Francis Trevithick

Francis Trevithick (1812–1877) was a British locomotive engineer, eldest son of Richard Trevithick, who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the London and North Western Railway's Northern Division at Crewe from 1846 until 1857. With Alexander Allan he was responsible for the construction of Crewe Works as a major locomotive shop.

Born at Penponds, Cornwall on 25 January 1812, Trevithick was educated at Truro and apprenticed at the Hayle Foundry. He became Locomotive Superintendent of the Grand Junction Railway in 1841, transferring at the LNWR's formation in 1846 to the Northern Division at Crewe. His most notable design was the LNWR 'Crewe Type' 2-2-2 of which several hundred examples were built. He resigned in 1857 to set up in private practice and devoted himself in retirement to writing his father's biography (published 1872), a key source for the early history of the steam locomotive. He died at Penzance on 20 October 1877.