Sir John Aspinall

Sir John Audley Frederick Aspinall (1851–1937) was a British railway engineer who served as Locomotive Superintendent and from 1899 General Manager of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. He designed the L&YR Class 7 'High Flyer' Atlantic of 1899, the first 4-4-2 in Britain after the Great Northern's, and laid out Horwich Works as a modern locomotive shop.

Born at Liverpool on 25 August 1851, Aspinall was apprenticed at Crewe under John Ramsbottom and worked at Inchicore on the Great Southern & Western Railway of Ireland, first as Works Manager, then as Locomotive Superintendent, from 1875 to 1886.

His L&YR designs included the Class 27 0-6-0 mineral engine, the Aspinall Atlantic, and a major suburban electrification of the Liverpool–Southport line in 1904 (Britain's first 600 V dc third-rail electrification). He was promoted to General Manager in 1899 and held that post for two decades, retiring in 1919. He was knighted in 1917 and elected President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1909. He died at Woking on 19 January 1937.