Horwich engineers
See also [Sir] John Aspinall, Hoy, Hughes & O'Brien
Barton Wright was born at Murton House near North Shields on 13 November 1828 and died in St Leonards on Sea on 7 May 1915. (Marshall).
Locomotive Superintendent of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from 1875 until 1886 when he returned to India, Barton Wright held office at a time when the L &YR both in locomotive stock and public reputation was at a low level. He was apprenticed to Daniel Gooch at Swindon with whom he was related through his mother. He rose to become assistant to the works manager, Sturrock, and then superintendent of the Paddington locomotive depot. In October 1854 he was appointed locomotive, carriage & wagon superintendent of the Madras Railway
In 1875 the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway appointed Barton Wright to bring order to its scattered workshop facilities and initiate strict standardization, based notably on his 4-4-0, 0-6-0, and 0-4-4T designs. The 0-6-2T was in overall locomotive engineering terms even more significant. Marshall noted that "Few engineers since Daniel Gooch could have assumed responsibility for a more wretched collection of engines than that which greeted Barton Wright". These were sound although unexciting designs, and were continued by his successor Aspinall Barton Wright, with Ramsbottom, were responsible for initiating work on the new locomotive works at Horwich. In June 1886 he resigned and moved to London to advance his financial interests in India. He was Director of the Assam Railways & Trading Co. until about 1893. For greater detail see Marshall Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Vol. 2.. See: H.A.V. Bulleid, The Aspinall Era (1967). This major organizer is missing from both the Oxford Companion and the ODNB.. .
Nature of Barton Wright household (including six children) from 1881 Census: Backtrack 14, 637.
Own papers
Application of the electric locomotive to main line traction on railways',
J. Instn Electrical Engrs, 1920, 58, 858-69. Commentary
in vol. 59, pp. 339-42.
The future of mainline electrification on British railways. J. Instn
Electrical Engrs, 1924, 62, 729-81.
there is also a paper on springs mentioned in Bulleid's biography of Aspinall
Contributions to other's papers
Discussion on Andrews, H.I. The measurement of train resistance.
J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1954,
44, 153-4. (Paper No. 531)
noted that he was an observer at Aspinall's experiments
Patents
19,363. Applied 23 August 1909, Accepted 12 August 1910.
Improvements in buffering devices for use
on railways. (Buffers with rubber springs).
with Gatwood, W.
6,136. Applied 11 March 1911, Accepted 8 February
1912 Improvements in self-contained spring
buffers for railway vehicles and the like. (Buffers (with
rubber springs)).
Born in August near Dublin and died in October 1967, aged 91 (Marshall). He was educated at Eton (Cox Locomotive panorama (V. 1 p. 15) notes that in this respect he was a rara avis amongst locomotive engineers) and Leeds University. Trained as engineer at Kitson & Co, Leeds; on the Dublin & South Eastern Railway, and at Horwich Works, under Aspinall . In 1903 he was appointed electrical engineer in charge of the LYR Liverpool - Southport electrification. In 1909 he succeeded J.P. Crouch as Works Manager at Newton Heath Carriage & Wagon Works and in 1910 he was appointed Works Manager, Horwich, and chief assistant to George Hughes. In WW1 he served with the Royal Engineers. On 1 January 1922 he became Chief Electrical Engineer on the LNWR, and following the amalgamation that of the LMS. On 27 March 1924 he read a paper to the Institution of Electrical Engineers on railway electrification which led to friction with the LMS management, and he resigned. He moved to Dublin where for 20 years he lectured on transport at Trinity College.
Marshall, John, The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Vol. 2
Rutherford states that one of Horwich's most important souls was H. Eoghan O'Brien an Irishman from a family with means. He was educated at Eton and served an apprenticeship with Kitson & Co. of Leeds, also attending the University in that city. Eventually he found his way to Horwich under John Aspinall and in 1903 was appointed electrical engineer in charge of the Liverpool to Southport electrification. After various other posts he became Works Manager, Horwich, and chief assistant to Hughes in 1910. Service in the First World War with the Royal Engineers saw him ranked Lieutenant-Colonel and awarded the DSO. He became Chief Electrical Engineer of the 'greater LNWR' in 1922 and of the LMSR from 1st January 1923. He set up an enlarged department at Horwich and took on extra staff.
Some very heavy trains were operated with the dynamometer car, using two Hughes 4-6-0s, to gain figures for resistance, fuel consumption and costs, etc, and these were incorporated in a monumental paper read to the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1924. The paper included masses of facts and figures and proposals for electrifying the Crewe-Carlisle section of the LNWR main line (a scenario envisaged by Frank Webb when Victoria was still on the throne).
It was read on Merseyside and in Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne before being read in London and it appears that no one at Euston knew much about it — until it was too late.
O'Brien wrote: "I was for many years a sceptic as to both the desirability and the possibilities of financial success of main-line electrification; my conversion to other views has been brought about entirely by the new facts which have emerged during the last five years. The extraordinary progress made in electric locomotive design, as witnessed by locomotives recently constructed by British, American and Swiss manufacturers; the data showing the reduction in the cost of repairs and shed maintenance when compared with steam locomotives as communicated by Sir Vincent Raven and others and confirmed by the results obtained on suburban railways: the multiplication of highly economical power stations in the congested areas most suitable for electrification; and the definite indication of very high traffic densities on main-line routes given by British railway statistics are all factors which have only recently become applicable on a sound basis to the solution of the problem. If one-man operation of the locomotives and the cheap electrification of sidings can be put in in the next few years, on an equally sound basis, the case for the electrification of a considerable proportion of the main lines of this country will be irresistible.
