William Pickersgill (1861 – 2 May 1928) was an English railway engineer, and was

chief mechanical engineer Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

of the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

from 1914 until

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

in 1923. He was appointed locomotive superintendent of the Northern Division of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway but retired in 1925. He died in Bournemouth.

Career

Great Eastern Railway

Pickersgill was born in

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...

, Cheshire. He started work on the Great Eastern Railway at Stratford in 1876, where he was a Whitworth Exhibitioner, and after several posts in the running department he was appointed district locomotive superintendent in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

in 1891.

Great North of Scotland Railway

In 1894, he succeeded James Johnson as the locomotive superintendent of the

Great North of Scotland Railway The Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating in the north-east of the country. Formed in 1845, it carried its first passengers the fro ...

, where he continued to develop the 4-4-0 type for that railway and was responsible for the new locomotive works at

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography Inverurie is in the va ...

which replaced the unsatisfactory premises at

Kittybrewster Kittybrewster ( gd, Cuidhe Briste) is an area within Aberdeen, Scotland, north of the city centre and roughly south-west of Old Aberdeen. Transport Within the area the A9012 road joins the A978 road; there are also several railway tracks, on ...

. He was chairman of the Association of Railway Locomotive Engineers in 1912 and was interested in flange and check rail dimensions.

Caledonian Railway

In March 1914 succeeded John F. McIntosh as locomotive, carriage & wagon superintendent of the

. He further developed the McIntosh 4-4-0 type, introduced the class 60 4-6-0 for freight service, and an extraordinary 4-6-0 with derived motion which was highly unsuccessful.

London Midland and Scottish Railway

Following the

, he was appointed mechanical engineer of the Northern Division of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway but retired in 1925.

Locomotive designs

William Pickersgill's locomotive designs for the Great North of Scotland Railway included: * GNoSR class T 4-4-0: 26 built 1895–98 – became part of LNER class D41 * GNoSR class V 4-4-0: 18 built 1899–1915 – 5 sold new to South Eastern and Chatham Railway, becoming SECR G class; remainder became part of LNER class D40 * GNoSR class W 0-2-2

Railmotor Railmotor is a term used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere for a railway lightweight railcar, usually consisting of a railway carriage with a steam traction unit, or a diesel or petrol engine, integrated into it. Steam railcars Overview In th ...

: 2 built 1905 William Pickersgill's locomotive designs for the Caledonian Railway included: * Caledonian Railway 191 Class 4-6-0 (3P) * Caledonian Railway 60 Class 4-6-0 (4P) * Caledonian Railway 956 Class 4-6-0 (5P) * Caledonian Railway 113 class 4-4-0 Dunalastair V (3P) * Caledonian Railway 72 Class 4-4-0 Dunalastair V (3P) * Caledonian Railway 300 Class 0-6-0 (3F) * Caledonian Railway 159 Class 0-4-4T (2P) * Caledonian Railway 431 Class 0-4-4T (2P) * Caledonian Railway 944 Class 4-6-2T (4P)

References

External links

William Pickersgill
at www.steamindex.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Pickersgill, William Locomotive builders and designers 1861 births 1928 deaths English railway mechanical engineers People from Crewe People from Nantwich Caledonian Railway people