William Martley (4 January 1824 – 6 February 1874) was the locomotive superintendent of the London Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) in England from 1860 until his death.

Biography

William was born in Ballyfallon, in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

, Ireland, in 1824. In 1841 he was articled to Daniel Gooch at the Swindon Works of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

, and in 1847 became locomotive superintendent of the

Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway The Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway (WL&WR), formerly the Waterford and Limerick Railway up to 1896, was at the time it was amalgamated with the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1901 the fourth largest railway in Ireland, with a mai ...

. He soon moved to the South Devon Railway, and then, in 1850, became locomotive superintendent of the

South Wales Railway The South Wales Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd De Cymru) was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to ...

, based at

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

. In 1860 he moved to the London Chatham and Dover Railway, where he was the first locomotive superintendent. He became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1867, but died in office in February 1874.

London Chatham & Dover Railway

During his period at the LCDR Martley established the Longhedge Railway Works (Battersea) 1860–1862 and used it for the construction of new locomotives, and the Stewarts Lane motive power depot.

Locomotives

According to D.L. Bradley, Martley's locomotives were "neat and attractive with a special charm of their own. In service they proved hard-working, reliable and above all, durable."Bradley (1979) p. 8 His classes included

0-4-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement with no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. While the first locomotiv ...

and

2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. The notation 2-4-0T indi ...

tank engines and

tender locomotives.

References

External links

steamindex.com

Biography at gracesguide.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martley, William 1824 births 1874 deaths English railway mechanical engineers Locomotive builders and designers People from County Meath