Great engineering managers. George Churchward. I

From an unlikely start among the farmlands of Devon, George Churchward became arguably the greatest locomotive engineer that Britain produced yet his name has never attracted the popular acclaim of such others as Gresley and Stanier. His pioneering work in the early part of the last century put the Great Western Railway into the forefront of engine design and passenger service, and more than any other individual he set the pattern for much of what followed until the end of steam in Britain. This paper discusses his early work on locomotive design leading to Locomotive No 100, a 4-6-0 ´ten-wheeler´ express passenger engine. This was the first 20th century express and it was to set the pattern which continued until the end of steam in Britain.