£29.95
Gerald Beesley
Publication Date: 2018
Format & Edition: Paperback, First Edition
Pagination: 240 Pages
Condition: New
Status: In Stock
Synopsis
Henry Eoghan O’Brien An Engineer of Nobility by Gerald Beesley.
Henry Eoghan O’Brien, who was of Irish noble birth, became Resident Engineer for the electrification of the Liverpool, Southport and Croseens section of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. This was his first major achievement and was one of the first electrification projects in the UK. He also spent a period in charge of the Carriage & Wagon Works at Newton Heath, followed by his promotion to Assistant Chief Mechanical Engineer and Works Manager under George Hughes at Horwich.
During the First World War O’Brien served with the Royal Engineers and at the Ministry of Munitions. In 1917 he was promoted to Deputy Director of Light Railways. He served in France and Palestine and was twice mentioned in dispatches and awarded the DSO. He rose to the rank of Colonel.
After the war he resumed duties at Horwich and oversaw the building of further batches of superheated 0-8-0s and the rebuilding of the Hughes 4-6-0s of 1909. When the L&YR merged with the LNWR in 1922, O’Brien was appointed Electrical Manager, a postion he retained for just one year. During this period he undertook feasibility studies with a view to elecrtifying the LNWR main line from Crewe to Carlisle. When the railway grouping of 1923 resulted in the formation of the LMS, Henry O’Brien eventually left the railway and retired to his family home in Ireland. He died in 1967.
Chapters
The O’Brien Clan
Railway Relations
Dromoland to Killiney
The Formative Years
Liverpool – Southport Electrification
Life with an Electric Railway
Management of Workshops
With the Royal Engineers
National Projectile Factories
Light Railways Directorate
Assigned to Two Ministries
Return to Horwich
Retirement at Killiney
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