Thomas Turner (engineer)

Thomas Turner

Thomas Turner (* 1799 in London ; † 1866 ) was an English engineer and was involved in the construction of some of the first locomotives . He was also in charge of the first two years of operation of the Baden railway from 1840 to 1842.

Life

Turner came to Manchester in 1824 and worked there as a mechanic and engineer at Sharp, Roberts and Company , where he first constructed steam engines , later steam cars and in 1833 the steam locomotive Experiment for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway . His services include u. a. the improvement of the steam whistle and its first use in the railroad .

In the summer of 1839 he was in Germany to visit the Leipzig-Dresden Railway and to deliver locomotives. In the spring of 1840 he came again, this time with his family, to Germany to the Grand Ducal Baden State Railways to deliver the Löwe and Greif locomotives . The railway line from Mannheim to Heidelberg was about finished when he arrived in Heidelberg on April 9, 1840 in half. He supervised the further construction of the line and the associated facilities and entered Baden services with a contract dated July 2, 1840 from August 1, 1840 for one year in order to “supervise the handling, maintenance and repair of all machines belonging to the administration, in particular to drive steam wagons and rail vehicles ”. His duties also included training locomotive drivers and stokers as well as supervising the stations in Mannheim and Heidelberg as well as on the railway itself. Turner was also responsible for the correct implementation of the timetables and assigned the locomotive drivers. He received a monthly salary of 159 guilders. Railway operations on the Baden route began on September 12, 1840. On June 5, 1841, Turner put the third Baden locomotive, the Heidelberg , into service in Heidelberg . On June 30, 1841, his employment was extended for a further year to August 1842.

During his service time in Baden , he made several record runs , who “never drove on the machine other than with a fine top hat , elegant black clothes and white ice cream gloves ”. On April 13, 1842, he drove a train with 28 cars and a total weight of 103 tons at a speed of around 37 km / h. On June 6, 1842, he covered the distance of 1000 feet in 12 seconds with the Greif , with which he reached a speed of 91 km / h.

After the end of his second year of service in Baden, he handed the official business over to his successor, machine master Mindler, and returned to England. In 1855 he moved to the Beyer-Peacock locomotive factory in Manchester .

literature

• Albert Kuntzemüller : Thomas Turner, teacher of the first Baden locomotive drivers in: Badische Heimat, issue 1/1956