"It is scarcely to be expected that these new data, which have as yet but lightly impressed themselves on the minds of the technical staffs of the railways, will have penetrated to the traffic officers, accountants and directorates but fortunately there will be in Europe within a year or less and within easy reach of this country, working examples of the new conditions produced by electrifica tion on railways more analogous to British Railways than the electrified railways of the United States have been".
Not only did it appear that O'Brien was laying down a long-term traction policy (not that Euston had one to speak of) but he was showing in no uncertain manner that he had masses of evidence to back up his ideas and proposals. It would also seem that the paper was read with Hughes' knowledge and tacit approval.
There was an outbreak of mass apoplexy at Euston and O'Brien was called to Euston to 'discuss' the matter. It is not known what was said but O'Brien 'resigned' and went back to the family seat in Ireland and spent the next twenty years lecturing on transport at Trinity College, Dublin. He lived on until October 1967 when he died, aged 91.
If O'Brien's ideas had been accepted then Chapter 17 of Barnes' Locomotives that never were might have come to be.
There is also an article in BackTrack 13, 76 by R.M. Tufnell which should be read in association with the correspondence, especially that by T. Wray (13-277) as it apears to contain serious errors. The article includes a portrait.
Billington, John Robert
Marshall states that Billington
was born at Freckleton (Lancs) on 18 April 1873 and died at Horwich on 22
March 1925. Cox (Locomotive panorama V. 1
p. 15) states that he was of humble parentage but had a brilliant mind
and "did not suffer fools gladly and could be sharp and acid on occasion".
Marshall claims that Billington was mainly responsible for the
Hughes/Fowler 2-6-0.
Billington, Chief Draughtman of the LYR following the retirement of Zachariah Tetlow was according to Rutherford a home-grown engineer from a modest background, who returned to the Drawing Office at Horwich in 1912. He was a brilliant scholar, gaining many examination honours and becoming a lecturer at Horwich Mechanics' Institute on top of his full-time work. He was responsible for redesigning the 4-6-0s and also, as Chief Draughtsman. LMSR. for the first new design for that company, the Hughes standard 2-6-0 (known as the 'Crab').
During 1923 a further 'improved' version of the 4-6-0 was schemed, as a 'Pacific with a wide firebox boiler. Associated with this was a four-cylinder 2-8-2 for heavy passenger traffic and a four-cylinder 2-10-0 for heavy freight. The latter was resuscitated from a pre First World War project based on 2-10-0s of Jean Baptiste Flamme of the Belgian State Railways whose work on superheating and testing methods had influenced Hughes.
No interest in any of these proposals or a later 4-6-2 was shown by Euston although the operators thought that a freight version of the 2-8-2, but with three-cylinders, might do for the Toton-Brent coal traffic and so the design was re-schemed, together with a matching 4-6-2.
Billington died at the early age of 52 in March 1925.
Marshall states that Gass was born in 1861 and died in Bolton on 2 May 1942. He had been Chief Locomotive Draughtsman on the L&YR. He had been apprenticed at Beyer Peacock from 1877-1882 and then entered the drawing office before becoming a leading draughtsman at Sharp Stewart in 1884 at Manchester then Glasgow. In 1888 he was appointed to Horwich where he remained until 1926.
Cox (Locomotive panorama v. 1 page 16) noted Gass's "incredible thinness, his bow ties and spats which produced a natty appearance" and he was a "competent but not very orginal designer" and was a "kindly man with very little sense of humour" [presumably for cheeky young pups like Cox].
Gass (668-9), (J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1932, 22) referring to the question of maximum tractive effort, remarked that from investigating a large number of indicator starting diagrams he found 82 per cent. to be a safe figure for calculating the maximum available tractive effort. Later experiments confirmed that figure. To standardise the ratio of adhesive weigbt to maximum tractive effort it is essential that some fixed figure for mean effective pressure should be adopted. With regard to adhesive weight, a safe factor to meet all weather conditions is 20 per cent. of the weight on the rails of the driving wheels for two-cylinder locomotives, and 25%. for four-cylinder balanced engines. Spring compensating beams have not found favour in this Country. The Atlantic type engines on the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company were originally equipped with compensating beams, and considerable slipping took place. The slipping was much less pronounced after discarding the compensators. The proportion of grate area to heating surface is important; a good ratio appears to be about 1 in 65, but in large boilers with the firebox between the frames it means an extremely long box which is difficult to fire successfully. The first locomotives built as standard at Horwich comprised a 4-.4-0 passenger, a 2-4-2 tank, and an 0-6-0 goods engine. The boilers, cylinders, and valve motions were practically interchangeable in the three types. Tests carried out with a 0-8-0 engine and a 0-6-0 engine, hauling goods trains to the same timing, the tractive effort of the former was 28,426 lbs., and the latter 20,383 lbs. When hauling a load of 600 tons the more powerful engine consumed 17 per cent. less coal than its competitor. The economy decreased as the load decreased, and with a 300 ton load the fuel consumption was equal.
Portrait
Cox: Locomotive panorama v.1 fp. 4: shows L&YR officers gathered with Aspinall and Gresley and Fowler, O'Brien, Hughes, and Tatlow at a formal function in 1912.
Tetlow, Zachariah
Chief locomotive draughtsman at Horwich.
Updated: 2008-02-29