and its people
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The Alston Branch and its people |
The information contained on this page has been obtained from the following sources:-
- The Steam Index website and the page relating to Thomas Elliot Harrison at http://www.steamindex.com/people/harrison.htm
Thomas Elliot Harrison
Born in Fulham on 4 April 1808, but family moved to Sunderland. Died Whitburn on 20 March 1888 (Marshall). Marshall states Elliott: others Elliot.
Educated Kepier Grammar School and articled to W. and E. Chapman in Newcastle. Attempted to establish himself in London, But interview with Telford was highly dismissive and implied that few civil engineers were able to find work, but did find work with Robert Stephenson on obtaining levels for Wolverton to Rugby section of L&BR.; Subsequently, employed in construction of Stanhope & Tyne Railway where father and uncle were also involved. Later involved in Newcastle & Carlisle, Swinton & Knottingley, York & Doncaster, Hull & Selby, and his last project was the Alnwick & Cornhill (second Backtrack reference). He was also closely involved in the construction of the Victoria Bridge on Penshaw & Washington section of the Leamside line and of the High Level Bridge in Newcastle where a plaque commemorates this involvement. He also “engineered” the amalgamation of the York, Newcastle & Berwick, York & North Midland and Leeds Northern railways into the North Eastern Railway. He was married twice and is buried at Whitburn.
A letter from Bill Fawcett in Backtrack magazine quoted the following paragraphs:-
I was very interested to read the article on that much-neglected engineer, Thomas Elliot Harrison in Vol.6 No.5, and would just like to add a few comments, enlarging on the relationship of his family with the Newcastle & Carlisle and North Eastern Railways.
Harrison’s involvement with the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway is ill-documented but appears to relate solely to the period 1848 to 1949, when George Hudson leased that company on behalf of the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway (YNB). This coincided with the early stages of construction of the Alston Branch, which seems to have involved both Thomas Elliot Harrison and his younger brother, John Thornhill Harrison. The latter was engaged to carry out the resurvey of the route for the second Alston Branch bill, and certified construction contract from 1848; some were also signed by this branch. Following Hudson’s downfall, the YNB disowned the lease and work on the Alston Branch appears to have been supervised by the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway’s own engineer, Peter Tate, until J. T. Harrison’s appointment as resident engineer on these works in December 1849. There he remained until November 1850, when he went left for other work and was replaced by George Barclay Bruce.
George Barclay Bruce has been credited with the design of the Lambley Viaduct on the Alston Branch, but in fact, he just supervised its construction. This leaves the two Harrisons as the designers of it and the bulk of the bridges on that line, including a number of elegant and distinctive viaducts, particularly that over the Gilderdale Beck. Which brother was responsible remains unclear, but the diversity of design among the larger bridges suggests that possibly it was John, advised by Thomas Elliot Harrison.
On the North Eastern Railway, Harrison himself originated the structure of Divisional Engineers, although they did not assume this title, together with extra responsibilities, until his death. He began with John Bourne at Newcastle and Thomas Cabry (originally resident engineer on the York & North Midland Railway) at York, later joined by William Cudworth at Darlington, following the amalgamation with the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Between 1868 and 1869 Bourne was succeeded by Alfred Rood Clanny Harrison, another brother of Thomas Elliot Harrison. On the latter’s death in 1888, Alfred was appointed ‘Engineer for New Works’ but he did not retain the post for long before the appointment of Sir John Wolfe Barry as the NER’s Consulting Engineer. Thus Charles Augustus Harrison followed Alfred as Northern Division Engineer (Newcastle) and then succeeded Barry on his death in 1908.
According to Thomas Elliot Harrison’s lengthy obituary in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, his relationship with the NER changed significantly after 1877. Until then he had managed a large consultancy business from an office in Westminster, residing in London for five months of each year and relying on his brother-in-law, Robert Hodgson, to act as superintending engineer on works for the NER. His remuneration from the company seems to have consisted of a percentage on the cost of new works, from which he would have covered his office expenses, in addition to a salary which in July 1872 was raised to �3,000, the same as that of Henry Tennant, the NER General Manager. Hodgson died in 1877 and Harrison then decided to reduce his workload, wind down the consultancy and concentrate on the NER hence the eventual transfer of his office staff to that company.
The Civils obituary also points out that Harrison was actually born in Fulham; however, he grew up on Wearside and was always regarded as a local lad. Indeed, although the NER increasingly came to centralise its administration in York, Harrison’s office remained on Tyneside in Newcastle Central Station, where he was working the day before his death, just a fortnight short of his eightieth birthday. John Dent Dent, then chairman of the NER, expressed the formidable nature of Harrison's role as virtually the father of the company: “I dare not have undertaken the responsibility of accepting the chairmanship had it not been for the confidence with which Mr Harrison inspired me... To his other qualities you must add a singularly kind and affectionate disposition which underlay the somewhat forcible style that occasionally awed those that did not know him. All the Directors, old and young, felt the same affectionate respect for him, and I believe there has seldom been any public servant who exercised so powerful and so deserved an influence over the policy of a company as Mr Harrison.”
Dent’s testimony is a reminder of the unusual breadth of Harrison’s training and experience. After the setback at his first meeting with Telford, he spent a year in the office of an accountant, a friend of his father, and subsequently claimed that this was one of the most useful experiences of his life. This clearly proved invaluable during the negotiations in which he and Henry Tennant created the North Eastern Railway, as well as the many arbitration cases he later decided.
Brakes: According to Brown, Great Northern locomotive engineers V. 1 p. 191 Harrison sent a copy of a report on the history of automatic braking systems to the Board of the GNR in December 1877. Hoole: Illustrated history of NER locomotives (pp. 214-16) states why Westinghouse system was adopted from April 1879: it was cheaper and lighter (10 cwt per carriage).
Magazine references:-
- See Backtrack magazine, Issue Number 6, page 270 (includes portrait).
- See also Backtrack magazine, Issue Number 5, page 254.
- Rutherford returns to Harrison (and his significance) - see Backtrack magazine, Issue Number 15, page 228.
Other references:-
- Brooke, David entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. - Brooke is critical of Harrison’s cautious approach to full block signalling in his contribution to the Royal Commission on Railway Accidents, 1874-1877, but acknowledges his contribution to improvements in train braking.
- Woodward, G. Trubshaw, Hartley and Harrison : early nineteenth century engineers and architects. Trans Newcomen Soc., 2001, 72, 77..
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