George Tosh

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George Tosh (1813 – 1900) was a Scottish engineer and metallurgist who pioneered the use of steel in certain aspects of steam locomotive design. He was the second Locomotive Superintendent of the Maryport & Carlisle Railway (M&CR), between 1854 and 1870.

His earlier career is not known, but he was apparently resident in Newcastle by 1839, in Parton, Cumberland, during 1843-1848, and in Maryport by 1852. He was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the M&CR about 1854, replacing a Mr Scott. His successor was Hugh Smellie, formerly works manager for the Glasgow & South Western Railway at Kilmarnock.

Contents 1 Innovations 2 Family 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Innovations

During his tenure at the Maryport & Carlisle Railway, Tosh was the first to use steel for construction of a locomotive boiler (in 1862), where previously wrought iron had been the material of choice. The boiler/firebox was constructed by an outside contractor. It was not the first such design in the world – that accolade belonging to a Canadian locomotive, two years earlier – but it was certainly a first in Britain, and pre-empted the London & North Western Railway's developments of the technology.

Tosh was also amongst the first railway engineers in the country to introduce coal-burning (rather than coke) fireboxes and fitted the first steel-tyred wheels to British locomotives. Most of his engines had domeless boilers. Nineteen locomotives of various wheel arrangements were provided during his superintentency.

On leaving the Maryport & Carlisle Railway in 1870, his evident interest in metallurgy led Tosh to become an ironmaster in Lincolnshire.

[edit] Family

He was married and had at least seven children; at least one of whom, Edmund George, followed his father's footsteps into the iron business. His wife, Isabella, died in 1868.

He died in 1900, in Scunthorpe.

[edit] References

• British Locomotive Catalogue 1825-1923 V.4 [B.Baxter]
• The Maryport & Carlisle Railway [J.Simmons]
• The British Steam Railway Locomotive from 1825-1925 [E.L.Ahrons]
• British Steam Locomotive Builders [J.W.Lowe] [1]
• UK Census returns 1851-1861

[edit] External links

The following provide raw information for the expansion of this article...

• The Whitehaven News – April 27, 1899 – obituary for Mr Edmund George Tosh (George Tosh's son)
  – Mentions that George Tosh (snr.) was still alive at this date, and indicates his notability
• Newton's London Journal of the Arts and Sciences, Vol VII, 1858 (Google books) Institution of Mechanical Engineers (June 24-25 1857): an account of a paper read by Mr George Tosh of Maryport, "On the relative evaporating power of brass and iron tubes" [relating to experiments with boiler construction].
• George Tosh at "Brief Biographies of Major Mechanical Engineers"

For further references, Googling for ' "George Tosh" Maryport ' is productive.