Anthony Coulls

Last updated

Anthony Coulls is a British museum curator and historian. He is the Senior Curator of Rail Transport and Technology at the National Railway Museum, [1] the author of several books on railway and industrial history, and is active in the steam heritage movement.

Contents

History

A graduate of firstly Aberystwyth University and then the Ironbridge Institute, Coulls began his museum career as a Collections Assistant at the National Railway Museum in 1997, moving to Leicestershire Museums in January 1999. Between 2001 and 2004, Coulls was the Curator of Energy at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, moving in 2004 to become Collections Care Manager at Locomotion, The National Railway Museum at Shildon. [2] In 2009 he was appointed the Senior Curator of Railway Vehicles at the National Railway Museum, [3] and is now the Senior Curator of Rail Transport and Technology there, [4] where he oversees the curation policy for the national collection of railway locomotives. [5] He is an active railway preservationist, as Chairman of the Friends of Thorpe Light Railway, [6] an advisor to the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum, [7] and a mentor - and former trustee - of the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Trust. [8] He is an expert on the Lowca Engineering Works of Tulk and Ley and Fletcher, Jennings & Co. [9]

In 2003, Coulls took on loan a 15-ton road roller, built in 1894 by Aveling and Porter, [10] from Beamish Museum, [11] which he subsequently restored to working order. He is a past general secretary of the Road Rollers Association [12] and from 2015 to 2019 was Chairman of the National Traction Engine Trust. [13] In 2019, Coulls was the Lead Curator for the Award-Winning exhibition of model steam locomotives at the National Railway Museum "Brass, Steel and Fire" which then moved on to the Science Museum, London in 2020, running to August 2021. [14]

Works

Related Research Articles

National Railway Museum Railway museum in York, England

The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant railway vehicles such as Mallard, Stirling Single, Duchess of Hamilton and a Japanese bullet train. In addition, the National Railway Museum holds a diverse collection of other objects from a household recipe book used in George Stephenson's house to film showing a "never-stop railway" developed for the British Empire Exhibition. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001.

<i>Sans Pareil</i> Early British locomotive

Sans Pareil is a steam locomotive built by Timothy Hackworth which took part in the 1829 Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, held to select a builder of locomotives. The name is French and means 'peerless' or 'without equal'.

Traction engine Steam-powered haulage engine

A traction engine is a steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it. They are sometimes called road locomotives to distinguish them from railway locomotives – that is, steam engines that run on rails.

Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of Wabtec.

Hunslet Engine Company Rolling stock manufacturer

The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 in Hunslet, Leeds, England. The company manufactured steam-powered shunting locomotives for over 100 years, and currently manufactures diesel-engined shunting locomotives. It is owned by Ed Murray & Sons.

Bressingham Steam and Gardens

Bressingham Steam & Gardens is a steam museum and gardens located at Bressingham, west of Diss in Norfolk, England. The site has several narrow gauge rail lines and a number of types of steam engines and vehicles in its collection and is also the home of the national Dad's Army exhibition.

National Railway Museum Shildon Railway museum in County Durham, England

Locomotion, previously known as Locomotion: the National Railway Museum at Shildon or Shildon Locomotion Museum is a railway museum in Shildon, County Durham, England. The museum is part of the Science Museum Group.

<i>Locomotion</i> No. 1 Early steam locomotive (built 1825)

Locomotion No. 1 is an early steam locomotive that was built in 1825 by the pioneering railway engineers George and Robert Stephenson at their manufacturing firm, Robert Stephenson and Company. It became the first steam locomotive to haul a passenger-carrying train on a public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR).

Aveling and Porter Steam engineering company, best known for their road rollers

Aveling and Porter was a British agricultural engine and steamroller manufacturer. Thomas Aveling and Richard Thomas Porter entered into partnership in 1862, and developed a steam engine three years later in 1865. By the early 1900s, the company had become the largest manufacturer of steamrollers in the world.

W. G. Bagnall

W. G. Bagnall was a locomotive manufacturer from Stafford, England which was founded in 1875 and operated until it was taken over in 1962 by English Electric.

Fletcher, Jennings & Co.

Fletcher, Jennings & Co. was an engineering company at Lowca near Whitehaven, Cumberland, England.

John Fowler & Co. Steam engineering company founded by John Fowler

John Fowler & Co Engineers of Leathley Road, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England produced traction engines and ploughing implements and equipment, as well as railway equipment. Fowler also produced the Track Marshall tractor which was a tracked version of the Field Marshall. British Railways Engineering Department locomotives ED1 to ED7 were built by Fowler

Sierra Leone Government Railway

The Sierra Leone Government Railway operated in Sierra Leone from 1897 to 1974. It was unusual in that it formed a national railway system constructed solely to a 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge, whereas in other countries, gauge of such a narrow width was usually confined to feeder railways.

Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum Railroad museum in Gwynedd, Wales

The Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum is a museum of industrial railway equipment, located at Penrhyn Castle near Bangor in Wales.

The history of rail transport in Great Britain to 1830 covers the period up to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first intercity passenger railway operated solely by steam locomotives. The earliest form of railways, horse-drawn wagonways, originated in Germany in the 16th century. Soon wagonways were also built in Britain. However, the first use of steam locomotives was in Britain. The invention of wrought iron rails, together with Richard Trevithick's pioneering steam locomotive meant that Britain had the first modern railways in the world.

Lyon, Hetton colliery railway

The Hetton Colliery Lyon or Lyons is an early British steam locomotive that still survives in preservation. It is remarkable for having continued working into the early 20th century.

Robey & Co

Robey and Co. was an engineering company based in Lincoln, England which can be traced back to at least 1849.

Beamish Museum transport collection

Beamish Museum contains much of transport interest, and the size of its site makes good internal transportation for visitors and staff purposes a necessity.

References

  1. ↑ Tighe, Chris (25 March 2018). "UK National Railway Museum embarks on £50m redevelopment". Financial Times.
  2. ↑ "Manchester Museum of Science and Industry". Manchester Evening News. 17 February 2007.
  3. ↑ "City of Truro steam locomotive withdrawn – has it steamed for the last time?". Railc.o.uk. 6 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "Anthony Coulls". Amberley Publishing.
  5. ↑ Williams, Michael (7 May 2015). The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain's Railways. Random House. p. 200.
  6. ↑ Wibberley, David (19 April 2019). "It's full steam ahead as railway open days return". Teesdale Mercury.
  7. ↑ Coulls, Anthony (10 April 2018). "From York to Sierra Leone - a tale of two railway museums". National Railway Museum.
  8. ↑ "The Museum Trust". The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.
  9. ↑ Shildon Town Crier (26 June 2017). "Lowca Legacy at Locomotion". South West Durham News.
  10. ↑ Christon, Stacey-Lee (12 November 2017). "Shildon family appeals for help to get vintage steam roller back on the road". The Northern Echo.
  11. ↑ February 25, Paul Jarman /; News, 2013 / Leave a comment / (25 February 2013). "Ask a man who knows…". Beamish Transport Online. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  12. ↑ "Association Business". Rolling. Road Rollers Association (161). February 2015.
  13. ↑ "New Chairman for the NTET". National Traction Engine Trust. 7 January 2019.
  14. ↑ "Brass, Steel and Fire exhibition at National Railway Museum wins award". The Press. 17 January 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.