant to sagging and the advantages of longer and more flexible stays. No reference was made to improved in circulation or in reduction of stress.
Cook, A.F. Raising steam on the LMS: the evolution of LMS locomotive boilers. 1999.
Part of the complex RCTS History of LMS locomotives.

Pond, Clarence E.
Born in Wakefield, Virginia on 17 February 1902; died in Punta Gorda, Florida on 1 November 1991. Educated at the Virginia Polytcyhnic Institute aand joined the Roanoke Shops as a special apprentice. His whole career was spent on the Norfolk & Western Railway where an attempt was made to extend the life of steam traction. He became Superintendent of Motive Power in 1953 and thus is associated with Jawn Henry, which was a coal-burning steam turbine electric locomotive with a Babcock & Wilcox power house water tube boiler. He was Chairman of the ASME Railroad Division.  He was a Methodist. (off Internet) and Locomotive Mag,. 1954, 60, 116

Porta, Livio Dante
Wikepedia entry: born Rosario, Argentina on 21 March 1922 and died on 10 June 2003. Other than his brief involvement in the American Coal Enterprise Project during the 1980s he spent his whole life in the Argentibe. Applied Chapelon principles to existing locomotive stock of the Argentinian State Railways. His modification (including his version of the Chapelon exhaust, the 'Kylpor') increased the capacity of the standard 2-6-2T to that of the 2-6-4T type. His modified 4-8-0 also registered a significant increase of power output. Porta's experimental 'gas producer' firebox admitted most air above the fuel bed; the latter was at a low (dull red) temperature, most of the combustion taking place above the fire, in the combustion space. His most outstanding work was on the Rio Turbio 750mm coal carrying railway in bleak Southern Patagonia where a huge increase in haulage capacity was achieved on the line's 2-10-2 locomotives. See Steam locomotive development in Argentina—its contribution to the future of railway technology in the under-developed countries J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1969,. 59, 205-56.

Quayle, Robert
Master Mechanic, of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway built a temporary locomotive test plant at Kaukauna in 1894. He became Superintendent of Motive Power on tjhe Chicago & North Western and built a permanent test plant in Chicago. Adrian Tester. Backtrack, 2013, 27, 180.

Randolph, Epes
Born  in Lunenburg, Virginia, on 16 August 1856;  died in Tucson, Arionza, on 22 August 1921. Began his career in 1876 as a construction engineer, surveying six railroads in Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas. His drive and efficiencv brought him to the notice of C.P. Huntlngton who entrusted him with the construction of a bridge to carry the Chesapeake & Ohio Railraod across the Ohio River from Kovington, Kentucky, into Cincinnati, In 1894 he had to retire to recover from tuberculosis, but at the same time supervised const of another bridge across the Ohio from Louisville to Jeffersonville, acquired by the C & O. In 1901 he was transferred to Los Angeles to build and to operate the Padfic Electric Railway. After two years as vice president and general rnanager he was forced by ill health to return to Arizona, establishing his headquarters at Tucson. In 1895 he joined the Southern Pacific Railroad as superintendent of the line in Arizona In 1905 he became responsible for preventing destruction of the Imperial Valley when the Colorado River broke through irrigation works into the Salton Sink in California. By April 1906 it was flowing at the rate of 4,000 million ft³ of water a day, flooding the Southern Pacific main line. After several attempts, by dumping rock faster than it could be washed away, he succeeded on 10 February 1907 and so saved the SP main line and the Imperial Valley for irrigation and agricultural development It was one of the greatest works of its kind ever accomplished. Marshall. .

Reid,. [Sir] Robert Gillespie
Born in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, in 1842; died Montreal 3 June 1908. Began as a stonemason's apprentice. In 1865 he went to Australia where he was successful in the gold fields. In 1871 he went to America where he undertook the building of the international bridge across the Niagara near Buffalo. In 1872 he built the bridges between Montreal and Ottawa on the Montreal, Ottawa & Quebec Railway, which became part of the CPR. He built the bridge over the Colorado River at Austin, Texas; all iron and masonry bridges west from San Antonio on the Southern Pacific; the international bridge across the Rio Grande between Texas and Mexico in 1882; and the railway bridge across the Delaware River at Water Gap, Pennsylvania. During construction of the CPR Reid undertook the building of the heaviest section round the north of Lake Superior. He erected permanent and temporary bridges on 250 miles of line east of Port Arthur, and built the Lachine bridge over the St Lawrence. In 1887 he built the Soo bridge, and then 86 miles of the CPR Sudbury branch. He then moved to Canada where he built a bridge across the Great Narrows at Cape Breton, and in 1889 he contracted with the Newfoundland Government to build the Hall's Bay Railway, 262 miles, completed in 1893. He then undertook the Western Railway from Port au Basque on the west coast, 250 miles, completed in 1897. In 1898 he contracted with the government to operate all trunk and branch lines in the island for fifty years, paying $1 million for the reversion of the whole lines at the end of that period, and receiving additional land concessions, amounting to about 4½m acres, thus becoming one of the largest land proprietors in the world. He also con tracted to build eight steamers for passengers and freight. He took over the dry dock in St John's harbour and the whole of the land telegraph lines throughout the island. These interests combined to form the Reid Newfoundland Co of which Reid was the first president. Created Knight Bachelor 1907. Marshall.

Ripley, C.T.
Chairman of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Railroad Division. See Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, 1939, 142, 97 and Locomotive Mag., 1939, 45, 334

Roberts, John
2-8-2 freight locomotives built to the designs of John Roberts, Chief of Motive Power and Car Equipment of C.N.R. in 1936: Locomotive Mag., 1936, 42, 379

Rogers, Frank Alexander
Died in Buenos Aires on 30 July 1942, aged 72. He was educated in New Orleans and whilst serving his apprenticeship in the Southern Pacific Railway worlshops at New Orleans, took an International Correspondence Course in Mechanical Engineering. In 1893, at the age of 23, he went to Central America as a Machinist and Locomotive Engineer to the Guatemala Central Rly. Eighteen months later he took on contract work, erecting Sugar Mill Machinery in Nicaragua. After this was completed he continued private contract work until August, 1896, when he went to Chili (Chile) as a foreman on the State and Anglo Nitrate Rlys. In 1905 he became Master Mechanic and Assistant to the Locomotive Superintendent on the Cerro de Pasco and Central Peruvian Rlys., Peru. In 1909 he joined the Galena Signal Oil Co. and from 1913 to 1922 was chief of their South American Export Dept., afterwards being appointed chief of the Service Dept., working chiefly in the Argentina and Uruguay until he retired in 1939. ILocoE obituary

