1944-1946: William Sebastian Graff-Baker

William Sebastian Graff-Baker (1889-1952)

President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers

IMechE Obituary:

WILLIAM SEBASTIAN GRAFF-BAKER, B.Sc. (Eng.), was chief mechanical engineer of the London Passenger Transport Board, and had been associated with London's railways during the whole of his professional career. After receiving his general education at Colet Court St. Paul's School and Johns Hopkins University, in the United States, he studied at the City and Guilds of London Technical College, where he graduated with second-class honours in engineering in 1910 and also obtained the Associateship of the College. He then became an engineering cadet at the Ealing Common works of the Metropolitan District Railway and, on the completion of his training two years later, was employed as a junior technical assistant to the mechanical engineer. He continued as technical assistant until 1921 when he was made assistant mechanical engineer. He became chief mechanical engineer in 1935, an appointment he held until his death, which occurred on 15th February 1952 at the age of sixty-two.

During the 1939-1945 war he was attached to the Ministry of Supply as deputy director-general of tank production. Under his direction new tube rolling stock with underfloor-mounted equipment and the "Metadyne"-controlled shallow line stock were introduced, as well as automatically controlled high-speed lifts and the later designs of escalator. Mr. Graff-Baker was elected a Member of the Institution in 1944 and was the author of a paper on "Considerations on Bogie Design with Particular Reference to Electric Railways", which was presented at a general meeting of the Institution in January. 1952. He was also a past-president of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, a Member of the Institute of Transport, and a Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and had served with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps."

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