Charles Blacker Vignoles
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Charles Blacker Vignoles (1793-1875) was an influential early railway engineer, and eponym of the Vignoles rail. He was born at Woodbrook County, Wexford, Ireland.
Having been orphaned when very young, he was brought up by his grandfather, Professor of Mathematics at the Woolwich Royal Military Academy. He trained in mathematics and law and, on qualifying in 1814 he obtained a commission in the Army. He served under Wellington in the Peninsula, in Holland, Canada and America where he surveyed large areas of Florida and South Carolina.
[edit] Railway Engineering
In the mid 1820's he returned to Britain and worked for James Walker surveying the London docks then, for the Rennies, on the proposed London and Brighton Railway. On the latter's behalf, he then carried out the initial surveys for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. However, the board of the L&M were unable to agree terms with the Rennies and George Stephenson took over. However Vignoles remained engineer for two connecting railways: the Wigan Branch Railway and the St. Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway. The latter was one of the first instances where two conflicting lines used a bridge rather than a level crossing.
The experience led to larger projects, including new railways in Ireland which then was wholly part of the United Kingdom. This included the
- Dublin and Kingston (1832-34), initially built as an atmospheric railway,
- Sheffield and Kingston (1835-40),
- Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway (later: Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway) including the original Woodhead Tunnel; however there were difficulties with his contract, and his remuneration, so he resigned in 1841 before work was started.
- Midland Counties Railway linking Nottingham, Derby and Leicester with Rugby, opened in 1839, for which he was surveyor and consulting engineer,
- London, Chatham and Dover Railway (1855-64).
Since the 1840’s, he worked also in mainland Europe
- giving advice to the planned mainline-railways in the Kingdom of Württemberg (Germany) (1843),
- building the Kiev Bridge over the Dnieper River (then: Russia, today: Ukraine) between 1847 and 1853, with four main spans, overall half a mile long, at that time the largest of its kind in Europe.
- for the Wiesbadener Eisenbahngesellschaft in the Duchy of Nassau 1853 – 1856 building the Nassauische Rheintalbahn from Wiesbaden to Oberlahnstein.
- Between 1857 and 1864 he was engineer for the Tudela & Bilbao Railway in Spain.
[edit] Vignoles rail
In 1836 he suggested the use, on the London and Croydon Railway, of flat bottomed rail, first invented by the American, R.L.Stevens in 1830 (but rolled in British steel works), with which his name has become associated as Vignoles rail, and which is now standard across the world.
[edit] Honours
He was professor in University College, London (1841-43), and published Observations on the Floridas (1823, with valuable map).
He became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1827, in 1841, the first Professor of Civil Engineering at University College, London and in 1855 was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. He became the 15th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1869.
[edit] Reference
- Ransom, P.J.G., (1990) The Victorian Railway and How it Evolved, London: Heinemann Ltd.
[edit] External link
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Vignoles, Charles |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vignoles, Charles Blacker |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | British railway engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1793 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Woodbrook County, Wexford |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1875 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