Rogers, John D.
Had been in charge of motive power on the Virginia Railroad. but later moved to Baldwin Locomotive Works, Member of ILocoE following WW1: presumably selling Baldwin products in Europe. Set up in Partnership with R.H. Whitelegg in 1930 with office in London. Locomotive Mag., 1930, 36, 323..
Contributed to Sir Seymour Tritton's Presidential Address. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1926, 16, 757.
Patent: USP 1,175,299 Combustion chambers for locomotives Granted 7 January 1915

Rogers, Thomas
Born Groton, Connecticutt on 16 March 1792 and died New York 19 April 1856. (Marshall) Parallels with Charles Bayer and the Manchester engineers in that Rogers had a background in textile engineering before founding the Rogers Locomotive Works in 1837. In 1849 he adopted the link motion; in 1850 the wagon-top boiler was invented and in 1854 the I-section coupling rod. The Rogers company supplied 6300 locomotives before being absorbed by the American Locomotive Company in 1905. H.M. Le Fleming (Concise encyclopaedia).

Russell, Frank E.
Assistant Mechanical Engineer, Southern Pacific Railway. Design of Mountain type  Locomotive Mag., 1924, 30, 173-4

Sanderson, Richard Philip Charles
Born in Britain in 1859; died in Moylans, Philadelphia on 11 July 1942. His early education was received at the Royal Institution School at Liverpool and later in Kassel, Germany. He served his apprenticeship as a shipbuilder with Laird Bros., at Birkenhead. For a time he nas with a millwright engineering firm in Manchester and then migrated to America. His first job was with the Delamater Iron Works, New York, and then he joined the Norfolk and Western Railway, rising from draughtsinan to Inspector, Travelling Engineer, Master Mechanic and Asst. Superintendent of Motive Power. His next appointments were Assistant Mechanic Superintendent on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rly.; Superintendent of Motive Power of Seaboard Air Line; Superintendent Motive Power of Virginian Rly. Works Manager of Baldwin Loco. Works, and finally British representative of the Baldwin Locomotive W'orks in the U.S.A. Sanderson was for many years a valuable member of the Council of this Institution of Locomotive Engineers where his many friends had a high regard for his opinion and efforts to keep them informed on modern American locomotive practice. He endeared himself to a large circle of friends in Britain who felt his return to the U.S.A. in 1930. He was made an Hon. Member of the Institution in 1931 in recognition of his past services. Paper 52;

Scheffer, Theodore
Fireless steam locomotive used on Crescent City Railroad in New Orleans. See Locomotive Mag., 1918, 24, 23-5.

Sellers, George Ercol
Designed locomotives for climbing steep gradients with the aid of an additional rail gripped by a roller powered by additional cylinders amd built by Coleman, Sellers & Sons of Philadelphia. Used without the grippers on the Panama Railway in the mid-1850s. Locomotive Mag., 1927, 33, 28

Shaw, Henry F.
Unlike many non-standard designs, the Shaw 4-cylinder engine proved quite capable. Shaw himself proudly notes the evaporation of skepticism when the Hinkley product proved more than capable of running from Boston to Providence with an express train in less than 1 hour (44 miles). Regular runs on the Fitchburg and on the Camden & Atlantic showed the engine's ability to make time at reduced vibration levels and the Shaw won a gold medal at the 1883 Chicago Fair of Railway Appliances. He also? designed an oscillating cylinder locomotive (Scientific American via Internet). See also Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1928, 34, 146 and Macnair Backtrack, 2012, 26, 756.

Shay, Ephraim
Marshall born in Ohio on 17 July 1839 and died in Harbor Springs, Michigan on 20 April 1916. Inventor of the geared Shay locomotive in 1873 (Rutherford, Backtrack, 1998, 12, 387 (388)). Manufacturing rights sold to Lima Machine Works of |Lima, Ohio which patented the type in 1881. Initially employed two vertical cylinders (later three) and power was transmitted via shafts and universal joints to one side of the locomotive. The machines were intended to be capable to operate on very low grade track used in logging. Hugh M. Le Fleming in P. Ransome-Wallis, Concise encylopedia of world railway locomotives (1959) noted that 2800 Shay type locomotives had been built sinc 1880; all from the Lima works. Vernon L. Smith. The American logging locomotive. Locomotive Mag., 1947, 53, 135..

Sillcox, Lewis Ketcham
Born at Germantown, Pa., on 30 April 1886, son of George Washington and Georgiana (Parker) Sillcox. He received his early schooling at Trinity School, New York City, and in 1903 was graduated from L'ecole Polytechnique, Brussels, Belgium. He then served an apprenticeship with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad from 1903 until 1907, and from 1907-1909 became shop supervisor for the McSherry Manufacturing Company, at Middletown, Ohio. From 1909 until 1912 he was shop engineer for the Canadian Car & Foundry Company, Montreal, Canada, having charge of passenger and freight car construction with mechanical electrical work on lighting systems of steam railway sleeping cars and other passenger cars, as well as for street tramways. In 1912 Sillcox became mechanical engineer for the Canadian Northern Railway System in charge of car and locomotive works, during which time the initial steps were taken in the electrification of the Montreal Tunnel. Four years later he was appointed mechanical engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad System, Chicago, in the mechanical department. From 1918 until 1927 he was assistant general superintendent of Motive Power and General Superintendent of Motive Power for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, Chicago, in charge of mechanical and electrification departments. In 1927 Sillcox was appointed assistant to the president and in 1929 was elected vice president of the New York Air Brake Company, Watertown. Sillcox served as chairman of the Mechanical Division, American Railway Association, during 1926-27; member of the Standardization Committee, A.S.M.E., 1928-33; member of the Executive Committee, Mechanical Division, American Railway Association during 1921-27; member of the American Railway Association Committee on Electric Rolling Stock during 1920-27; and member of the Committee on Shops and Power Plants, American Railway Engineering Association during 1922-31. From 1923 until 1931 Sillcox was a lecturer at Harvard University, and he is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, England. He also belongs to the American Standards Association Council and is chairman of the Standardization Committee, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Mastering momentum is.available in electronic format and was reproducedf in the Locomotive Mag., 1940, 46, 219

Sinclair, W.F.
Created general supervisor diesel equipment of Canadian Pacific Railway in Montreal. Locomotive Mag., 1948, 54, 165

Small, J.W.
Chief Mechanical Engineer Chesapeake & Ohio Railway: see Locomotive Mag., 1925, 31, 11

