Worsdell dynasty
Nathaniel
Thomas Wilson
Wilson
W.M. Smith
J.W. Smith
General references
Atkins, Philip. Some reflections
on locomotive engineers of the North Eastern Railway. Br. Rly. J. North
Eastern Rly Spec. Issue, 2005?, 8-21.
Includes all associated with NER plus Smith
Hill, Geoffrey: The Worsdells:
a Quaker engineering dynasty Glossop, 1991.
Thomas Clarke Worsdell
Thomas Clarke Worsdell (1788-1862), joined the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, as a young man. This action would have had a profound effect on the way of life of himself and his descendants and to a great extent on their choice of careers, as many occupations in the 19th Century still being closed to members of that community. (Hill)
Thomas Clarke Worsdell "was a coachmaker who, after moving from London to Lancashire, set up in business on his own account and was later to assist George Stephenson to construct carriages for the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway from 1827 onwards. He also built the wooden tender for the Rocket.
His eldest son, Nathaniel (1809-1886), assisted his father as a coachmaker in the early days of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and was to give no less than 52 years service to that company and its successors, the Grand Junction Railway and the London and North Western Railway, mainly at Crewe. He is notable for having invented (Patent 7528 granted 4 January 1838) the device for the automatic pick up and setting down of mail to and from trains at speed.
Patents (Official sources)
16,646 22 June 1871. Spark arresters with Johnson? Smith
999 23 January 1885 Compound steam engines.
1,000 23 January 1885 Draught and dust excluders for windows. with
others
39 1 January 1886. Starting valve for compound engines
11,857 17 September 1886. Permanent way of railways.
14,151 3 November 1886 Crank shafts
4,661 29 March 1887 Compound engines.
7,647 22 April 1892. Compound engines. with A. von Borries and R.H.
Lapage.
6,487/1900 An improvement in starting valves for compound steam
engines. with August Von Borries and Richard Herbert Lapage. Applied
6 April 1900. Published 16 February 1901
22,906/1900 Improvements in valves for use in compound locomotives
and other compound engines. Applied 14 December 1900. Published 2 November
1901 with August Von Borries and Richard Herbert Lapage
Patent search also showed 10,892 (23 October 1865) which related to apparatus to be attached to and employed in connection with railway carriages. This may be an early patent taken out before his departure to the USA, or relate to his uncle: inspection of the patent is required).
Born in Liverpool on 14 January 1838 to Nathaniel Worsdell, who had designed the first true railway passenger vehicle for Stephenson, the Quaker Thomas Worsdell worked under Ramsbottom at Crewe but left England in 1865 to join the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rutherford (Backtrack, 2007, 21, 497) notes that he was known as Billy within the Worsdell family. He soon became master mechanic at Altoona, but in 1871 was invited by Webb to become works manager at Crewe, where Worsdell became interested in compounding, although opting for the von Bories rather than the Mallet system adopted by Webb.
In 1881 Worsdell became locomotive superintendent of the Great Eastern Railway. For this Company he designed some unexceptional tender engines (the RCTS (Locomotives of the LNER, Vol. 1 which is normally cautious called them "not particularly successful"). But his 0-6-0 tender and inside cylinder 2-4-2 tank laid down standards, which with his autereness of external fittings, became the basic outline of many GER and NER locomtives fo several decades. The GER Y14 (LNER J15 0-6-0), a member of which is in the National Collection epitomises this rugged simplicity. The radial 2-4-2Ts were popular for commuter service. He also built his first two-cylinder compounds, on the von Borries system. During this period he seems to have set the fashion of decorating passenger compartment interiors with scenic photographs.
