Thomas Grainger

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(12 November 1794 – 25 July 1852) was a Scottish

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 ...

and

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

. He was joint partner with John Miller in the prominent engineering firm of Grainger & Miller.

Life

Grainger was born at Gogar Green near Ratho, outside

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

to Helen Marshall and Hugh Grainger. Educated at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

, at 16 he got a job with John Leslie, a

land surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

. He started his own practice in 1816, and in 1825 he formed a partnership with John Miller which lasted until 1847. Their firm operated from the ground floor of Grainger's house at 56 George Street, in the centre of Edinburgh's New Town. Between 1845 and 1849 his company worked on the digging of the

Bramhope Tunnel Bramhope Tunnel is on the Harrogate Line between Horsforth station and the Arthington Viaduct in West Yorkshire, England. Services through the railway tunnel are operated mainly by Northern. The tunnel was constructed during 1845–1849 b ...

and building the

Arthington Viaduct Arthington Viaduct, listed known as the Wharfedale Viaduct, carries the Harrogate Line across the Wharfe valley between Arthington in West Yorkshire and Castley in North Yorkshire, England. It is a Grade II listed structure. The viaduct was ...

as part of laying the

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimat ...

line. The first modern

rail ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train f ...

, the ''Leviathan'', was designed in 1849 by Grainger for the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway to cross the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

between Granton and

Burntisland Burntisland ( , sco, also Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 6,269. It was previously known as Wester Kingho ...

. The service commenced on 3 February 1850. Projects he was involved in included many railway bridges, viaducts and tunnels, including work on the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway,

Ballochney Railway The Ballochney Railway was an early railway built near Airdrie, Lanarkshire, now in Monklands, Scotland. It was intended primarily to carry minerals from coal and ironstone pits, and stone quarries, in the area immediately north and east of Aird ...

, Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway,

Wishaw and Coltness Railway The Wishaw and Coltness Railway was an early Scottish mineral railway. It ran for approximately 11 miles from Chapel Colliery, at Newmains in North Lanarkshire connecting to the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway near Whifflet, giving a means o ...

, Paisley and Renfrew Railway,

Dundee and Arbroath Railway The Dundee and Arbroath Railway was an early railway in Scotland. It opened in 1838, and used the unusual track gauge of 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm). In 1848 it changed to standard gauge and connected to the emerging Scottish railway networ ...

Arbroath and Forfar Railway The Arbroath and Forfar Railway was a railway that connected Forfar with the port town of Arbroath, in Scotland. It opened in 1838–1839 and it was successful in making an operating profit, but it was always desperately short of capital. It u ...

, and the Leeds Northern Railway, where he was chief engineer at the time of his death. He was president of the

Royal Scottish Society of Arts The Royal Scottish Society of Arts is a learned society in Scotland, dedicated to the study of science and technology. It was founded as The Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts in Scotland by Sir David Brewster in 1821 and dedicated ...

1849–51, and a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. Benjamin Hall Blyth served as an apprentice under him. He died in

on 25 July 1852 as a result of injuries sustained in a train collision two days earlier. One of two fatal casualties, Grainger had sustained a compound fracture to his right leg, which quickly turned gangrenous. Following his death his body was returned home for burial in the family plot in the kirkyard at

Gogar Gogar is a predominantly rural area of Edinburgh, Scotland, located to the west of the city. It is not far from Gogarloch, Edinburgh Park and Maybury. The Fife Circle Line is to the north. Etymology The name of Gogar first appears in a clearl ...

.Scottish Architects
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Family

On 24 January 1843 he married Jessie Fraser (1809-1880). They had three daughters: Isabella Helen, Jessie Frances and Agnes Catherine. While Isabella is thought to have died young, Jessie and Agnes died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1921 and 1934 respectively, both having been resident there since at least 1871. They are buried in the family plot at

Main Works

* New sea-wall at Newhaven Harbour (1837) * Broughty Ferry railway station (1838) * Haymarket railway station, Edinburgh (1840) with David Bell * Bridge at Russell Place in

(1843) * North Leith railway station (1845) demolished despite being an architectural gem and the prototype of all future railway stations * Railway bridge at

Warriston Warriston ( ) is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies east of the Royal Botanic Garden in Inverleith. The name derives from Warriston House, a local mansion house demolished in 1966. In July 1600 John Kincaid, the Laird o ...

, Edinburgh (1845) *

Cupar railway station Cupar railway station is a railway station that serves the town of Cupar in Fife, Scotland. The station has two platforms, of which the southbound one (for trains to Edinburgh) is now wheelchair accessible. Services are provided by ScotRail. H ...

(1846) *

Ladybank railway station Ladybank railway station serves the town of Ladybank in Fife, Scotland. History The station was opened in 1847 by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway on their line from , being the point at which the line divided into two branches to and Li ...

(1847) * Markinch railway station (1847) * Burntisland railway station (1847) * Leeds to Thirsk line including the

(1849) *

Yarm Viaduct Yarm Viaduct carries railway traffic above the town of Yarm and across the River Tees straddling the boundary between North Yorkshire and County Durham in northern England. The railway it is situated on, runs between and , and was opened in 1852 ...

over the Tees (1852)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grainger, Thomas 1794 births 1852 deaths Engineers from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British railway civil engineers British railway pioneers Scottish businesspeople Scottish civil engineers Scottish surveyors Railway accident deaths in England 19th-century British businesspeople