Smith, R.A.
Appointed Mechanical Engineer (Locomotive) for Canadian Pacific Rly in 1946. Locomotive Mag., 1946, 52, 47

Smith, Vernon L.
Author of One man's locomotives (an expensive autobiography unlikely to be seen in bookless Norfolk). But available in New Zealand (see letter from Paul Mahoney in Backtrack, 2014, 28, 701) who gives some information relating to the application of poppet valves in the USA from this illusive source. The following comes from Amazon: author began his career firing locomotives in the iron ore area of Minnesota, then worked as an engineering apprentice at a major car builder, as a designer at Lima Locomotive in the Super Power era, at Franklin Railway Supply (developers of poppet-valve gears), at the Pennsylvania Railroad during the development of the T1 steamer, on the Santa Fe, and finally 22 years with the Chicago Belt Railway where he rose to be in charge of the company's motive power. Includes a full chapter and appendices related to poppet valve locomotives, including the PRR T1 and the AT&SF No. 3752. Illustrated throughout with black and white photos as well as detailed schematic drawings.

Souther, John
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1814; died in Newton, Boston, on 12 September 1911. Began as a ship's carpenter. In 1840 he was engaged by Holmes Hinkley as a pattern maker and was probably responsible for the design of Hinkley's first locomotive. In 1846 he started his own machine shop in Boston, building locomotives, sugar mill machinery and steam excavators. For a period Zerah Colburn worked with him as chief draughtsman. In 1852 he established a precedent. by reducing working time from 12 to 10 hrs a day. Strikes followed which forced other firms to do the same. Also, in 1852, Souther went to Richmond, Virginia to manage the locomotive shop of Tredegar Iron Works. Returned to Boston in 1854 and began at the new Globe Wks where he built locomotives until 1864. Built inside-cylinder locomotives until 1853, but was then forced to adopt more progressive designs. . Marshall .

Stanford, Leland
Born Watervliet in New York State on 9 March 1824; died Palo Alto, California on 21 June 1893. Began work by helping his father to farm. Left school at 12 and was then taught at home for three years. Continued his education at Clinton liberal Institute and at Cazenovia, New York. In 1845 he began to study law, and within three years was admitted to the bar. On 30 September 1850 he married Jane Elizabeth Lathrop of Albany. In 1852 Stanford was in California where he ran a store at Michigan Bluff and entered politics being elected governor of California from 1861 to 1863. He became interested in the transcontinental railroad and helped organize the Central Pacific Railroad in 1861. Work began at Sacramento in January 1863. In April Stanford as governor signed four Acts which gave great assistance to the enterprise, enabling it to raise capital. In 1863, on expiry of his term of office, Stanford gave his full time to railroad construction. He was president and director of the Central Pacific from the beginning until his death in 1893. He was director of the Southern Pacific Co. between 1885 and 93 and president from 1885-90. He was director of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1889 and 1890. While Huntington was financial representative, purchasing agent and chief lobbyist in the east, and Crocker took charge of construction, Stanford handled finandal affairs and looked after political interests of the Central Pacific in the west. The Central Pacific was not the best route and was not particularly well built. The later Feather River route of the Western Pacific Railroad was better, with lower grades and less snow. The Central Pacific was built almost entirely with public funds and was thereby less risk to Stanford and his associates. After completion of the Central Pacific on 10.5.1869 by its junction with the Union Pacific near Ogden, Utah, Stanford was committed to a railroad career. His business resources were devoted to development of his railroad properties. He acquired terminal facilities for the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific on San Francisco Bay. The unity of management of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific contributed greatly to their success. In 1871 he purchased, the competing California Pacific Railroad Co from Sacramento to Vallejo. The San Francisco & San Jose Railroad had been acquired earlier, and he organized the SPRR, incorporated in 1870, to construct a line from San Francisco to the Colorado River. With connecting companies under the same contract it provided a through line from San Frandsco to New Orleans. With Huntington and others he organized the amalgamtion of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific in 1884. His later political activities as senator from 1885 were more in the way of satisfying his own vanity, and did nothing to further his reputation. He did however provide funds which led to the establishment of Stanford University. Marshall

Stevens, John
Born in New York in 1749. Died in Hoboken on 6 March 1838. Powell called him "Farher of American railroads. Developed vertical boilers and steamboats. He patented a multitubular boiler and built a steamboat with screw propellers. On 6 February 1815 the State of New Jersey passed the first American railroad Act to connect Trenton to Rariton, near New Brunswick. He was responsible for establishing the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1825 he designed and built a steam locomotive which ran on a circular track on his estate at Hoboken. Marshall. Macnair in article on cog transmission spells name Stephens! Backtrack, 2017, 31, 710.

Stevens, Robert Livingston
Birth and death in Hoboken, New Jersey: 18 October 1787 to 20 April 1856. Son of John Stevens (above). Educated privately; later assisted his father  in his experimental engineering on steamboats including the Juliana which began operation between New York and Hoboken on 1 October 1811, thus establishing the world's first steam ferry system. He was now wholly occupied in naval architecture, and in the next 25 years designed and had built over 20 steamboats and ferries incorporating many inventions and improvements. In 1830, on the establishment of the Camden & Amboy Rialroad & Transportation Co, he was elected president and engineer. Also in 1830, as did Allen, Whistler and McNeill he went to England to study locomotives and to purchase one and to order iron rails. On the way he designed the flat-bottomed rail section (commonly attributed to Vignoles) and, after difficulties, he had this rolled in England. At the same time he designed the rail spike and the fish plate and the necessary bolts and nuts. He bought the Stephenson Planet type locomotive John Bull which, on its trial trip driven by Stevens at Bordentown, New Jersey, on 12 November 1831, inaugurated the first steam railway service in New Jersey. During the next fifteen years he divided his time between railways and steam navigation. In the railroad shops at Hoboken he devised a double-slide cut-off for locomotives, designed and built locomotives of several types, improved boilers, and was successful in burning anthradte in locomotives. During the war of 1812 he had designed arms and ammunition for naval vessels. Stevens never married and was prominent in musical circles in New York and Hoboken. Marshall..

Stewart, Alexander Forrester
Born in Black River, Richmond, Nova Scotia, on 8 January 1864; died Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 30  October 1937. Educated at Pictou Academy, Nova Scotia, and Dalhousie University, and received scientific training at McGill University. Entered service of CPR in 1887 and worked on pioneer railway construction in the west. Between 1895 and 1906 he worked in South Africa, working on surveys and construction in Natal, Transvaal, Zululand and Cape Colony. During the Boer War he worked on the Imperial Military Railways in the Transvaal. During 1903-6 he worked on surveys and maintenance for the Cape Government Railways. He returned to Canada in 1906 to work with the Canadian Northern Railway until its incorporation in the CNR system. In 1920 he was appointed chief engineer of the CNR  Atlantic Division. He retired in 1932.

