Thomas Russell Crampton

Thomas Russell Crampton (1816–1888) was a British civil and locomotive engineer who patented the celebrated Crampton-type locomotive in 1842, a long-wheelbase 4-2-0 with a single pair of large driving wheels behind the firebox, designed for stability at high speed with a low centre of gravity. The type was little used in Britain (the Liverpool of 1848 being the most famous example) but was widely adopted in France, Germany and Belgium, where over three hundred were eventually built.

Born at Broadstairs, Kent on 6 August 1816, Crampton was educated locally and apprenticed under Marc Brunel and at Maudslay Sons & Field. He worked at Swindon under Daniel Gooch before setting up in private practice. He laid the first submarine telegraph cable from Dover to Calais in 1851, work for which he was perhaps better remembered in his later years than for his locomotives, and engineered the Smyrna & Aidin Railway in Asia Minor. He died at London on 19 April 1888.