Locomotive Superintendents

Supposedly when he was appointed to the Eastern Counties, he had an (un-minuted) agreement that he would receive a percentage of any savings he made within the loco department. There was no checking of his claims, so in essence he could make his claim and receive a bonus with little checking; one of the means he used was sacking staff and rehiring them at a lower salary. There seems to have been a coal dodge as well where he got paid by a local coal merchant for every ton ordered by the ECR. Eventually the shareholders got wind of it and he got the heave-ho at a still comparatively young age, but by all accounts by then he was set for a future life of comparative leisure.

He definitely sounds something of a black sheep relative to his brother!

Tom

 

And yet there were several notable non-engineering military men in the earlier days of the railways - Captain Mark Huish on the LNWR for example. The military were, in those days, the only people with experience of closely managing large but geographically disparate organisations which depended upon separate parts working together.

 

Interesting. I had heard of him but had to look him up in the book of wiki to get the detail. A Captain in John Company's Army, not the British Army.
Pat

 

He would probably stand a deeper dive than that...I gather he was quite a big noise in the early days, including attempts at standardising rules and procedures etc

 

Ah, the duplicitous Captain Huish. While he received aglowing obituary from the Institution of Civil Engineers praising his moral and benevolent character and how the LNWR were supposedly reluctant to accept his resignation his glowing testimonial was, significantly not accompanied by a pension as would usually have been expected.

His underhand tactics including falsely telling the London and Birmingham that the Grand Junction was proposing conversion to the broad gauge in order to force the amalgamation creating the LNWR. In the matter of take overs, which were supposed to require parliamentary authority he bought shares of smaller companies for the LNWR using individuals' names to the extent that it is said that most of the Euston porters apparently held shares in the Birmingham and Oxford Railway (the Common Seal of which company was also forged by the LNWR. Similar tactics were used to try to seize the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway.

 

James Kennedy who later went into partnership with Edward Bury worked for Stephenson, who later complained that if it hadn't been for the information Kennedy obtained working for him "Bury would never have made an engine" and become Stephenson's main competitor.

 

Duplicate post

 

In the history of less auspicious characters is one of the GCR CMEs - I think it was Pollitt, who got the job (apparently on the strength of his family connections), married into money and naffed off, leaving a very small body of work.

Jarvis did have a long and impressive career, but I don't think there was a CME in the same way (and there certainly weren't steam engines to build), so apart from one set of (admittedly rather nice[1]) pacifics he never got to do the job his training was leading to. It would have been interesting to see. Chapelon was degree-educated, and it would be interesting to see how the differing approach would have fared in the more conservative UK environment.

[1] other BFB-wheeled pacifics are available.

 

And to take it full circle. Ron Jarvis's last project was restoring the 4 wheeled 1863 carriages on the Ffestiniog. He was an excellent modeller as well by all accounts.

A good biography is on the FR site https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Ron_Jarvis

As a point of reference between 1959-69, (at the same time as his BR work) he restored carriage 16

A photo of it in 1963

 

At the FRS Silver Jubilee Open day at Boston Lodge in 1979 the programme states: " Four Wheeled Carriages ... ... nos. 5 and 6 are in process of reconstruction by Mr. R. G. Jarvis, a retired locomotive engineer now working as a volunteer." It was years later that I made the connection!
Pat

 

One British trained ''colonial'' engineer was H.M. Le Fleming of Malaya as it then was. Atypically educated at university, followed by Swindon pupillage, he was responsible for what appears to have been a very successful poppet valve 4-6-2. Being a considerable polymath he designed his railway's publicity posters in high Art Deco style.

 

In my company going off overseas for some different professional experience and returning to the company later is so common we have a Boomerang award with the names of all the returnees engraved on it (mine twice).

 

It would seem that the Adams name lives on:

Very nice showing of the make-up of a radial axle.
Pat
P.S. I've just realised that this was the invention of William Bridges Adams. Too confusing

 

The Urie Loco Soc. Open Day appeared to be quite popular. A special treat later in the day was the arrival of Bob Urie (grandson of R.W.U.) with some pieces of presentation silver given to his grandfather when he retired.
Pat
(Don't know why some of the pics have doubled up. Tech, huh!)

 

R W Urie had a passion for roses, and kept a notebook about his. (I haven't seen it.) So the ULS has planted some of his favourite varieties in a plot at Ropley. It's early days yet (first year) but the search is on for more of his favourites.
Pat

 

That must be the only silverware in Fratton for quite some time...

 

Ha! Ha! Where's the double like button when it's needed?
Pat

 

Someone will be along soon to complain about just how loco-centric the Urie Locomotive Society is ...

Tom

 

As we all know (!) they had more style in times gone by. Here is a picture (courtesy of Bob Urie) of the illuminated address presented to RW Urie from the Trustees of the Pension Fund.
Pat