Strickland, William
Identified by William Levitt (Early Railways 3) as being a key figure in the transfer of railway technology to the USA. Wikepedia entry states born in Navesink NJ in November 1788 and died in Nashville on 6 April 1854. Notable American architect. See also Guy in Early Railways 2 for report of early GWR locomotive for broad gauge and W.B. Paley in Locomotive Mag., 1910, 16, 70..

Strobridge, James Harvey
Born in Albany in Vermont on 23 April 1827; died Hayward, California, on 27 July 1921. Aged 16 he obtained employment as a trackIayer on the Boston & Fitchburg Railroad and later built two miles of line on the Naughatuck Railroad, Connecticutt. In 1849 he went to California, with the 'forty-niners', and worked in agriculture, freighting and mining. In 1863 he worked on the San Frandsco & San Jose Railroad. In 1864 he joined the Central Pacific on which he was soon in charge of the entire construction. He was determined to drive the line through the Sierra Nevada in the shortest possible time, he organized supply routes and bases and drove the summit tunnel through in a year, a third of the time estimated. As a result of his efforts the CP drove right into Utah, seven years ahead of schedule, to meet and pass the Union Pacific graders who went on constructing 225 miles of  parallel grading because no point of junction had been established and each company was receiving $48,000 a mile in Federal loans. After completion of the line in 1869 he settled on a farm near Hayward, using this as a base from which he directed his contracts. About 1877 he took over the work on the SP Los Angeles-New Orleans route which he completed in 1883. He also built the line from Mojave to Needles and, in 1883, began the line up the Sacramento River Canyon towards Oregon. In 1889 he retired to his farm. Marshall..

Strong, George Simpson
Of Philadelphia/ Introduced in America new locomotive types much in advance of their time, but remarkable portents of the shape of things to come. In 1885-86 he introduced the first of the 4-4-2, 4-6-2 and 2-10-2 types. Amongst novel features were twin circular corrugated fireboxes in a wide casing and vertical grid-iron valves operated by valve gear of the Hackworth type. He was also an early user of Walschaerts valve gear. His engines suffered from the combination of too many new and untried devices. Lacks any vital statistics. F.W, Brewer. "Strong" locomotives. Locomotive Mag., 1921, 27, 180. and 239

Strong, William Barstow
Born in Brownington, Orleans Co, Vermont on 16 May 1837; died Los Angeles on 3 August 1914. Educated in public schools and graduated from Bell's Business College, Chicago, in 1855. Began his railroad career as a station agent and telegraph operator at Milton, Wisconsin, in  March 1855. During the next twelve years he worked on the Milwaukee & St Paul Railroad, later Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul & Pacific Railroad. In 1867 he became general western agent of the Chicago & NWR with headquarters at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Worked in various other positions until 1875 when he became general superintendent of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. In 1877 he transferred to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad which was then a small concern of 786 miles, nearly all in Kansas. By the time of his resignation, as president, in 1899, the mileage had grown to 6,960, working through from Chicago to the Pacific. He retired to a farm near Beloit His last seven years were spent in Los Angeles. Marshall..

Swinburne, William
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in about 1805; died Paterson, New Jersey in 1883. Settled in Paterson in 1833, and by 1835 was employed by Thomas Rogers as a pattern maker and assisted in the construction of Roger's first locomotive, Sandusky, in 1837. In 1848 he joined Samuel Smith of Paterson to form the locomotive works of Swinburne, Smith & Co. In 1851 he became independent and built some of the first long-bogie, level-cylinder 4-4-0s, establishing a standard American design. In 1855 he built some 4-4-0s for the Chicago & Alton Railway, with cylinders behind the bogie. In the commercial panic of 1857 the works closed and the plant was sold to the New York & Erie Railroad for use as a repair shop. Swinburne retired and took up civic work in Paterson. Marshall.

Symons, W.E.
Died in New York in June 1931 in his 73rd year. Had held many important railway appointments, but latterly had been a  consultant and journalist. Locomotive Mag., 1931, 37, 249

Temple, Charles H.
Superintendent of Rolling stock Canadian Pacific Railway: retired 1928. 4-8-4 design see Locomotive Mag., 1928, 34, 381.

Thomson, John Edgar
Born in Springfield Township, Delaware Co, Pennsylvania on 10  February 1808; died Philadelphia on 27 May 1874. Descended from a Quaker family. His father was a civil engineer and was engaged in constructing the Delaware & Chesapeake Canal. After little formal education he worked with his father on engineering projects and became member of a team surveying a railway from Philadelphia to Columbia on which he became assistant engineer. In 1830 he was given charge of a division of the Camden & Arnboy Railrroad. On its completion he visited Europe to study railway transport and British civil and mechanical engineering practice. He returned to the USA in 1832 and was appointed chief engineer of the Georgia Railrroad for a line from Augusta to Atlanta. He remained with this company for fifteen years, becoming famous as an engineering authority. In 1849 the PRR was incorporated to build a railroad from Harrisburgh to Pittsburgh to bypass the old Portage Railroad and canals. Thomson was appointed chief engineer and located the line through the Alleghenies with the famous Horseshoe Curve and with practicable gradients. It was opened in  February 1854. Meanwhile, in 1852,  Thomson had been made president. Through his dealings the PRR came into possession of the entire 'State Works', 278 miles of canals and 117 miles of railroad and all equipment, for $7,500,000. His determination to expand the system led in 1856 to the arnalgamation of various western lines into the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway which was leased to the PRR in 1869. In 1870-1 the Pennsylvania Co was formed to take over the property west of Pittsburgh. Through Thomson's negotiations in 1871 the PRR reached New York by the lease of the United Cos of New Jersey, 456 miles of railroad and 65 miles of canal. In 1869 he decided upon an independent line from Baltimore to Washington, and in 1873 he effected a connection with the Southern States by a one sixth interest in the S R Security Co. In 1870 Thomson was instrumental in establishing the American Steamship Co under the patronage of the PRR, thereby making Philadelphia a transatlantic port. Marshall. 