Ellis (Twenty locomotive men) quoting from Reminiscences of Stratford (Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev, 1936) noted that 'Mr T. W. Worsdell. . . developed a rather nasty habit of going into the shops at about five o'clock p.m. The machine on which we were working was just inside the north door, and tools had been put away soon after 5.15 p.m.; some of us saw the great man enter, and immediately hammers, spanners and any loose articles were picked up to commence a noisy belabouring of the bedplate and faceplate of the machine. So violently was this attack developed that Mr Worsdell stopped in astonishment to see what really was being done. At this moment the Works Manager – Mr G. Macallan – appeared, and I distinctly heard Mr Worsdell say to him: "Whatever are they doing, Mac?" That gentleman, in his falsetto voice, said: "Well, sir, we are converting a surplus wheel-lathe into a cylinder-boring machine," proceeding to give an outline as to how it was to work. Mr Worsdell stood in a somewhat bewildered attitude, and called out: "Stop the work!", turning on his heels and walking away with Mr Macallan following him. The heavy blows and rattling of tools soon ceased after their departure, and we stood more or less dumbfounded as to what the next move would be. Just as the bell rang the foreman came up hurriedly to say that no more work was to be done on the conversion, as Mr Worsdell considered the result would never be a good one.'
From 1885 to 1890 he was locomotive superintendent of the North Eastern Railway, building mainly 2-4-0 and 0-6-0 types, and later some 4-4-0 and 4-2-2 machines. This reversion to singles coincided with a fresh crop of two-cylinder compounds, with the result that he built Britain's only compound single-drivers. The Worsdell automatic intercepting valve enabled steam to move directly from the boiler to the low-pressure cylinder on starting, with automatic changeover to compound working when the first exhaust from the high-pressure cylinder raised pressure in the receiver. To ensure that both cylinders would do equal work, the Joy valve gear was arranged to give always a later cut-off in the low-pressure cylinder when in forward gear. Rutherford (Backtrack, 2007, 21, 497) considers this activity in depth..
Van Riemsdijk records how a J class single developed 1069 indicated horsepower at 86 mph on level track hauling eighteen four-wheel carriages. The indicator diagrams indicated that the work between the two cylinders was evenly divided. His F class 4-4-0 compounds did well in the 1888 railway 'race', one of them averaging almost 60 mile/h. from Newcastle to Edinburgh with eighty-four tons. Van Riemsdijk notes that 270 two-cylinder compounds were in service before Worsdell retired, due to ill health in September 1890. Despite their good performance, his compounds fell from favour after he had been succeeded by his brother Wilson. He died in Arnside on 28 June 1916.
T.W. Worsdell's most striking mark on North Eastern locomotive design was the side-window cab he applied to all new locomotives with tenders. Such a cab was nothing new on the North Eastern; fifteen years earlier enginemen had protested against even more commodious cabs mounted by Bouch on 2/4-4-0s. But those cabs induced in the enginemen more grumbling than approbation and so Bouch gave to later engines something more like the current average North Eastern cab in the style of a sawn-off rabbit-hutch. On the other hand, the Worsdell version of the side-window cab was accepted by enginemen without any officially recorded reluctance. It was applied to every subsequent North Eastern tender engine and it lifted the living conditions of North Eastern enginement into the luxury class. To be able to remain warm and dry on the footplate while the engine stood in a cold, rain-laden cross-wind was something outside the most imaginative aspirations of British enginemen of the period.
C.M. Jenkin Jones excludes T.W. from his pantheon of great locomotive engineers of the NER: Fletcher, Wilson Worsdell and Raven.
See:
Birse, Ronald M. Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography
C. H. Ellis, Twenty Locomotive
Men (1958).
Patent
16,980/1907 Improvements in and connected with blast pipes of locomotives with Walter Reuben Preston. Applied 24 July 1907. Publshed 23 July 1908
According to Marshall was born in Crewe on 7 September 1850 and died at Ascot on 14 April 1920. Aided and sometimes pushed by his chief draughtsman Walter Smith, and a friend of Churchward, Wilson Worsdell presided over a lively period of North Eastern Railway locomotive history. He followed his brother to the Pennsylvania Railroad, becoming a pupil at the Altoona Works; and back again to England. In England he worked for the London & North Western Railway and then joined the North Eastern Railway in 1883. He succeeded his brother as Locomotive Superintendent in 1890, and until he retired in 1910 (Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1910, 16, 21) he brought out a series of new designs. Among them were his big fast 4-4-0 types, his Atlantics, and his 0-8-0 mineral engines. He agreed to build a few units of Smith's compound designs, but really preferred simples, rebuilding many of his brother's two-cylinder compounds into simples. At the November 1902 meeting of ARLE (as edited Hughes) Worsdell noted that the Americans had gone in strongly for compounds, but were now giving them up (this was in response to enthusiasm for developments in France as expressed by Johnson and by Churchward...
