John Chester Craven (born 1813 in Hunslet, Leeds) was an English locomotive engineer. He was the locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1847 until his resignation in 1870. He died in 1887.
John Chester Craven (born 1813 in Hunslet, Leeds) was an English locomotive engineer. He was the locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1847 until his resignation in 1870. He died in 1887.
Little is known of Craven's parentage and there is also some confusion over his early career, but all sources agree that he was born 11 September 1813 at Hunslet a suburb of Leeds. According to John Marshall, Craven began an apprenticeship with Robert Stephenson and Company of Newcastle, later transferring to Fenton, Murray and Jackson of Leeds at the age of fourteen. [1] Bradley states that he began his apprenticeship Fenton Murray and Jackson. [2] He appears to have left Fenton, Murray and Jackson in 1837, and worked briefly for Carrett, Marshall and Company of the Sun Foundry, followed by a year working for Maudslay and Company of Westminster. [3] He then returned to Leeds to become works manager either for Todd, Kitson & Laird followed by Shepherd and Todd [4] or else Shepherd and Todd. [5] He spent three years at Leeds working with David Joy and John Gray, before he was appointed Locomotive Foreman of the Manchester and Leeds Railway. In 1845 he became Locomotive Engineer for the Eastern Counties Railway at Stratford Works but little is known of his work there. In December 1847 he took up his principal post as Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway following the dismissal of John Gray.
Craven re-organised and greatly enlarged Brighton railway works, and recruited skilled engineers from Leeds thereby enabling locomotives to be built there for the first time. He built useful and reliable locomotives but believed that standardisation of locomotive design held back progress. [6] Instead he followed a policy of producing classes of one or two locomotives designed for specific duties. This proved to be expensive and eventually created a chaotic maintenance situation on the railway. By the time he left office there were seventy-two different designs of locomotive in use. [7] When the directors pressed him to reduce the number of new classes in 1869, Craven offered his resignation. This was accepted by the directors and he was succeeded by William Stroudley.
Following his resignation Craven was frequently employed as a consultant on engineering projects. He was also active in local politics. He died at Brighton in 1887.
Four carriages of Craven's design survive, Nosd. 35, 94, 221 and 204 all on the Bluebell Railway awaiting restoration.
The Southern Railway (SR), sometimes shortened to 'Southern', was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent. The railway was formed by the amalgamation of several smaller railway companies, the largest of which were the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR). The construction of what was to become the Southern Railway began in 1838 with the opening of the London and Southampton Railway, which was renamed the London & South Western Railway.
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey. It was bounded on its western side by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR), which provided an alternative route to Portsmouth. On its eastern side the LB&SCR was bounded by the South Eastern Railway (SER)—later one component of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR)—which provided an alternative route to Bexhill, St Leonards-on-Sea, and Hastings. The LB&SCR had the most direct routes from London to the south coast seaside resorts of Brighton, Eastbourne, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, and to the ports of Newhaven and Shoreham-by-Sea. It served the inland towns and cities of Chichester, Horsham, East Grinstead and Lewes, and jointly served Croydon, Tunbridge Wells, Dorking and Guildford. At the London end was a complicated suburban and outer-suburban network of lines emanating from London Bridge and Victoria, and shared interests in two cross-London lines.
The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway ran from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood – which gives it access from London Bridge, just south of the River Thames in central London. It ran from Norwood to the South Coast at Brighton, together with a branch to Shoreham-by-Sea.
Matthew Murray was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin-cylinder Salamanca in 1812. He was an innovative designer in many fields, including steam engines, machine tools and machinery for the textile industry.
Jenny Lind was the first of a class of ten steam locomotives built in 1847 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) by E. B. Wilson and Company of Leeds, named after Jenny Lind, who was a famous Swedish opera singer of the period. The general design proved to be so successful that the manufacturers adopted it for use on other railways, and it became the first mass-produced locomotive type. The "Jenny Lind" type was also widely copied during the late 1840s and 1850s, and into the 1860s.
William Stroudley was an English railway engineer, and was one of the most famous steam locomotive engineers of the nineteenth century, working principally for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). He designed some of the most famous and longest-lived steam locomotives of his era, several of which have been preserved.
The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960.
The Railway Foundry, Leeds, was a railway engineering workshop off Pearson Street, in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1838 by Shepherd and Todd. Charles Todd had been a partner in Todd, Kitson & Laird but left to set up his own business in 1838, setting up the Railway Foundry with a Mr. Shepherd to build locomotives and rolling stock.
E. B. Wilson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company at the Railway Foundry in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
Robert John Billinton was the Locomotive, Carriage, Wagon and Marine Superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1890 until his death.
Douglas Earle Marsh (1862–1933) was an English railway engineer, and was the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from November 1904 until his early retirement on health grounds in July 1911.
The LB&SCR Belgravia class were 2-4-0 passenger locomotives designed by William Stroudley of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) in 1872 for secondary passenger duties.
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) C class was a type of 0-6-0 freight steam locomotive designed by William Stroudley.