Thyng, Levi B.  
Patented with Levi B. Thyng, both of Lowell, Massachusetts: Iimprovement in the mode of constructing locomotive-engines. USP No. 628, 10 March 1833 [but 1838 given in Locomotive Mag. 1921, 27, 20]. additional info off Internet

Townsend, Albert J. (Bert)
Chief engineer at Lima: inventor of double Belpaire firebox which enhanced free gas area/grate area ratio. Casualty of rapid transition to diesel motive power. Member of Advisory Mechanical Committee formed in 1927. Atkins (Dropping the fire). Also Glancey. Atkins Backtrack, 2018, 32, 668

Train, George Francis
Born on 24 March 1829 and died on 5 January 1904. Wikepedia. Street tramway pioneer in Birkenhead and London. See portrait and article Backtrack, 2008, 22, 267.

Tye, William Francis
Born in Haysville, Ontario, Canada, on 5 March 1861. Educated at Ottawa College, and School of Practical Sdence, Toronto, 1878-81. In 1882 he entered the service of the CPR until 1885 when he was engaged as transitman and assistant engineer on the construction of the line from Winnipeg to British Columbia and, in 1886-7, on the St Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, Montana extn. In 1887 he was in Mexico, first as track and bridge engineer on the Mexican Central Railway, and then as mining engineer. For the next two years he was successively divisonal engineer on the Great Falls & Canada Railway in Montana, and on the Great Northern Railway in charge of construction west of the Cascade Range in Washington. In 1895 he was chief engineer of the Kaslo & Slocan Railway, British Columbia, and of the Columbia & Western Railway, British Columbia, from 1896-9. In 1900 he became chief engineer of construction, in 1903 assistant chief engineer , and in 1904 chief engineer of the CPR. In 1906 he retired from that office and practised as consulting engineer. He was at one time president of the Sterling Coal Co. In 1926 he left Canada and travelled extensively throughout Europe. In the course of one of his train journeys he was seized with sudden illness and he died in Paris on 9 January 1932. . Marshall. .

Vanderbilt, Comelius
Born in Port Richmond on Staten Island, New York on 27 May 1794; died in New York on 4 January 1877.  His grave is in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp on Staten Island see Humm J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2015, 38, 252 (he also notes Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee). His paternal ancestors, van der Bilt, were Dutch and settled in Long Island in 1670-1700. His father farmed and operated a boat and Vanderbilt lacked  formal education, but when about 16 he bought a small sailing boat and began a freight and passenger ferry between Staten Island and New York City. On 19 December 1813 he married his cousin Sophia Johnson. In the war of 1812 his business grew and he soon had several boats and was trading up the Hudson river and along the coast from New England to Charleston. In 1818 he entered a shipping business on the New York-Philadelphia route. In 1829 Vanderbilt and his large family, moved to New York where he established a shipping line on the Hudson river, eliminating competitors by rate cutting. He greatly improved the size and comfort of the river vessels and became a millionaire. In the gold rush of 1849 he developed a new shorter route to California via Nicaragua and captured most of the traffic. His career as a railraod promoter began in 1862 when he became president of the New York & Harlem Railroad; next gained control of the Hudson River Railroad and in 1867 of the New York Central. He spent $2m on improvements, and in 1869 united the two as the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. In 1873 he leased the Harlem Railroad to it In 1873 he gained control of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway and in 1875 the Michigan Central Railroad and Canada Southern Railway, so creating one of the greatest American railway systems. In his last years he had a stabilizing influence on American finance, and in the panic of 1873 he built the Grand Central terminal in New York City, with four-track approaches, giving employment to thousands of men. His great-grandson Comelius (see below) became a locomotive engineer on the NYC. John Marshall

Vanderbilt, Comelius
Born in New York on 5 September 1873; died Miami Beach on 1 March 1942. One of seven children of Comelius Vanderbilt and Alice Claypoole (Gwynne) and great-grandson of Comelius Vanderbilt (above). Educated privately and at St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire; Yale University, where he gained a mechanical engineering degree 1899. Whilst at college he frequented the New York Central shops and design department to study locomotive engineering. Disregarding family opposition he married Grace Wilson on 3 August 1896 and so forfeited his inheritance on the death of his father in 1899. Nevertheless he could not be described as poor. Partial reconciliation was achieved by his sister Gertrude, but not until 1926 was the family breach healed.  The Vanderbilts led a brilliant social life. In Germany he was friendly with Kaiser Wilhelrn, and they entertained Prince Henry of Russia when he visited New York in 1902. They also entertained Kings Edward VII and George V of England on their yacht during frequent visits before WW1. In 1919 they were hosts to King Albert and Queen Bizabeth of Belgium. Meanwhile Vanderbilt was devoting ever more time to locomotive and mechanical engineering. He patented over thirty devices for improving locomotives and freight cars including several which brought him large royalties. One of the most important was a circular corrugated firebox for locomotives, resembling that introduced by Lentz (qv) in Germany in 1888, dispensing with stays. He patented this, with a tapered boiler, in 1899. It was adopted by the Missouri Pacific and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads before the NYC took it up. About a dozen such boilers were made and were fitted to 2-6-0, 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 types, but the grate area was too small to sustain high steaming rates and the boilers were soon discarded. He also invented a cylindrical tank car for oil and a cylindrical locomotive tender, and made many improvements and refinements of detail in other types of equipment. Le Fleming noted that Vanderbilt became a generic for boilers and tenders of these patterns. On his frequent visits abroad Vanderbilt studied the London and Paris underground railway systems and realized that New York would need subway systems and he associated with August Belrnont in organizing the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. to construct the first New York subway. His business activities were constantly broadening and by the early 20th century he was a member of boards of directors of many important corporations, including railroads, banks and insurance companies. He made himself familiar with every aspect of the businesses. His expanding activities lessened the time available for railway engineering, but he maintained his interest. Besides all these interests he also became a soldier, becoming an officer in the New York National Guard, and remained in its service 33 years. After the Villa raids on the Mexican frontier in 1916 Vanderbilt served at the border and was made Colonel in command of the 22nd Engineers. In WW1 he served overseas and in 1918 was commissioned Brigadier General in command of the 25th Infantry Brigade. He continued to serve in reserves until 1935 when he asked to be relieved because of his business interests. He received the DSM of the USA and many other military distinctions. His favourite recreation was yachting and he owned several vessels. In his schooner yacht Atlantic, bought in 1922, he won a trans-Atlantic race for a cup from the Kaiser.John Marshall

