Francis William Webb

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Portrait of Francis William Webb

Francis William Webb (born May 21, 1836 in Tixall , Staffordshire , † June 4, 1906 in Bournemouth ) was a British railway engineer and from 1871 to 1903 locomotive superintendent ("Chief Mechanical Engineer") of the London and North Western Railway.

General biographical data

Francis William Webb was born on May 21, 1836 in Tixall, Staffordshire, the second son of Rev. William Webb and his wife Mary (née Morgan). At the age of only 15 he began his training as a master student (pupil) of Francis Trevithick, the locomotive superintendent of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in Crewe . After completing his training, Webb became a designer in the locomotive factory in Crewe in 1856. As early as 1859 he was promoted to chief designer and in 1861 to work manager of this locomotive factory and thus became deputy (chief assistant) of John Ramsbottom, the then locomotive superintendent of the LNWR. In order to get to know the industrial production and processing of steel, Webb went to Bolton in Lancashire in 1866 at the request of directors of the LNWR as managing director and partner of the Bolton Iron and Steel Company. After Ramsbottom's retirement in 1871, he became Locomotive Superintendent and head of the Locomotive Department of the London and North Western Railway, by far the largest railway company in the world at the time. Webb was not only responsible for the construction of the locomotives, but also for their construction in the large factory in Crewe, in which the LNWR also largely took care of the other “railway requirements” (such as rails, sleepers, signal systems, railway barriers, bridge components, etc.) made itself. In May 1903, one year after reaching retirement age of 65, Webb resigned from office because of increasing health problems. Only a few years later he died on June 6, 1906 in Bournemouth.

Pioneer of the network system in locomotive construction

Greater Britain class locomotive with separately driven, uncoupled partial axles

Webb was a very innovative engineer who was awarded a total of 88 patents for his numerous inventions. In 1872 he was the first to introduce the use of high-quality steels in locomotive construction and designed the first composite locomotive in Great Britain, which is why his name is primarily associated with the introduction of the expansion system (see composite steam engine ) in locomotives. When Webb heard about Anatol Mallet's successful experiments in France with expansion or compound systems in locomotives in 1876 , he began his own experiments shortly afterwards and finally converted an older machine in 1879 to test it on a branch line. In 1895 he had the same machine converted into a triple expansion machine in a further experiment, but it turned out so complex that it did not get beyond the experimental stage.

When the results of the first test machine were satisfactory, Webb constructed five series of three-cylinder express train locomotives between 1883 and 1894 according to the composite system he had developed (in the types 1'AA 3v and 1'AA1 3v). These machines received a lot of attention from experts and were highly valued by the board of directors because they used up to 12% less coal than conventional locomotives of the same size (and coal was by far the largest item of expenditure by the railway companies at the time). In the running department, however, these machines were not very popular, as the care and maintenance of the complicated machines required considerably more work and time than "simple locomotives" and not all locomotive drivers had to operate the two independent controls for the high and low lift Low pressure cylinders coped.

The aversion of the operations department to the compound machines increased with the introduction of four-cylinder express train locomotives in 1897 (type 2'B 4v). In order to simplify the operation of the new machines, Webb coupled the two drive axes and had high and low pressure cylinders controlled simultaneously with a permanently connected controller. Since the steam demand of the interdependent high and low pressure cylinders varies with the power and speed of the engine (the speed of the locomotive), but is by no means linearly linked, the maximum speed of the new express train locomotives was in practice around 120 to 125 km / h limited what Webb thought was sufficient but was rejected as insufficient by the operations department. When the new general manager (Sir) Frederic Henderson openly sided with "the company" in October 1901, Webb's last year was increasingly overshadowed by the internal conflict between the locomotive and operations departments.

In May 1903, George Whale, the long-time running superintendent of the LNWR's running department, succeeded Webb in Crewe. Within a few years, Whale withdrew the composite express train locomotives from its predecessor and replaced them with simple two-cylinder engines. The four-cylinder composite freight locomotives from Webb, on the other hand, were taken out of service in 1928 (original condition) and in a modified form only in 1962, when the steam locomotive era came to an end in Great Britain.

Participation in public life

As manager of the Crewe Railway Works, Webb was responsible for the well-being of over 20,000 workers and employees, a responsibility he took very seriously. It is thanks to his lively commitment to the city that the railway company made a great contribution to the development of the infrastructure of the city that it founded. In 1887 the LNWR donated the area and the establishment of a 12 hectare public park ("Queens Park") to the city and in 1895 a hospital. In both cases, Webb was personally involved with substantial donations from his private fortune. His keen interest in the city is also reflected in the fact that he was Alderman (alderman) of the city of Crewe in 1886 and was elected mayor of the city in 1886 and 1887 (each for the following year). He was also a multiple Alderman and Magistrate on Cheshire County Council. After his death, he left most of his fortune to charity, including £ 53,857 for the establishment of an orphanage in the town of Crewe, which was later named after him (Webb Orphanage).

