Frederick Karl Esling | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 31 July 1955 95) Box Hill, Victoria, Australia | (aged
Nationality | Australia |
Occupation | Engineer |
Engineering career | |
Discipline | civil engineer |
Projects | Flinders Street Viaduct Saltwater River Rail Bridge |
Frederick Karl Esling (20 July 1860—31 July 1955) [1] was an Australian railway engineer and chess master.
Esling was engineer-in-charge in the Way and Works branch of the Victorian Railways department, located at Flinders Street. Among the many important works that Esling carried out were the building of the Flinders Street Viaduct, the replacement of the spans of the Saltwater River Rail Bridge over the Maribyrnong River (formerly the Saltwater River), refurbishment of the Moorabool Viaduct, and the complicated lay-out of the tracks at the Flinders street station and yards. The refurbishment of the Saltwater River Rail Bridge, which was carried out inside the old bridge with minimal interruption to rail traffic, was a complex piece of work that excited much interest in engineering circles.
Esling presided over the topping-out ceremony on the Flinders Street station clock tower in 1909, when he laid the last brick and was presented with the ceremonial trowel. He published a number of technical papers, including one based on his work on the Flinders Street viaduct, which identified a puzzling problem related to the horizontal forces due to braking, in combination with side forces from wind-pressure. [2] He resigned from his railway position in 1917, partly because he did not consider that he had been treated fairly as regards his promotion. [3]
At the age of 18, Esling won an offhand game against Adolf Anderssen. [4] He won the first Australian Chess Championship by defeating George H. D. Gossip in a match in 1886. Gossip, having emigrated from England to Melbourne in 1885, issued a challenge the following year to any player in the Australian colonies to play him in a match for 20 pounds a side and the title of Australian champion. While Gossip was considered to be strong than any other Australian/Victorian chess player at the time, Esling, also a leading Melbourne player, accepted the challenge and won the first game with the 2nd game being adjourned in favourable position, after which illness forced Gossip to forfeit the match. [5] In 1950, shortly before Esling's 90th birthday, the Australian Chess Federation formally decreed that this match victory had made Esling Australia's first champion. [6] Esling finished second in the Second Australian Championship, a tournament held at Adelaide 1887, with 7 out of 9 points, behind Henry Charlick (7.5) but ahead of Gossip (6.5). [5] [7]
In 1895, Esling challenged Alfred Edward Noble Wallace of Sydney, the reigning Australian champion, to a match for the title. It was played in Melbourne between 8 June and 11 July, and aroused great interest. Wallace narrowly won, winning seven games and losing five, with four draws. In a letter published in The Sydney Mail , he graciously wrote that "after the close fight we have had, I cannot as much as I would like to - think myself a better player than my late opponent, F.K. Esling, champion of Victoria". [8]
Flinders Street railway station is a train station located on the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the second busiest train station in Australia, serving the entire metropolitan rail network, 15 tram routes travelling to and from the city, as well as some country and regional V/Line services to eastern Victoria. Opened in 1854, the station is the oldest in Australia, backing onto the Yarra River in the central business district, the complex includes 13 platforms and structures that stretch over more than two city blocks, from east of Swanston Street to nearly at Market Street.
The City Loop is a piece of underground commuter rail infrastructure in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
South Yarra railway station is a commuter railway station and the junction point for the Cranbourne, Frankston, Pakenham and Sandringham lines, serving the south Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. South Yarra is a premium status ground structure station featuring six platforms, with two island platforms and two side platforms connected by a ramp accessible overground concourse. The station opened on 22 December 1860 as Gardiners Creek Road before being renamed South Yarra on 1 January 1867.
The Outer Circle Railway was opened in stages in 1890 and 1891, as a steam-era suburban railway line, in Melbourne, Australia. It traversed much of the modern City of Boroondara, including the suburbs of Kew East, Camberwell, Burwood, Ashburton, and Malvern East. At its longest, it ran from Fairfield station, on what is today the Hurstbridge line, to Oakleigh station, on the current Pakenham and Cranbourne lines.
Flinders Street is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Running roughly parallel to the Yarra River, Flinders Street forms the southern edge of the Hoddle Grid. It is exactly 1 mi (1.6 km) in length and one and a half chains in width.
The Sandridge Bridge is a historic bridge, which originally carried railway lines over the Yarra River in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs diagonally to the river and is 178.4 metres (585 ft) long. In 2006, it was redeveloped as a pedestrian and cycle path, featuring public art. It is the third bridge on the site and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
The Banana Alley Vaults are near the Flinders Street station in Melbourne, Australia and extend onto the North Bank of the Yarra River.
The Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company was incorporated on 20 January 1853 to build the line from Melbourne to the port of Sandridge, now Port Melbourne.
The Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. It was established on 8 February 1853 to build a railway from Melbourne to Echuca on the Victorian-NSW border and a branch railway to Williamstown. The company struggled to make any progress and on 23 May 1856, the colonial government took over the company and it became part of the newly established Department of Railways, part of the Board of Land and Works. The Department of Railways became Victorian Railways in 1859.
The Port Melbourne railway line is a former railway line in Melbourne, Australia, opened in September 1854, that is now a light rail line. It was instigated by the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company to carry passengers arriving in Victoria at Station Pier and to alleviate the high cost of shipping goods using small vessels up the Yarra River to Melbourne. The line's conversion to light rail occurred in 1987; it is now served by tram route 109.
The Saltwater River Rail Bridge is a large steel arch truss railway bridge completed in 1858 and crossing the Maribyrnong River on the Melbourne to Footscray railway in Melbourne, Victoria. It had the longest span of any bridge in Victoria for thirty years.
The Flinders Street Viaduct is a railway bridge in Melbourne, Australia. Made up of six tracks built at different times, it links Flinders Street station to Southern Cross station, forming the main connection between the eastern and western parts of the Victorian rail network.
Princes Pier is a 580 metre long historic pier on Port Phillip, in Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was known as the New Railway Pier until renamed Prince's Pier after the Prince of Wales who visited Melbourne in May 1920.
Jolimont Yard was an array of railway lines and carriage sidings on the edge of the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. Located between Flinders Street station, Richmond Junction, the Yarra River and Flinders Street they were often criticised for cutting off the city from the river, being the site of many redevelopment proposals. The Princes Gate Towers were built over part of the yard in the 1960s, which themselves were replaced by Federation Square in the 2000s. The rail sidings themselves were progressively removed from the 1980s to the 1990s with only running lines today, but the area continues to be referred to as the 'Jolimont railyards' by Melburnians.
George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip was an American-English chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world's leading players, but with only modest success. The writer G. H. Diggle calls him "the King of Wooden Spoonists" because he usually finished last in strong tournaments.
George Christian Darbyshire was an English and Australian civil engineer. He was the second son of George Darbyshire, also a surveyor and railway engineer.
William Elsdon was an English civil engineer. He was also an architect and railway engineer who worked predominantly on early railways in Victoria, Australia.
The Jackson Creek is a watercourse within the Port Phillip catchment, located in the outer northern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria.
The Taradale Viaduct is a large wrought iron box girder bridge over Back Creek at Taradale, Victoria on the Bendigo Railway in Victoria Australia. It was erected as part of the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway between 1858 and 1861, and was at the time one of the largest rail bridges built in Australia.
William Edward Bryson was a British civil engineer, surveyor and architect who was involved in major railway projects in Ireland, Scotland, the United States, and Australia. He was born in Edinburgh on 1823, educated at the Academy of Design in Dublin, and worked initially in Ireland in the construction of the Dublin and Mullingar Railway, and then in Scotland, on the Dumfries and Glasgow Railway.