Francis Webb

Born	21 May 1836
Died	4 June 1906
Nationality	English
Employer	London and North Western Railway, Crewe (apprentice from 1851 under John Ramsbottom; Chief Draughtsman 1859); Bolton Iron and Steel Company (Manager 1866–1870); LNWR (Chief Mechanical Engineer 1871–1903)

Francis William Webb (1836–1906) was a British locomotive engineer who served as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway for thirty-two years from 1871 to 1903 — the longest and most powerful tenure of any British CME of the nineteenth century. A towering figure in Victorian railway engineering, Webb was both one of the most innovative and one of the most controversial engineers of his era, his celebrated compound locomotive experiments producing results that ranged from the genuinely excellent to the notoriously unreliable.

Born at Tixall, Staffordshire on 21 May 1836, the son of the Rector of Tixall, Webb was apprenticed at Crewe Works under John Ramsbottom in 1851 and rose to Chief Draughtsman by 1859. After five years as Manager of the Bolton Iron and Steel Company he returned to Crewe to succeed Ramsbottom as CME in October 1871, inheriting the largest locomotive fleet in Britain and an engineering organisation that he would develop into one of the most self-sufficient in the world.

Webb's simple-expansion designs were consistently excellent. The 'DX Goods' rebuilds gave the LNWR a reliable heavy goods fleet, the 'Cauliflower' 0-6-0 (1880) was a capable and long-lived goods engine, and the 'Precedent' or 'Jumbo' 2-4-0 produced one of the most celebrated performances in British railway history when No. 790 Hardwicke covered the 141 miles from Crewe to Carlisle in 126 minutes during the 1895 Race to the North — a record that stood for decades. His compound experiments, beginning with the 'Experiment' class of 1882, were more mixed: the 'Teutonic' compounds were effective on the Anglo-Scottish expresses, but the 'Greater Britain' and 'John Hick' classes were troublesome, and the four-cylinder 'Bill Bailey' compound 4-6-0 of 1903 was a complete failure that was scrapped almost immediately.

Webb retired in May 1903 in poor health, having resisted pressure to retire for several years. He died at Bournemouth on 4 June 1906. His successor George Whale systematically scrapped the troublesome compounds, replacing them with simple-expansion engines, a process that in engineering terms confirmed many of the criticisms of Webb's compound policy but that should not obscure the genuine achievements of his long and productive tenure.

Biography

Francis William Webb (1836–1906) was a British locomotive engineer who served as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway from October 1871 until his retirement in 1903, a tenure of unmatched length and dominance among British locomotive engineers. The most influential British advocate of compound expansion in his generation, he produced eight successive compound classes between 1882 and 1903; some were excellent, others notoriously troublesome.

Born at Tixall, Staffordshire on 21 May 1836, the son of the Rector of Tixall, Webb was apprenticed at Crewe under John Ramsbottom in 1851 and rose to Chief Draughtsman in 1859. After a five-year spell as Manager of the Bolton Iron and Steel Company he returned to Crewe to succeed Ramsbottom in 1871.

His simple-expansion designs were generally exemplary, the Coal Tank of 1881, the 'DX Goods' rebuilds, the long-lived 'Cauliflower' 0-6-0 and the 'Jumbo' 2-4-0s. The compounds were more mixed: the three-cylinder 'Experiment', 'Dreadnought' and 'Teutonic' classes worked Anglo-Scottish expresses for years (the 'Teutonic' Jeanie Deans being a particular favourite), but the small-wheeled 'Greater Britain' and 'John Hick' classes were less successful, and the four-cylinder 'Bill Bailey' compound 4-6-0 of 1903 proved a complete failure.

Webb retired in May 1903, broken in health, and died at Bournemouth on 4 June 1906. He was succeeded by George Whale, who scrapped the troublesome compounds and replaced them with simple-expansion engines to a more conventional pattern.

Locomotives designed

4ft 6in Tank — Webb's 1879 LNWR 2-4-2T class with 4 ft 6 in coupled wheels — built at Crewe for LNWR suburban and short-distance passenger work.
LNWR Coal Tank — Francis Webb's small 0-6-2T tank engine for the London & North Western Railway, originally a tank-engine version of his Coal Engine 0-6-0 goods. Three hundred engines were built at Crewe Works between 1881 and 1897 for short-haul mineral and shunting work. Just one survives, No. 1054, preserved by the Bahamas Locomotive Society at Ingrow West, Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.
LNWR Dreadnought Class — Webb's 1884 LNWR 2-2-2-2 three-cylinder compound express engines — successors of the "Experiment" compounds with similar layout but larger boilers and improved detail. 40 built. Like the Experiments, suffered from uncoupled-driver problems and were progressively rebuilt as simples.
LNWR Greater Britain — Webb's 1891 LNWR 2-2-2-2 three-cylinder compound express class — successors of the Dreadnought class with even larger boilers (the longest LNWR boilers built up to that date), but the same uncoupled-driver layout that compromised reliability. 10 built. All rebuilt as simples by 1907.
LNWR Precedent Class — Francis Webb's 2-4-0 express passenger engine for the London and North Western Railway, designed in 1874 as a development of John Ramsbottom's earlier Newton class. The Precedent and the rebuilt Improved Precedent (Jumbos) handled the LNWR's premier London-to-Scotland expresses through the 1870s and 1880s, including the famous 1888 Race to the North. 70 were built and one, 790 Hardwicke, has survived in the National Collection.
LNWR Webb Problem compounds — Francis Webb's 1881 LNWR 2-2-2-2 three-cylinder compound express engines (the "Experiment" prototype and 30 production engines) — Webb's first attempt at compound expansion, with two outside high-pressure cylinders driving one pair of drivers and one inside low-pressure cylinder driving the other, both pairs uncoupled. Performed badly in service: the two pairs of drivers frequently rotated independently, leading to slipping and unreliable operation. Withdrawn or rebuilt as simples by 1907.