James Moore (engineer)

James Moore (1826–1887) was an engineer responsible for the first steam-powered railway to operate in Australia.

Early life

James Moore was born in about 1827 in England, a nephew of Sir William Cubitt, under whom he was engaged on the South Eastern and Great Northern railways, and presumably learnt his trade there. In due course he qualified as a Chartered Engineer. He moved to Australia in the early 1850s.

Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company

In March 1854, Moore was appointed as Chief Engineer of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company, which was set, six months later, to open the first steam-powered railway in Australia. It was reported that he was a man "of whose abilities rumour speaks favourably". He succeeded William Snell Chauncy, who had resigned the engineership of the line under a cloud as the work on the railway pier had proven useless. Moore was responsible for completing the railway line between the city and Sandridge, and the main deep-water pier on Hobson's Bay at Sandridge. He can also be credited with the first locomotive in the Australian colonies when he attached a pile driving steam engine to one of the heavy railway trucks, to assist in construction of the line.

At the opening of the line in September 1854, he was presented with an engraved watch with the inscription: "James Moore, Esq. Engineer of the Melbourne & Hobson's Bay Railway by the Commissioners as a token of their esteem and in commemoration of his having opened the first Railway in the Australian Colonies Sept. 12th 1854".Windsor and Richmond Railway'' (in New South Wales) and then superintendent of works on the Southern extension of the New South Wales Great Southern Railway into the town of Goulburn.

A James Moore is also credited with building the Victorian Railways Administration Offices in Spencer Street, Melbourne. However, although commissioned in 1886, building only started in 1888 and was not completed until 1893, so it is possible that this was a different James Moore.

He moved to Lismore in New South Wales in about 1870, where he managed a ''well-known sugar plantation in the Big Scrub'' but when he experienced some heavy losses he moved into Lismore and took up the position as Engineer for the Borough of Lismore in 1886, until ill health caused him to resign on 15 April 1886.

Death

Moore died in Lismore, New South Wales in 1887 of diabetes aged 61, having been resident at the country property Jesswoolgan, near Alstonville, New South Wales for some time, and was referred to as ''for many years civil engineer of the Railway Department in Sydney.'' He was described as ''...one who was always kind and affable, and whose' hand was ever stretched forth to assist the needy or distressed. His funeral was held at the Lismore Church of England read by the Rev. A. Poole, and his remains were interred at the Wilson's Ridges Church of England Cemetery, Lismore.

References

Bibliography

* Cumming, D.A. ''Some Public Works Engineers in Victoria in the Nineteenth Century'' Technology Report No. TR-85/10. August 1985.
* Lee, Robert. ''The Railways of Victoria 1854–2004'' Melbourne University Publishing Ltd, .
* Harrigan, Leo J. (1962). Victorian Railways to '62. Public Relations and Betterment Board. p. 274.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, James
1826 births
1887 deaths
British civil engineers
Australian civil engineers
Engineers from Melbourne