John Fowler (engineer)

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Sir John Fowler (July 15, 1817–November 10, 1898) was born in Wadsley, South Yorkshire, England. He was a railway engineer in Victorian Britain. He helped build the first underground railway in London, the Metropolitan line in the 1860's, a shallow line built by the "cut-and-cover" method.

1 Bridges
2 Fowler's Ghost
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Bridges

With Sir Benjamin Baker, he designed the Forth Bridge, a cantilever bridge, and Millwall Dock in east London. He was called in after the Norwood Junction rail accident when a cast iron bridge on the London-Brighton railway line fractured as a train passed over (1891). The girder failed from a large internal hole which had not been detected at installation. Since he had designed and built most of the bridges on the line, he advised that many should be strengthened or replaced, given the heavier locomotives then in use compared with those when the bridges were first built. He is credited with the building of the near identical Albert Edward Bridge at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire in 1864 and Victoria Bridge at Upper Arley, Worcestershire in 1861. Both remain in use today carrying out their originally designed function of carrying railway lines across the River Severn. Albert Edward Bridge carries the railway line from Lightmoor Junction to Ironbridge Power Station. Victoria Bridge carries the preserved Severn Valley Railway between Arley and Bewdley.

Following the death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1859, Fowler was retained by the Great Western Railway Company as a consulting engineer, and a ex-Great Western Railway Sir Watkin class locomotive was named Fowler in his honour.

He died in Bournemouth, Dorset, England at the age of 81.

[edit] Fowler's Ghost

Fowler was also the designer of an experimental fireless locomotive (nicknamed Fowler's Ghost) which was tried out on the Metropolitan Railway in the 1860s. It stored energy in heated bricks (on the same principle as a storage heater) but was unsuccessful.

Three different designs were produced but only one locomotive was actually built and this has led to some confusion. The first design was for a 2-2-2 saddle-tank and a drawing of this has been published in some books as a representation of the real machine, although it was never built.

The locomotive actually built, by Robert Stephenson and Company, was a broad-gauge 2-4-0 tender engine. It was of fairly conventional appearance but very unconventional inside. The boiler had a normal firebox and this was connected to a large combustion chamber containing a quantity of fire brick. The combustion chamber communicated with the smokebox through a set of very short firetubes. Exhaust steam was condensed by a water-jet condenser and there was a pump to maintain a vacuum in the condenser. The idea was that it would operate as an ordinary coal-fired locomotive in the open but, when approaching a tunnel, the dampers would be closed and steam would be generated using stored heat from the firebricks. It was tried out in 1861 but was a dismal failure.

Following this unsuccessful trial a third design was produced, this time for a 4-2-2 saddle tank. It would, again, have had the hot brick heat store but, above the boiler drum, would have been a second steam/water drum to allow for large variations in water level. This machine was never built and, instead, conventional steam locomotives with condensing apparatus were used.

The Metropolitan Railway advertised the 2-4-0 locomotive for sale in 1865 and some parts of it were bought by Mr. Isaac Watt Boulton.

[edit] Sources

The Chronicles of Boulton's Siding by Alfred Rosling Bennett, first published by the Locomotive Publishing Company in 1927, new impression by David & Charles 1971, ISBN 0 7153 5318 7