Richard Christopher Mansell (October 1813 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

– 25 May 1904 in

Long Marton Long Marton is a village and civil parish in the Eden District of the English county of Cumbria. In 2011 the population was 827. The village previously had a railway station called Long Marton railway station which closed in 1970. Within the p ...

, Westmorland) was an English railway engineer. Mansell was carriage superintendent for the South Eastern Railway at

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom * Ashford, Kent, a town ** ...

by 1851, and later works manager for the SER. In 1877 he succeeded

Alfred Mellor Watkin Sir Alfred Mellor Watkin, 2nd Baronet (11 August 1846 – 30 November 1914) was a Liberal Party politician and railway engineer. Railway career In 1863, around age 17, Watkin became an apprentice in the locomotive department of the West Midland ...

as locomotive superintendent of the SER. When James Stirling was appointed in 1878, Mansell resumed the post of works manager until his retirement from the SER in January 1882. On leaving, he was given an annual consultancy fee/pension of fifty guineas.

Carriages

R. C. Mansell was the inventor of the

Mansell wheel The Mansell Wheel is a railway wheel patented by Richard Mansell, the Carriage and Wagon superintendent of the South Eastern Railway in the UK. The design was created in the 1840s and was eventually widely used on passenger railway stock in the ...

, a composite wood and metal carriage wheel, for which he obtained patents in 1848, 1862 and 1866. Use of this design in preference to other methods of affixing tyres to wheels was often indicated following tyre and/or wheel incidents resulting in accidents by investigating officers of the Board of Trade, most notably following the accidents at Hatfield on the Great Northern Railway on Boxing Day (26 Dec) 1870 and Skipton-on-Cherwell on the Great Western Railway on Christmas Eve 1874. By 1874 there were over 20000 sets of Mansell wheels in use.

Locomotives

As locomotive superintendent, Mansell was responsible for the design of a dozen locomotives: 9 x

0-4-4T Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles. This type was only used ...

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and 3 x 0-6-0 ompleted 1879, 7 others cancelled Three 0-6-0Ts that had been designed by Cudworth were also completed under Mansell's supervision in 1877. None of his engines had a distinguished service life. The tanks lasted about 12 years and the 0-6-0s about twice that.

Family

Richard Christopher Mansell was the second of five children born to John Mansell, a Customs House Officer in Liverpool, and his wife Margaret Rothwell. Richard married twice. He married his first wife, Elizabeth Birchall Norris, 1816 Liverpool - March 1873

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(died aged 56) at

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St Mary in 1836. They had three children: Margaret, James Thomas and James Rothwell. He married his second wife, Emmeline Aldgate Clark, 29 August 1833,

St. Pancras, London St Pancras () is a district in north London. It was originally a medieval ancient parish and subsequently became a metropolitan borough. The metropolitan borough then merged with neighbouring boroughs and the area it covered now forms around ...

- 29 August 1912, Long Marton, Westmorland at Camden Haverstock Hill Holy Trinity on 14 April 1874. They had two children: Albert and Emmeline.

References

* * * UK Census Returns * Records of the Registrar for Births, Deaths & Marriages {{DEFAULTSORT:Mansell, Richard 1814 births 1904 deaths Locomotive builders and designers English railway mechanical engineers Engineers from Liverpool South Eastern and Chatham Railway people

Carriages

Locomotives

Family

See also

References