Nock succinctly observed that Wilson Worsdell had the good fortune for his period of being in charge of locomotives to coincide with that of George Stegmann Gibb whom is described as being a dynamic and truly great railwayman whose invigorating leadership brought a big programme of improvements including accelerations, new works and internal reforms. Nock also summarises Wilson Worsdell's major overall contributions: the abandonment of the von Bories system of compounding, the replacement of Joy valve gear by the Stephenson link motion, and the introduction of piston valves, to which Geoffrey Williams adds outside cylinders, the Smith system of compounding, sloping firegrates, variable blastpipes, and in the later period, superheating and multiple cyclinders. One express passenger type is selected for particular mention: "the R class excelled in no uncertain terms". The RCTS Locomotives of the LNER Vol. 1 noted that Wilson Worsdell was willing to delegate: Walter Smith was responsible for introducing piston valves and the three-cylinder compound system. It also notes that the visit of a party of senior offices of the NER to the USA in 1901 led to the adoption of 5 ft 6 in diameter boilers. Along with Ivatt on the GNR to the south Worsdell was responsible for developing the ECML big engine policy.
According to Tuplin, Wilson Worsdell had seen too much of compounding to like it; he also saw that 'single-drivers' were not going to be of much use for the heavier main line trains that the North Eastern expected to be running in the future. So his first design for such service was the Class M1 4-4-0, helped to look massive by an extended smokebox.
C.M. Jenkin Jones' comments in the centenary pamphlet to commemorate the North Eastern Railway are apposite: In a general survey of this kind. it is impossible to do justice to the design and performance of N.E.R. engines. A few types only can be mentioned, largely by way of example, and it would be easy to add many others. of equal distinction. Three great mechanical engineers were in command for sixty of the sixty-eight years of the N.E.R.— Edward Fletcher, Wilson Worsdell and Sir Vincent Raven. Their influence is stamped indelibly on the design of North Eastern locomotives with the beauty of their straight footplating from front to back, which has always appealed to locomotive engineers and laymen alike. A further extract is found with W.M. Smith: the absence of T.W.'s name is significant.
R.Bell's Twenty-five years of the North Eastern Railway questions Wilson Worsdell's management abilities: "The Locomotive Department was managed more cavalierly [than that of the Superintendent of the Line, under Philip Burtt]. Wilson Worsdell, who succeeded T.W. Worsdell as Locomotive Superintendent in 1890, was a first-rate mechanical engineer. At his Gateshead headquarters he designed many useful engines during the next twenty years and kept them in good trim, but he had little bent for administrative work (KPJ's emphasis). That was left largely to his capable assistant, Vincent L. Raven, who supervised locomotive running, docks machinery and other activities. These unorthodox arrangements produced good results and at the same time D. Bain, who was in charge of the carriage and wagon works at York, was evolving a standard type of coach suited to the train services of the. North Eastern area." This probably explains why T.W. Worsdell was brought in. But Bell failed to mention the anomalous Smith.
See:
Birse, Ronald M. entry in. Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography:
W. A. Tuplin, North Eastern Steam (1970).
Hill: The Worsdells: a Quaker
engineering
dynasty
Rutherford (BackTrack,
13, 38)
According to Marshall Smith was born at Ferryport-on-Craig, Montrose on 25 February 1842. Note Marshall was incorrect in his middle name (MacKenzie). He was educated at Dundee High School and then apprenticed to William Norman & Sons and then at Todd & McGregor in Glasgow and following this worked for Neilson & Co before working for Samuel Johnson on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway and followed Johnson to Stratford on the GER where according to Hoole he was Chief Draughtsman. He was Locomotive Superintendent of the Japanese government railways from 1874 to 1883, Walter Smith became chief draughtsman at the North Eastern Railway's Gateshead Works in 1883. Thanks to his friendship with Johnson of the Midland Railway, and the understanding of his nominal superior, Worsdell, he was able to put several of his ideas into practice, including his segmental piston rings and his three-cylinder compound system. The adoption of the latter by the Midland Railway demonstrated that Smith had succeeded, where many others had failed, in making a really successful British compound. Atkins (below) indicates that Smith's son John became Chief Draughtsman at Derby. after Walter Smith died on 25 October 1906. On page 96 of British locomotives of the 20th century. Volume 1. 1900-1930. Nock states that Smith "did not see eye to eye with the Chief". According to Nock (Great locomotives of the LNER) Smith's middle name was Mackersie, and he was "one of the ablest locomotive engineers ever to serve the North Eastern". Mackersie is indeed the middle name: Illustrated Official Journal (Patents) 1898 (13 July).page 853 and other pages relating to his inventions.
