Kenneth John Cook

Important both as a recorder of what went on at Swindon: Cook (like Cox) both wrote a book and presented a key paper about Churchward to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, but unlike Cox there are no back-up papers, although the book is indicative of what he was personally involved in at Swindon, namely improved locomotive lubrication and advanced workshop practice, notably the Zeiss optical apparatus for frame alignment which he introduced to Doncaster when he was appointed Mechanical & Electrical Engineer of the Eastern Region, and greatly assisted in creating an Indian summer for the Gresley Pacifics. An Appendix to his book, quoted from The Engineer neatly summarizes Cook's contribution and also shows that Swindon may have become a backwater in terms of design under Collett, but not in terms of manufacturing methods.

The late G.J. Churchward's locomotive development on the Great Western Railway. J. Instn Loco. Engrs,1950, 40, 131-71. Disc.: 171-210. (Paper No.492)
This is the most complete professional source of assembled data on Churchward design. In the discussion W.A. Stanier presented some anecdotal material (pp. 171-2) whilst H. Holcroft (pp. 173-82) added a considerable amount of extra detail.

An appreciation: Sir William and the Great Western Railway. J. InstnLoco. Engrs, 1965/66, 55, 247-9.
A two part obituary: Cox contributed the other

Book

Swindon steam. London: Ian Allan, 1974.

"A Machine of Precision"

It will probably come as a surprise to readers to find that the above title, in quotes, refers to the steam locomotive, the old-fashioned "Puffing Billy," that is now, at long last, to be displaced on the railways of Britain by modern electrics and diesels. Yet such was the title of Mr K.J.Cook's Presidential Address to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, delivered on September 21st. The myth of a primitive machine dies hard where the steam locomotive is concerned. Prior to the war of 1939-45, when Mr Cook was Locomotive Works Manager at Swindon, there was a considerable body of industrial opinion that regarded the railway workshops as a collection of antiquated establishments quite incapable of making any contribution to the needs of precision manufacture of war material. Industry in general and officialdom in particular had no idea of the wide range of manufacturing capacity needed on a great railway.

Mr Cook told of the astonishment of the productive Ministries when they found what could be done, and how one official exclaimed, "You have the finest tool-room outside the aircraft industry." But in what way is precision built into a steam locomotive, and why should such attention to manufacturing and main tenance problems be given when the machine itself is so soon to be superseded altogether? As Mr Cook said in his opening remarks, some might nowadays consider that with any paper dealing with the steam locomotive "Senile Decay" might be a mere appropriate title! But as we have pointed out on several occasions since the announcement of the British Transport Commission's plan for the modernisation of British Railways, the changeover period is going to be a very difficult one, and there is much that remains for the steam locomotive to do before its final demise.

It is interesting to hear Mr Cook's opinion that the technique of constructing and maintaining steam locomotives on British Railways is now at the summit of accuracy. He speaks from a very wide experience, not only of his long and distinguished service on the Great Western, but more recently from his present position as Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer of two Regions of British Railways simultaneously, the Eastern and the North Eastern. As he emphasises, the economical criterion of locomotive performance is the cost per mile in similar conditions of operating, and towards this one of the greatest contributory factors is the mileage run between heavy repairs. In carrying out a heavy repair the dismantling and erecting costs are fairly constant whatever the mileage, and a higher mileage enables their costs to be spread and to produce a lower overall figure. The peculiar and unique basic mechanism of the ordinary steam locomotive, in which the power is transmitted through two, three, or more axes, the centres of which are partly fixed, but are subject to considerable movement relative to their locations and to each other, invites the question as to whether basic accuracy in construction is really desirable; there might be a temptation to indulge in slack fits, and methods of alignment that have a touch of the medieval. On the other hand, the greater the initial accuracy the lower will be the maximum stresses set up in components; initial tolerances in working parts can be reduced, and this, of course, reduces the hammering effect in bearings and the rate at which wear and slackness develop.

It was during Mr C.B. Collett's time as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway that the practice was introduced of optical alignment of cylinder centre lines, and the precision setting of horn centres relative to each other, together with the length of coupling rods and the throw and angle of crank pins. With this magnificent tool available Swindon works were able to precision-build and precision-repair locomotives, with the excellent results in road performance that became so well known before the war of 1939-45, and are continued to-day. As Mr Cook remarks:

"If and when the steam locomotive fades away in this country, itwill not be on account of any decline in the excellence of its mechanism." But a number of factors have combined to bring a point in the history of this country at which the steam locomotive must decline, and in considering the changeover now forecast it is only natural to have doubts about the capacity of the railway shops to adjust them selves adequately to the new skills required. It is in this respect that Mr Cook's address is so reassuring. In referring to several special tasks carried out in railway shops during the war he is almost certainly drawing upon his own experience at Swindon; but no doubt parallel cases could be found at Crewe and Derby, at Ashford and Eastleigh, and at the two great works now under Mr Cook's direct control – Darlington and Doncaster. The quest for mechanical efficiency continues, and just as the railway shops turned with facility to new and unaccustomed items of production during the war, so equally to-day Mr Cook believes they will be able to turn to any alternative mechanism for railway use. Of the shops that have made the steam locomotive a machine of precision he concluded "If, for example, it is necessary to chase a tenth of a thou. round the plungsr or bore of a diesel engine fuel pump or injector, that tenth can be found in a locomotive workshop on British Railways." We have no doubt of it. But we hope that the possession of that ability will not lead British Railways to assume that since steam locomotives are built in its workshops the appropriate place to build diesels will also be in those shops. There are great and growing export markets for diesel locomotives. Only the private locomotive building firms can enter them. It would be of great assistance to those firms in retaining their export markets and entering new ones were they able to count confidently upon a flow of orders from British Railways, able to stress to prospective overseas customers how much experience they had gained at home, and able, possibly, to lay themselves out, having an assured market, for high production.

Editorial in The Engineer, September 30th, 1955.

2004-05-07