Thomas Russell Crampton

Thomas Russell Crampton (1816–1888) was a British civil and locomotive engineer who patented the Crampton locomotive in 1842 — a distinctive long-wheelbase 4-2-0 with a single pair of large driving wheels mounted behind the firebox, giving a very low centre of gravity and claimed stability at high speed — and who also laid the first successful submarine telegraph cable between England and France, a contribution to global communications as historically significant as anything in his railway career.

Born at Broadstairs, Kent on 6 August 1816, Crampton was educated locally and served engineering apprenticeships under Marc Brunel and at Maudslay Sons and Field before working in Daniel Gooch's drawing office at Swindon. He set up in private engineering practice and patented his locomotive design in 1842, arguing that placing the driving axle behind the firebox allowed a larger driving wheel diameter without raising the boiler — in theory giving higher speed with a lower, more stable centre of mass.

The Crampton type found little favour in Britain — the loading gauge and route conditions of most British railways made the long-wheelbase design impractical — but achieved enormous commercial success on the Continent. Over 300 Crampton locomotives were built for French, German, and Belgian railways, where the type worked express services for decades. The French phrase prendre le Crampton (to take the Crampton) became a colloquial expression for catching the express train. Crampton's civil engineering work included the Dover–Calais submarine telegraph cable of 1851 and railway projects in Asia Minor. He died at London on 19 April 1888.