Jenkin Jones added: "Another name that will always be associated with N.E.R. locomotives is Walter M. Smith, the Chief Draughtsman at Gateshead for more than 20 years until his death in 1906. His influence on the general design of locomotives was very great and his original work on piston valves and compounding was outstanding."
Papers
Results of recent practical experience with express locomotive engines.
Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, 1898,
55, 605-69.
The application of cylindrical steam distributing valves to locomotives.
Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, 1902,
63, 515-44.
Patents
Most are based on based on Atkins, but an additional
one and all post-1895 patents have been verified via Espacenet
1878/1884. Bogie truck Applied 13 April 1884.
4790/1884. Radial axle box Applied 12 March 1884
17833/1888. Piston valves. Applied 6 December 1888
571/1889. Anti-vacuum valve with J.W. Smith. Applied 11 January
1889
20769/1890. Two-cylinder compound locomotive. Applied 19 December
1890
14061/1891. Piston valves. Applied 11 October 1891
22868/1896 Improvements in steam Engines. Applied 15 October
1896. Published 15 October 1897.
Improvements to piston valves/direct drive
6118/1897 Improvements in steam generators. Applied 9 March
1897. Published 1 January 1898
Firebox water tubes
18213/1897 Improvements in steam generators of the locomotive
type. Applied 5 August 1897. Published 30 July 1898
Firebox water tubes
14721/1898 Improvements in compound locomotive engines. Applied
4 July 1898. Published 3 September 1898
Three-cylinder compound locomotives
16310/1900 Improvements in steam engines. Applied 4 July 1900.
Published 13 September 1900
Four-cylinder compound locomotives
5526/1901 Improvements in steam engines. Applied 15 March 1901.
Published 13 February 1902
Four-cylinder compound locomotives
13635/1904 Improvements in compound locomotives. Applied 16
June 1904. Published 27 April 1905
Attachment of cylinders in three-cylinder compound
19351/1904 Improvements in the methods of lubricating locomotive
cylinders. Applied 8 September 1904. Published 13 July 1905.
See: O.S. Nock
Locomotives of the North Eastern
Railway. 1954.
The Midland Compounds (1964).
The four cylinder compound
Atlantics of the North Eastern Railway. Philip
Atkins. Backtrack, 11, 424-9.
Son of Walter Mackersie Smith. Born in 1866 whilst his father was at Stratford and was educated in Dundee and Newcastle: see David Jackson's J.G. Robinson. Trained at Gateshead on NER. According to Radford joined Midland Railway in October 1891. He became Chief Locomotive Draughtsman following Iveson's retirement Jackson notes that Smith was sent to the USA to inspect the orders from Baldsin and Schenectady for 2-6-0s. According to electronic communication from Phil Atkins he transferred to Derby in 1889, ostensibly to assist Johnson with piston valves, and was the catalyst for introducing the Midland compounds on the basis of NER No. 1619. Atkins firmly states that Smith's transfer to the GCR at Gorton in 1906 where he became Works Manager was after the four Smith compounds had been built there.: Atkins notes that in a letter to him from J.F. Harrison it was observed that Smith was a very mild man whose true forte was locomotive design. Smith left Derby at time of patenting with Charles Reginald Winn (a Birmingham manufacturer of safety valves and lubricators). Patent: 11190/1903.Water level indicator for locomotive tanks or tenders (applied 16 May 1903 and published 17 March 1904)..
Updated: 2007-11-30