literature

  • JE Chacksfield: FW Webb - In the right place at the right time. The Oakwood Press, 2007 (Biography), ISBN 978-0853616573 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Francis (Frank) William Webb. steamindex.com, accessed April 12, 2014 .
  2. ↑ biographical data according to WF Spear: FW Webb. In: Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement 1912 (1912); JM Dunn: FW Webb, Crewe. In: Railway Magazine 107, 1961 756-62, 840-44; and (anonymous): Obituary: Francis William Webb. In: The Engineer, June 8, 1906, 579
  3. ↑ so the title at the time; the designation chief mechanical engineer (CME) for this task will not become common at the LNWR until later.
  4. ^ Webb applied for resignation in December 1902; George Whale took office on June 1, 1903
  5. ↑ These inventions were made by Webb, who had temporarily set up a kind of "inventions office" with several employees in his villa, not only in the field of locomotive construction and railway technology (J. Spink: FW Webb 1836 - 1906: a bibliography: Francis William Webb, Chief Mechanical Engineer, London & North Western Railway, 1871 - 1903: a survey of material for a study of his life and work (2011); the inventions are also listed there).
  6. ^ The first - albeit unsuccessful - attempts with the network system were in Great Britain as early as 1852-54 with the Eastern County Railway (later Great Eastern Railway), CJ Bowen Cook, British Locomotives. Their History, Construction and Modern Development, 1894, (Reprinted 1979), 297
  7. ^ OS Nock: Premier Line. The Story of the London & North Western Locomotives. 1952, 65ff
  8. ^ EL Ahrons: The British Steam Railway Locomotive 1825-1925. 1927 (reprint 1987), 243f
  9. ↑ d. H. the vapor pressure was released in three different sized cylinders in three stages
  10. ↑ The “Experiment” (“Compound”) series: 1882/83; "Dreadnought": 1884, "Teutonic": 1889, "Greater Britain": 1892, "John Hick": 1894.
  11. ↑ with two high-pressure cylinders and one large low-pressure cylinder that acted separately on the two non-coupled drive axles; the front running axle was a movable radial axle of the Webb type (CJ Bowen Cook, British Locomotives. Their History, Construction and Modern Development (1894), 320ff.)
  12. ↑ the high and the low pressure part of the machine could be coupled in the original series as well as independently adjusted; In addition, the train driver had the option of injecting live steam directly into the connector. However, the resulting possibilities overwhelmed many train drivers who sometimes (accidentally) set contradicting control commands at the same time. Webb solved this difficulty in the younger ranks (from "Teutonic") with a kind of "semi-automatic" control using a self-adjusting, sliding eccentric in the low-pressure machine, which made the work of the train drivers much easier (L. Ahrons: The British Steam Railway Locomotive 1825 - 1925. 1927 (reprint 1987), 247; and J. Jahn: Die Dampflokomotive. 1924 (reprint 1976), 202f)
  13. ^ The series "Jubilee" and "Alfred the Great"; OS Nock, Premier Line. The Story of the London & North Western Locomotives, 1952, 117ff
  14. ↑ This was the problem that machines with multi-stage expansion had to contend with until the end of steam locomotive construction; For this reason, Webb relied on independent control for a long time. In principle to this problem u. a. F. Meineke and F. Röhrs: The steam locomotive. 1949 (reprinted 1981); A. Chapelon: La Machine Locomotive. 1947 (reprinted 1979) and R. Johnson: The Steam Locomotive. 1942 (reprint 1982)
  15. ↑ Not infrequently the machines reached 135 km / h and more (OS Nock: Premier Line. The Story of the London & North Western Locomotives. 1952, 120)
  16. ↑ JM Dunn: FW Webb, Crewe. In: Railway Magazine. 107, 1961, 840ff
  17. ↑ This applies to numerous later authors, so to speak, as proof that the compound machines from Webb could not have been good (JM Dunn: FW Webb, Crewe. In: Railway Magazine. 107, 1961, 840ff); The new machines from Whale were based largely on the design of the "Precedent class" by FW Webb from 1873, which he only modernized and enlarged (OS Nock, Premier Line. The Story of the London & North Western Locomotives, 1952 , 131ff). The new machines from Whale, however, were around 40% heavier and made about 500 hp more than the last locomotives from Webb. (CP Atkins: West Coast 4-6-0s at Work. 1981, 16). A similar leap in performance can be observed shortly after 1900 in all major British railway companies, since at that time the three-axle passenger carriages were replaced by four- and six-axle through cars .
  18. ^ HC Casserley and SW Johnston: Locomotives at the Grouping 3. London Midland and Scottish. 1966, 92-97
  19. ↑ In 1842, when the main workshop of the Grand Junction Railway (from which the LNWR emerged in 1846) was relocated from Liverpool to Crewe, only around 70 people lived in some of the individual farms in what was later to become the city; In 1871 there were already 40,000 people living there, and around 1900 around 60,000 people.
  20. ↑ http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1001412 (last accessed on April 25, 2014)
  21. ↑ JM Dunn: FW Webb, Crewe. In: Railway Magazine. 107: 1961 756-62; 840-44
  22. ^ WF Spear: FW Webb. In: Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement 1912 (1912) and JM Dunn: FW Webb, Crewe. In: Railway Magazine. 107: 1961 756-62; 840-44
  23. ↑ according to today's value about € 1 - 1.5 million.
  24. ↑ the home was closed in 1961; http://www.childrenscottagehomes.org.uk/webb_orphanage.html (last accessed April 24, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Webb, Francis William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British railway engineer
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Tixall , Staffordshire
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1906
Place of death Bournemouth