Van Horne, Sir William Cornelius
Born in Will County, Illinois on 3 February 1843; died in Montreal on 11 Sepember 1915. First of five children of Cornelius Covenhoven Van Horne and his second wife Minier (Richards). His father's ancestors were Dutch. He was educated by his mother and at school in Joliet, Illinois. His father died in 1854. When 14 he became a telegraph operator with the Illinois Central Railroad later with the Michigan Central. He enlisted in the Civil War but was released for railway work. In 1862 Van Horne transferred to the Chicago & Alton Railroad as ticket agent and operator in Joliet: in 1864 train dispatcher on the C & A at Bloomington; 1868 superintendent of telegraph; 1870 superintendent of transport. In 1872 became general superintendent of a subsidiary line, the St Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway. His success led to his appointment as general manager and later president of the Southern Minnesota Railroad with offices at La Crosse, where under his leadership the railroad was brought out of receivership in 1877. In 1879 he returned to the Chicago & Alton as general superintendent, soon moving to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul as general superintendent. On the recommendation of James J Hill of the Great Northern Van Horne was appointed to take charge of the construction of the CPR, moving to Winnipeg on 31 December 1881. He carried the project through to completion in 1886, serving 1881-4 as general manager and 1884-8 as vice president, becoming president in 1888. Until his resignation because of ill health on 12 June 1899, he controlled the expansion of the CPR. Following return to health he visited Cuba in 1900, where, with G.M, Dodge, he initiated construction of the Cuba Railroad, 350 miles long, through the eastern provinces of the island. It opened on 1 December 1902. He next moved to Guatemala where, in 1903, he undertook to direct construction of the last 65 miles of a railway from Puerto Barrios to Guatemala. After delays it was completed in January 1908. He was also connected with many other industrial enterprises. Returning from his last trip to Cuba in June 1915 he was stricken with fever and died in Montreal.  Marshall

Vauclain, Samuel Matthews
Born Philadephia on 18 May 1856 and died Rosemont, Pennsylvania on 4 February 1940.  Shortly after his birth his father, Andrew Vauclain, formerly employed by M.W. Baldwin ,founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, entered the service of the PRR and moved to Altoona. There the son was brought up in railway surroundings and when 16 entered the Altoona shops of the PRR as an apprentice. When 21 he was appointed foreman in the frame shop. In 1882 he was sent to the Baldwin works to inspect some locomotives then being built for the PRR and as a direct outcome was offered a position in those works. In  July 1883 he became superintendent of Baldwin's Seventeenth Street shops. Three years later he was appointed general superintendent of the plant In 1896 he became a member of Burnham WiIliams & Co, at that time proprietors of the works. In 1911, the company having been incorporated in the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Vauclain was made a vice president, becoming a senior vice president two years later. In 1929 he relinquished the presidency to G.H. Houston and was elected chairman of the board. During his 57 years association with Baldwin Works Vauclain was responsible for many technical developments in the design and construction of locos.  Marshall's excellent concise biography. H.M. Le Fleming (Concise encyclopaedia) noted that he was responsible for several patents on compounding notably one where the high and low piston rods connected to common cross-heads. H.A.V. Bulleid's biography of his father includes a "bread and butter letter" from Vauclain to Ivatt thanking him for his hospitality at Doncaster in 1906. A four crank version arrived later. By 1907 two thousand compounds had been built and sold to his designs. In 1930 he wrote a ghosted autobiography called Steaming up with assistance of Earl Chapin May (New York: Brewer & Warren).
Vauclain was the inventor of the system of locomotive compounding named after him. In 1889 he produced his famous four-cylinder compound design in which the high and low pressure piston rods on both sides of the engine were connected to common crossheads, driving two cranks. It was first tested in 1891. Later four-crank arrangements were produced. Up to 1907 over 2,000 Vauclain compounds were built. In 1905 he designed a srnokebox superheater. Other developments for which he was largely responsible were the first ten-coupled heavy goods engine, a huge 2-10-0 supplied in 1886 to the Dom Pedro II Railroad of Brazil, the wagon-top boiler for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and the first 2-8-2, supplied to the Japanese Railways in 1897, hence the name Mikado. In 1892 he built his first engine to bum lignite fuel, for south-western USA Besides locomotive design, Vauclain also introduced new methods connected with their construction and sale. Shortly after becoming general superintendent of the Baldwin works he introduced the hydraulic forge for the production of driving wheel centres. A few years later he decided to reduce the idle time of machines by introducing the then novel principle of double-shift working. He also fitted machines for individual motor driving, so much ahead of the time as to arouse the ridicule of his friend George Westinghouse. He was an outstanding salesman. Once he sold $15m worth of locomotives and machinery to the Roumanian government, payment being made in 60 monthly instalments in cash or oil. He sold the oil to the British government at a good profit At the time of his death he was serving on the boards of several banks and insurance companies and a director of 7 engineering and allied works, subsidiaries of the Baldwin Co. Also on the boards of Westinghouse Electric & Mfr Co and the Westinghouse Electric International Co. S M Vauclain, Steaming Up, 1930 (autobiography); Baldwin Loco Works, The History of Baldwin Loco Wks. 1924 (incorporated in: Fred Westing, The Locomotives that Baldwin Built, New York, 1966).
Le Fleming noted that Vauclain was responsible for many of the beautifully proportioned and elegantly designed Pennsylvania classes which in turn had considerable influence on modem American locomotive design. See also two further papers noted in Locomotive Mag., 1928, 34, 340

Patents
1,629,369 Triple expansion Mallet locomotive. Filed 25 November 1925. Issued 17 May 1927.
1,629,370 Triple expansion Mallet locomotive. Filed 25 November 1925. Issued 17 May 1927.
1,637,287 Driving wheel for locomotives. Filed 16 June 1927. Issued 26 July 1927
1,733,035 Driving wheel and axle. Filed 9 May 1929. Issued 22 October 1929
1,755,974 Locomotive. Filed 23 January 1925. Issued 22 April 1930
1,765,251 Locomotive. Filed 10 May 1929. Issued 17 June 1930. with Harry Glaenzer

Vincent, H.S.
American Locomotive Company, working independently on valve gears for three cylinder locomotives.

