Sir Vincent Raven

Sir Vincent Litchfield Raven (1859–1934) was a British locomotive engineer who served as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the North Eastern Railway from 1910 until the 1923 Grouping. He pioneered the use of three-cylinder simple-expansion drive on heavy British locomotives and, with the NER's electrified Newport–Shildon line and his proposed York–Newcastle main-line electrification, was one of the earliest serious advocates of high-voltage electric traction in Britain.

Raven was born at Great Fransham, Norfolk on 3 December 1859, the son of a clergyman, and was educated at Aldenham School. He joined the NER as a premium apprentice at Gateshead Works in 1875 under Edward Fletcher and rose through the Locomotive Department under Alexander McDonnell, T. W. Worsdell and his elder colleague Wilson Worsdell, whom he succeeded as CME in June 1910.

His most numerous design was the NER Class T2 heavy mineral 0-8-0 (LNER Q6), of which 120 were built between 1913 and 1921; the survivors lasted into 1967. The three-cylinder Class Z Atlantic and Class S3 4-6-0 mixed-traffic engine were notable for their smooth riding, and the small Class Y7 dock shunters lasted into private industrial service into the 1970s.

Raven was an early proponent of electrification. He was responsible for the NER's 1,500 V dc Newport–Shildon mineral line of 1915, the first British main-line electrification at that voltage, and designed both the EE1 1.5 kV bo-bo electric mineral locomotive and a prototype 1.5 kV bo-bo passenger electric. His proposed electrification of the East Coast main line between York and Newcastle was halted by the Grouping. From 1915 to 1919 he was seconded as Chief Superintendent of Royal Ordnance Factories at Woolwich, for which work he was created KBE in 1917.

At Grouping the LNER Board chose Gresley of the GNR over Raven for the new joint CME post. Raven retired immediately and accepted a place on the LNER consulting staff. He died at Felixstowe on 14 February 1934.