List of railway pioneers

A railway pioneer is someone who has made a major contribution to the historical development of the railway (US: railroad). This definition includes locomotive engineers, railway construction engineers, operators of railway companies, major railway investors and politicians, of national and international importance for the development of rail transport.

Where possible, inclusion in this list should be justified by an appropriate reference (see talk page).

Technical development of the railways

Austria

Name Notability References
John Baillie first sprung buffers (so-called Bailliesche Schneckenfeder or conical springs)
Johann Brotan inventor of the Brotan boiler, the only watertube boiler used in any number on the railways [1][2]
Anton Elbel Gepäcklokomotive, locomotive with luggage compartment.
Wilhelm Engerth Engerth locomotive [1][3]
Carl Ritter von Ghega builder of the Semmering railway
Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen developer of the Giesl ejectors
Karl Gölsdorf first six-coupled steam locomotive and inventor of the Gölsdorf axle system [1][2][3]
Louis Adolf Gölsdorf Gepäcklokomotive
John Haswell first steam brake, sheet steel firebox [1]
Hugo Lentz inventor of award-winning improvements to steam engines, e.g. steam valve gear with oscillating and rotating cams to actuate poppet valves [1][3]
Julius Lott chief construction engineer of the Arlbergbahn
Franz Xaver Riepl geologist, railway and metallurgical expert
Johann Rihosek classification scheme for the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways (kkStB), brakes, spark arrestors
Rudolf Sanzin measurement techniques
Matthias Schönerer railway pioneer
Joseph Terlicher railway pioneer
Carl Wurmb builder of the Tauernbahn

Germany

Name Notability References
August von Borries compound working and the first Prussian compound locomotive in 1880 [2][3]
August Borsig early locomotives built in Germany, Borsig-Werke [2]
Karl Gustav Brescius railway construction in Saxony
Friedrich Wilhelm Eckhardt head of BMAG design office, chief designer of DRG Class 44 and 86 and inventor of Schwartzkopff-Eckhardt II bogie.
Robert Garbe Prussian mechanical engineer, many classic locomotive designs [1][2][3]
Richard Hartmann German steam locomotive manufacturer, Sächsische Maschinenfabrik in Chemnitz [2]
Richard von Helmholtz German engineer, designer of the Krauss-Helmholtz bogie [1][2]
Edmund Heusinger von Waldegg independently designed the Walschaerts valve gear (hence aka the Heusinger valve gear) [2]
Hermann Kemper patent for maglev train technology
Georg Knorr considerably improved compressed air brake [2]
Georg Krauss founder of Lokomotivfabrik Krauss & Co. in Munich, later part of Krauss-Maffei [2]
Johann Friedrich Krigar first locomotive built in the German states at the Königliche Eisengießerei Berlin in 1815
Alfred Krupp discovery of seamless tyres for railway wheels in 1852
Adolf Klose chief mechanical engineer of the Royal Württemberg State Railways, designer
Franz Kruckenberg engineer and designer of the Schienenzeppelin [2]
Alfred Lent railway construction in Prussia (including the Magdeburg-Halberstadt railway), chief civil engineer for the Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof
Joseph Anton von Maffei German steam locomotive manufacturer [2]
Oskar von Miller engineer, driving force for electrified lines in Bavaria, founder of the Deutsches Museum
Walter Reichel pantograph, electric locomotives
Friedrich Sauthoff Sauthoff's resistance formula for train motion
Ferdinand Schichau Schichau-Werke
Wilhelm Schmidt hot steam Schmidt, developer of the superheated steam technology [1][2][3]
Johann Andreas Schubert first practical German steam locomotive Saxonia 1839 [2]
Werner von Siemens first electric locomotive, Siemens-Werke [1][2][3]
Moritz Stambke development of the German state railway norms
Johann Stumpf best known for popularising the uniflow steam engine around 1909 [1]
Max Maria von Weber railway engineer and author [2]
Richard Paul Wagner Chief of Design for Deutsche Reichsbahn 1922–1942; responsible for standard locomotive designs (Einheitslokomotiven) [1][2]
Hans Wendler railway engineer in the GDR, Wendler coal-dust firing system
Gustav Wittfeld 1855 – 1923, developments on steam locomotives and electric railway vehicles [2]
Johann Friedrich Ludwig Wöhlert 1797 – 1877l early German industrialist and locomotive manufacturer in Berlin.

Switzerland

United Kingdom

USA

Other countries

Infrastructure and politics

Austria

Germany

Switzerland

United Kingdom

USA

Other countries

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Ransome-Wallis, P. (1959). Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Railway Locomotives (2001 republication ed.). Dover Publications, Inc. pp. 494–503. ISBN 0-486-41247-4., Chapter 11 – Concise Biographies of Famous Locomotive Designers and Engineers.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Kirsche, Hans-Joachim (1978). Lexicon der Eisenbahn (5th ed.). transpress., biographical entry.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 Herring, Peter (2000). Ultimate Train (2000 ed.). London: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 144–161. ISBN 0-7513-0698-3., Part 3, Railway Innovators.
  4. ↑ Benjamin Outram's biography on brocross.com
  5. ↑ http://www.lner.info/eng/raven.shtml
  6. ↑ Nielson, Donald (2006). A Heritage of Innovation: SRI's First Half Century. Menlo Park, California: SRI International. pp. 6–1 – 6–3. ISBN 978-0-9745208-1-0.
  7. ↑ Pedrazzini, Claudio (2014). Le locomotive F.S. con preriscaldatori Franco-Crosti. Aldebaran. ISBN 9786009919338.
  8. ↑ Turchi, Erminio Mascherpa, Gian Guido (1984). La regina delle locomotive. Salò: Editrice trasporti su rotaie. pp. 101–3. ISBN 8885068022.
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