Vogt, Axel S.
Born in Sweden in about 1849; died in USA on 11 November 1921. He joined the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1874 and was appointed mechanical engineer at Altoona in March 1887 succeeding John W. Cloud who had served since the death of John B. Collin, mechanical engineer from 1866 until his death on 20 March 1886. Vogt experimented with oil fuel on a locomotive in the Pittsburgh division in 1887 and established with Dr Charles B Dudley that 1lb of oil was equivalent in heating value to 1¾1b of coal, but the costs at that time made the use of oil uneconomic, although the experiment was a success. In 1888 Vogt obtained a Webb 3-cylinder compound 2-2-2-0 of LNWR design, No 1320 Pennsylvania, from Beyer, Peacock & Co, Manchester. It was similar to the Dreadnought class, with 6ft 3in driving wheels, uncoupled. It was reported to be 'of very superior workmanship but starting troubles led to its withdrawal in 1897, by which time it had an American type cab. Vogy adopted the Belpaire firebox which thereafter became standard on the PRR. In 1892 the PRR completed the Juniata shops just east of Altoona, with a capacity for building 150 locomotives per year. Two experimental 4-4-0s and two 4-6-0s were obtained, one of each, from Baldwin and ALCO in the same year, to establish the ability of larger and heavier designs to meet increasing traffic. Progressively larger engines continued to emerge from the shops, all of handsome appearance. In 1898-9 the large H5 and H6 2·8-0 classes were built.. The first of his famous 4-4-2s, the El class, were built in 1899. They had driving cabs mounted halfway along the boiler, and broad fireboxes. The larger E2 class, of more conventional appearance, followed in 1901 and the E3a in 1902. Following the example of the GWR in England, in 1904 the PRR obtained a de Glehn 4-cy1inder compound 4-4-2 from SACM in France. It was thoroughly tested on the new locomotive testing plant designed and installed in 1904 under Vogt, and the results led to the design of the large E28 class (BaIdwin) and E29 class (ALCO) balanced compound 4-4-2s, two of each, in 1905. The success of the wide firebox led to its application to freight engines of the H6a class of 1902 and H6b of 1905, built by Baldwin and the PRR. The H6b was the first PRR type to have Walschaerts valve gear which thereafter became standard. To handle the ever heavier passenger trains an experimental 4-6-2 was obtained from ALCO in 1906. Its success led to the design at Fort Wayne in 1910 of the K2 class 4-6-2: in 1913 it was redesigned with superheater, becoming class K3s. The superheater now became standard on all new PRR designs. Vogt's final designs were large, powerful engines which became the basis of standard designs used until the end of steam power on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The remarkable E6s 4-4-2s were among the largest Atlantics ever built, and the famous K4s Pacific of 1914, based on the E6s, became the standard Pennsylvania Railroad express engine. Vogt retired on 1 February 1919, but continued in an advisory capacity in the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, until his death two years later. His work had a profound influence on the development of American steam loco design. Alvin F. Staufer, Pennsy Power, 1962; Paul T. Warner, Locomotives of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1834-1924., 1959. (checked LC OPAC) (Marshall)

Walker, M.L.
Colonel Walker was President of the Railway in 1931: Locomotive Mag., 1927, 33, 110

Wallis. James T.
The steam locomotive development of the last thirty-five years : lecture by J.T. Wallis, Assistant Vice-President, Pennsylvania Railroad before the faculty and students of the Princeton School of Engineering, delivered at Princeton, N.J., May 8, 1928 in the Cyrus Fogg Brackett course of lectures.
Locomotives e´lectriques. The post of Chief of Motive Power was held by James T. Wallis (1920-1927),

J T Wallis; Association internationale du Congre`s des chemins de fer. Bruxelles : [s.n.], 1925.

Westinghouse, George
Born at Central Bridge in Schoharie County (NY) on 6 October 1846 and died in New York on 12 March 1914 (Marshall). Designer of the eponymous air braking system used on GER, NER, NBR, CR and LBSCR in Britain. There is general agreement that British Railways should have adopted air brake system far earlier than it did. Rowatt, T. Railway brakes.Trans Newcomen Soc.,1927, 8, 19-32. Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia  Memorials: Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and George Westinghouse Bridge. (Humm J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2015, 38, 252)

Whistler, George Washington
Born Fort Wayne, Indiana on 19 May 1800; died St Petersburg, Russia, 7 April 1849. Educated at West Point. At an early age showed skill in drawing. Began in the army, employed in topographical work, establishing the boundary between Canada and the USA between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods. Later he spent much time as engineer 'on loan' by the government to civil projects. In connection with survey of the Baltimore & Ohio RR he was sent to England in  November 1828 with his friend W G McNeill to study railway construction, and in May 1829 they returned to begin work on the B & O. His next major work was the Paterson & Hudson River RR, later part of the Erie system. During this period he married McNeill's sister, Ann Matilda, and in 1834 a son, James Abbot McNeill Whistler, was born at Lowell, Mass, later to become the famous American artist (died 1903). From 1834-7 he was superintent of the Locks & Canals Machine Shop, Lowell, building locomotives of Stephenson Planet type. He then surveyed the Concord RR (later part of the Boston & Maine) and moved on to the New York, Providence & Boston, then the Western RR which, as chief engineer, he carried across the Berkshire mountains from Worcester to Albany, 156 miles, completed in 1841. For this line he adopted the unsuccessful 0-8-0 Crabs of Ross Winans. He was responsible for the introduction of the locomotive whistle in the USA. In 1842 he was invited by Tsar Nicholas I to survey and build the railway from Moscow to St Petersburg. For this he adopted a gauge of 5ft, then standard for many early lines in USA, and this became established as the standard gauge throughout Russia, while in USA the 5ft gauge lines were all rebuilt to standard gauge. Construction of the 420 mile railway began in 1844. It was one of the straightest lines of its length ever built. It proved to be his undoing. The work became protracted and late in 1848 he was a victim of an epidemic of cholera and he died the following April, a year before the railway was completed. John Marshall. Also C.F. Dendy Marshall. A note on Whistler the American Engineer. Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1926, 7, 126 which notes that was father of the artist James McNeill Whistler.

Whyte, Frederick Methuen
See en passim: Rutherford: Backtrack 12-50 and in far greater depth in Hennessey's Wheels within wheels Backtrack, 19, 526. There is also a letter from John Power in Rly Arch., 2007 (16), pp. 55/6 which adds to the information, but spells Methuen as Methvan (as does Wikepedia 2007-07-20). The Whyte notation was outlined in American Engineer & Railroad Journal, 1900 (December) as Editorial comment and it would seem that the journal encouraged the adoption of the system. Rutherford argues that it was Churchward who brought the system to Britain..

