1936: Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE

Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE (1876-1941)

51st President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Gresley was born in 1876 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at Marlborough. He served a premium apprenticeship at the Crewe works of the London and North Western Railway. In 1898, he joined the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, where he was apprenticed at Horwich. After his apprenticeship, he was put in charge of the test room.

In 1901, he became Assistant Works Manager at Newton Heath Carriage Works. The following year he was made manager. After a series of positions at the Lancashire and Yorkshire, he moved to the Great Northern Railway. In 1905 he was appointed Carriage and Wagon Superintendent at Doncaster. In 1911, when H A Ivatt retired, Gresley was appointed Locomotive Engineer at Doncaster. The following year the position was renamed Chief Mechanical Engineer. In 1923, with the Grouping of the railway companies, Gresley was made chief mechanical engineer of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway.

Gresley’s first original locomotive design was a two cylinder 2-6-0 engine, which was built in 1912. He continued to develop his designs over the years, and in 1922 completed the first of the famous three cylinder 4-6-2 Pacific engines. Many Pacifics were constructed at the London and North Eastern Railway’s centres at Darlington and Doncaster. These were constantly improved with modifications such as increased boiler pressures and a higher degree of superheat.

In 1925, Gresley introduced the Mikado, a 2-8-2 locomotive for heavy freight traffic. He adopted the design nine years later for the Cock o’ the North, a larger wheeled engine for heavy express work. In 1935, the Silver Link locomotive was built. It was a streamlined Pacific, and it was put to work on a completely streamlined train, the first in the United Kingdom, known as the Silver Jubilee. It made the daily journey from London to Darlington, a distance of 232 miles, in three hours eighteen minutes, without a stop. In 1937, another streamlined train was introduced on the 393-mile journey from London to Edinburgh, completing the journey in six hours. His streamlined 4-6-2 engine No. 4468, Mallard, broke the record for the highest speed ever reached by a train in the UK, maintaining 120mph for five miles, with a short burst at 125 mph.

As well as his pioneering locomotive designs, another major achievement was the establishment of a locomotive testing station in the UK. He had long believed this to be of great importance to locomotive engineering in the country, and his efforts resulted in a national testing centre being constructed jointly by the London and North Eastern and the London, Midland and Scottish Railways, at Rugby. Work had commenced in 1937, but was postponed on the outbreak of war; unfortunately, Gresley did not live to see its completion.

Gresley’s work during the First World War, to reorganise Doncaster works for the production of munitions, was rewarded with a CBE in 1920. He received a knighthood in 1937. He also served on several Government-appointed committees, including those considering automatic train control and the electrification of railways. He was President of the IMechE in 1935, and was twice President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, in 1927-1928 and 1934-1935.

Gresley died in 1941 at the age of 65.

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