James I'Anson Cudworth

James I'Anson Cudworth (1817–1899) was a British locomotive engineer who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the South Eastern Railway at Ashford Works for thirty-one years from 1845. He invented the Cudworth firebox, a long firebox divided by a vertical mid-plate, in 1856 to enable the burning of small Welsh coal that had previously been considered unfit for locomotive use, and so brought a major reduction in fuel costs to the SER.

Born at Stockton-on-Tees on 25 December 1817, Cudworth was apprenticed at Bury, Curtis & Kennedy of Liverpool, the Bury that had supplied the early L&MR engines, and worked on the Hull & Selby Railway under his elder brother William Cudworth before being appointed to the SER's senior post in 1845.

His designs were typically straightforward and well-engineered. The 'Hastings' Class 2-4-0 of 1851 and the long-boilered 118 Class 0-6-0 goods of 1855 were typical SER motive power for many years. He resigned in 1876 after disagreements with the Board over the introduction of an Adams-type bogie 4-4-0 by an outside contractor, and was succeeded briefly by Alfred Watkin and then by James Stirling. He died at Folkestone on 13 May 1899.