Thomas Parker

Born	22 December 1843
Died	5 December 1915
Nationality	English
Employer	Elkington & Co., Birmingham; Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (Mechanical Engineer); Electric Construction Company, Wolverhampton (founder, Manager); Various consultancy and director roles in early electric traction

Biography

Thomas Parker (1843–1915) was a British electrical and locomotive engineer best known as the designer of the small electric locomotives that hauled trains on the City & South London Railway, the world's first deep-level tube railway, when it opened on 4 November 1890. He also designed the steam locomotives of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway for a decade as Mechanical Engineer.

Born at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire on 22 December 1843, Parker was apprenticed in the local ironworks and rose through Elkington & Co. of Birmingham, pioneers of electroplating, to become the technical force behind much of British electrical engineering in the 1880s and 1890s. He founded the Electric Construction Company at Wolverhampton in 1882, which later supplied generating equipment and electric locomotives for early industrial and railway electrifications.

The City & South London 'padded cell' tube locomotives of 1890 were tiny four-wheeled bo electric engines drawing 500 V dc from a centre conductor rail; they ran successfully for nearly thirty years. Parker also worked on the electrification of the Liverpool Overhead Railway (1893) and the Mersey Railway (1903). He held a number of company directorships in the early electric traction industry. He died at Wolverhampton on 5 December 1915.

Locomotives designed

GNR J13 — Patrick Stirling's 1888 GNR J13 (LNER J52) 0-6-0ST shunting class — the standard GNR shunting engine, built at Doncaster from 1888 onwards. Became a London suburban line workhorse and many lasted into BR days.
MS&LR 9A — Parker's 1889 MS&LR 9A class 0-6-2T — early example of the 0-6-2 tank wheel arrangement that became popular on British railways for mineral and suburban work.
MS&LR Class 6AI — Parker's 1888 MS&LR 6AI class 0-6-0 standard goods engine.
MS&LR Class 8 Compound — Charles Sacré's 1883 Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway 4-4-0 compound class — early British compounds built for the MS&LR's express services. None preserved.
MS&LR D7 Class — Thomas Parker's 1887 Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway D7 class 4-4-0 — the MS&LR's standard express engine of the late 1880s and 1890s.