Williams, Clement Clarence
Following in the footsteps of his elder brother, Americus, a mathematician, Williams spent much of his career in academia. (Americus was a teacher for thirty-five years and vice-president of Valparaiso University.)  Williams graduated with degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois in 1907 and the University of Colorado in 1909. He would eventually return to each with positions on the faculties of Civil and Railroad Engineering; and served as head of the department of civil engineering at the University of Illinois. Williams was the Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa.
Though he focused much of his time and career on educating young engineers, Williams was well-known in the field of structural engineering. He specialized in designing plants for the production of explosives and was the supervising engineer for the War Department in WW1. He wrote several books on the subject of civil engineering including Design of a railway location (reviewed Locomotive Mag., 1917, 23, 194), Design of masonry structures and foundations, and Building an engineer career.
In addition Williams was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a trustee of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and elected into the Newcomen Society of England for promoting the study of the history of technology. After his tenure at Lehigh, Williams returned to Wisconsin, where he died in 1947 a day before his 65th birthday.

Winans, Ross
Born Sussex Count, NJ, on 17 October 1796 and died Baltimore, Md on 11 April 1877. Became interested in railways in 1828 and joined Knight and McNeill on journey to England to study developments there. Briefly Engineer to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Manager of the firm Gillingham & Winans and took charge of the Mount Clare workshops of the B&O. Major innovator: claimed first bogie passenger coach in world. In 1842-4 built "Mud Digger" 0-8-0 locomotive and in 1848 first Camel 0-8-0 with wide firebox to burn anthracite. Marshall see also Loco Profile 9 by Brian Reed. Ahrons The British Steam Railway Locomotive 1825-1925 p. 285 notes that Ross Winnans was using petticoat blast pipes for wood burning locomotives as early as 1848. Patented a feedwater heater in 1837: US Patent 309 of 29 July 1837 (Willans Locomotive Mag., 1921, 27, 20)

Winans, Thomas de Kay
Born in Vernon, NJ; died in 1878. Eldest son of Ross Winans (above). Partner with Joseph Harrison and Eastwick in construction of rolling stock for Moscow to St Petersburg Railway. On return from Russia assisted in design of two experimental locomotives: Centipede (first 4-8-0) of 1855 and Celeste, a high speed 4-4-0 tested on the Reading RR. Marshall

Woodward, William E.
Chief engineer at Lima and responsible for introducing the concept of Super power in the 1920s. Born Utica (NY) on 18 November 1873 and died 24 March 1942 (Marshall). Educated Cornell University. Worked at Baldwin, Dickson and Schenectady prior to the Alco amalgamation. Trained at Dickson Mfg Co, Scranton, Pa (merged with ALCO 1901). From 1915, together with Samuel G. Allen, chairman, and W.L. Reid, vice president of manufacturing, he reorganized the Lima Works, transforming it from a small manufacturer of Shay geared locomotives and light machinery into a great industrial works. His main contribution to the development of  'Lima Super Power' was increased boiler capacity and higher steam pressure. His first high horsepower 2-8-2 incorporating his principles was delivered to the NYC in 1922. It weighed barely 2% more than the conventional NYC 2-8-2 but gave 17% more power. In the next 2 years 300 more similar engines were built. In 1925 he developed what became known as the 'Super Power' loco. This was the first 2-8-4 to be built. The trailing truck, fitted with booster, carried a huge firebox with a grate area of 100ft². Its success led to its acceptance as a new standard of high-power locomotive design and it was followed in 1925 by the 2-10-4, in 1926 by the 4-8-4 and in 1927 by the 4-6-4 express passenger type. In 1925-9 seventy Super Power' 2-10-4s were built for the Texas & Pacific RR. The last of the 'Super Power' 2-8-4s was built for the Nickel Plate Road in 1949 and was the last Lima steam loco. See Backtrack, 2001, 15, 554.

Wootten, John E.
Born in 1822 and died in 1898 (Marshall)  Best known for the Wootten wide firebox, John E. Wootten was general manager of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad in the 1870s, a period when many designers were trying to find away to burn local anthracite in locomotive fireboxes. Milholland (see p. 239) had had little success in this endeavour, but Z. Colburn devised a wide firebox that extended over the frames, and this was improved by master mechanic Charles Graham of the Lackawanna Railroad. Wootten took this firebox and added a combustion chamber, and it was this combination of Colbum firebox with Wootten's combustion chamber that was patented as the Wootten Firebox. The firebox was very wide and shallow, and had water tubes in the grate (although these were not essential to the concept). It was very successful in burning anthracite waste, which is why it was popular among Pennsylvanian railroads. Due to its size and shape, it was frequently associated with the 'camelback' layout (see Winans, p. 80). The first example appeared in 1877, and a 4-6-0 with this firebox was on show at the 1878 Paris Exhibition. See also Loco Profile 9 by Brian Reed.

See: Locomotive Engineering, Oct. 1900; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, 35.

Worthington, Henry Rossiter
Born New York City on 17 December 1817; died 17 December 17 1880). Several inventions leading to the perfection of the direct steam pump (1845-55), patented the duplex steam pump (1859), and built the first duplex waterworks engine, widely adopted and used for more than 75 years. He established a pump manufacturing plant, New York City, in 1859. He was a key founder of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1880

Wright, Benjamin
Born Wetherfield, Connecticutt on 10 October 1770; died New York City 24 August.1842. Canal and early railway engineer. Began canal engineering in 1792 and became chief engineer of the Erie Canal, begun 1816 and completed 1825-7, and of the St Lawrence Canal in 1823. Many early American engineers were trained under him, including John B Jervis). Also engineer for the Delaware & Hudson Canal and, from 1828-31, of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. He was consulting engineer for surveys for the New York & Erie Railroad; Harlem RR, NY; and railways in Virginia, Illinois and Cuba. His son Benjamin H. Wright became a civil engineer and completed several projects reported on by his father. Marshall..

Wright, Louis S.
Suggested static locomotive testing station in Trans ASME, 1889/90, 11, 867: cited Carling, 1972, 45, 105

Young, Otis W.
Young valve gear was invented by an employee of the C&NW named O.W. Young. This valve gear was first applied to a steam locomotive on the Grand Trunk in 1915. Young valve gear eliminated the need for the eccentric crank. It took advantage of the quartering of the drivers by using the piston rod motion on one side of the locomotive to control the steam valves on the other side of the locomotive. As a result, it was said to have put less dynamic loads on the main driver. It was also purported to produce better valve timing events which resulted in more power. Young valve gear was used on Union Pacific 4-8-2s and 2-10-2s

Patents (more listed on Espacenet)
US 1591600 Locomotive valve gear, Applied 17 September 17 1921 Published 6 July 1926 Assigned Pyle National Co
US1607381 Three-cylinder valve gear  Applied 9 July 1925 Published 16 November 1926

2020-05-05