William Adams: His Life and Locomotives
eBook - ePub

William Adams: His Life and Locomotives

A Life in Engineering 1823-1904

  1. 208 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

William Adams: His Life and Locomotives

A Life in Engineering 1823-1904

About this book

William Adams (1823 – 1904) is probably best known from his locomotive designs for the London & South Western Railway. The years at Nine Elms were the culmination of career which began formally in marine engineering, including a period at sea with the Royal Sardinian Navy, encompassed civil engineering and surveying before joining the North London Railway as locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent. He has been described as the father of the suburban train, an inventive engineer, who pioneered the use of continuous train brakes, developed well designed, free-steaming locomotive boilers for services requiring rapid acceleration and frequent stops, and his invention of a bogie with controlled side-play revolutionized future locomotive design. His next move was to the Great Eastern Railway where his designs met with mixed success, before moving south of the Thames to Nine Elms. Here, over five hundred locomotives were built to his designs, with his later express classes regarded by many as his greatest achievement. Adams also proved himself a very capable designer in developing locomotive and carriage works at all three railways, improving efficiency and reducing costs. This book tells the story of a genial man with a love of music, who was undoubtedly one of the finest late Victorian locomotive engineers.

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Yes, you can access William Adams: His Life and Locomotives by John Woodhams in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Technology & Engineering & Science & Technology Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-Title
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Introduction
  8. Chapter 1 Early Years
  9. Chapter 2 The Blackwall Apprentice
  10. Chapter 3 A Mediterranean Odyssey
  11. Chapter 4 The Origins of the North London Railway
  12. Chapter 5 The Innovative Years at Bow
  13. Chapter 6 A Move to Stratford
  14. Chapter 7 To the South Western
  15. Chapter 8 Master of his Art
  16. Chapter 9 The Two Protégés, John Henry Adams and W.F. Pettigrew
  17. Chapter 10 Legacy and Preservation
  18. Appendix A Ships Built and/or Engined by Miller and Ravenhill 1841–1846
  19. Appendix B Trials of an Express Locomotive 1891
  20. Appendix C Summary of Locomotive Designs and Principal Dimensions
  21. Appendix D Summary of Locomotives Built by William Adams
  22. Bibliography
  23. Plates Section