Robert Daglish (1779-1865) was a colliery manager,

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

and

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

at the start of the railway era. Daglish was born in

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

. He became a member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

in 1830. He died at Orrell on 28 December 1865 and is buried at the

Church of St Thomas the Martyr The Church of St Thomas the Martyr (known as St Thomas' Newcastle) in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. Is one of the most prominent city centre landmarks, located close to both universities, the city hall and main shopping district i ...

Upholland Up Holland (or Upholland) is a village close to Skelmersdale and civil parish in the West Lancashire district, in the county of Lancashire, England, 4 miles west of Wigan. The population at the 2011 census was 7,376. Geography The village is ...

. He had married Margaret Twizel in 1804. Their children included George (1805-1870), who became a surgeon and Robert. Dalglish moved to Lancashire in 1804 where he was employed by

Lord Balcarres Earl of Balcarres is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1651 for Alexander Lindsay, 2nd Lord Balcarres. Since 1848, the title has been held jointly with the Earldom of Crawford, and the holder is also the hereditary clan chief ...

to manage

Haigh Foundry Haigh Foundry was an ironworks and foundry in Haigh, Lancashire, which was notable for the manufacture of early steam locomotives. Origins Haigh Foundry was established in the Douglas Valley in Haigh around 1790 by Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl ...

and the adjacent Brock Mill Forge. While at Haigh he built pumping, winding and blast engines which in their day were described as "improved and efficient machines". Around 1810, Daglish moved to Orrell where he was appointed manager of John Clarke's Orrell Colliery. Having seen the rack locomotives

John Blenkinsop John Blenkinsop (1783 – 22 January 1831) was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive. He was born in Felling, County Durham, the son of a stonemason and was app ...

designed for the

Middleton Railway The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. The rail ...

near Leeds in 1812, under licence, he built the ''Yorkshire Horse'' to the same design as Blenkinsop's ''

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...

''. He converted the colliery wagonway between the collieries at

Winstanley Winstanley may refer to: People: *Alan Winstanley, British record producer *Bill Winstanley, English footballer who played for Stoke City *Dean Winstanley, English darts player *Eric Winstanley, English footballer *Gerrard Winstanley, 17th-century ...

and the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

at Crooke to a running track with stone sleepers and iron rails. The locomotive was built at Haigh Foundry. Under Daglish's management the colliery was extremely profitable. He built a second locomotive and said they each did the work of 14 horses saving the company about £500 per year. Dalglish supervised much of the construction work on the

Bolton and Leigh Railway The Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR) was the first public railway in Lancashire, it opened for goods on 1 August 1828 preceding the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) by two years. Passengers were carried from 1831. The railway operated inde ...

which opened in 1828. he rebuilt the locomotive, ''

Novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

'', for the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway in 1833. With his son, Robert who erected the machinery for that railway's

inclined plane An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...

s, they operated the line from 1839 until 1848. Dalglish was consulted by other railway companies such as the

Newcastle & Carlisle Railway The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between ...

in 1832 and the

Great North of England Railway The Great North of England Railway (GNER) was an early British railway company. Its main line, opened in 1841 was between York and Darlington, and originally it was planned to extend to Newcastle. Mergers In 1846 it was absorbed by the Newcastl ...

. He won a prize in the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

's competition for the best design for rail chairs. In North America, Dalglish was consulted by the Baltimore and Susquehanna, the

Boston and Providence The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the first rail lines in the United States - with a ...

, the New York and Harlem and

Norwich and Worcester Railroad The Norwich and Worcester Railroad (N&W) was a railroad in the U.S. states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Its north-south mainline ran between its namesake cities of Worcester, Massachusetts, and Norwich, Connecticut, (later extended to Gr ...

Robert Daglish (1809-1883)

Daglish's son, Robert (1809-1883) was also an engineer. He trained with Hick and Rothwell in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

before moving to Lee Watson and Company's St Helens Iron Foundry. The foundry supplied machinery for mills, mines, waterworks, glassworks, and railways. Iron lattice truss bridges were supplied to the

Liverpool and Bury Railway The Liverpool and Bury Railway was formed in 1845 and opened on 28 November 1848. The line ran from Liverpool Exchange first using a joint line with Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway before branching off to proceed via Kirkby then Wigan a ...

in 1846. He was also a railway contractor.

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* * * * {{authority control English mining engineers Rack railways in the United Kingdom British steam engine engineers Engineers from Lancashire British railway pioneers