JOSEPH LOCKE: Civil Engineer and Railway Builder, 1805-1860

In the early 19th century, Richard Trevithick discovered that to power a small engine you required high pressure steam, and the end-result was a railway network. Railway engineer Joseph Locke first worked for his father's colliery in West Yorkshire, and when he moved to the Newcastle area he joined the Stephenson family business, acting as an assistant to Robert Stephenson over the surveys and plans for the Liverpool and Manchester railway. The scheme was initially rejected by parliament, and there was also a faction arguing for cable haulage. Joseph and Robert prepared a report that George Stephenson put out in his name, and finally their prototype Rocket won the contest. Meanwhile Joseph was engaged with engineering problems traversing Chat Moss. The directors of the line had a disagreement with George Stephenson, who left the company, and Locke felt his only option was to stay with his mentor, but when trustees of the Liverpool and Manchester Line called him back to correct George's calculations, the embarrassment caused a temporary rift. The ceremonial opening of the line is famous for the death of William Huskisson MP who moved forward to shake hands with his old antagonist the Duke of Wellington and was hit by the locomotive. George Stephenson moved to the Grand Junction Railway in the Midlands with Locke as his assistant, but when the two-mile Woodhead tunnel under the Peak District ran into problems, partly because shareholders with no engineering experience kept arriving at the site and giving orders, and partly because the men were housed in inadequate shelters, Locke was called in to sort out the disaster in spite of his aversion to tunnels, asking for a budget that was twice the original estimate. Locke later worked on a range of railways including the route north over Shap Fell, and deserves to be mentioned alongside the Stephensons as one of railway's great pioneers. 16.5 x 24cm, 180pp, colour photos.