Cecil John Allen (1886 – 5 February 1973) was a British railway engineer and technical journalist and writer.
Work
Allen qualified as a
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
and joined the
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...
in 1903, later working for the
London & North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At tha ...
retiring in 1946. He inspected new rails for quality.
Allen also was the second contributor to the long-running ''British locomotive practice and performance'' article series in ''
The Railway Magazine
''The Railway Magazine'' is a monthly United Kingdom, British railway magazine, aimed at the Railfan, railway enthusiast market, that has been published in London since July 1897. it was, for three years running, the railway magazine with the ...
'' from 1909 to 1958,
He was concurrently editor of ''
Trains Illustrated
''Trains Illustrated'' is a British rail transport magazine. The first edition of ''Trains Illustrated'' was published at the beginning of 1946. Due to post-war paper shortages, issues 1 to 8 appeared at varied intervals in 1946 and 1947. From iss ...
'' in the 1940s, and was succeeded in that position by his son,
Geoffrey Freeman Allen
Geoffrey Freeman Allen (16 March 1922 – 7 July 1995) was an English author specialising in the field of railways. He authored many books and magazine articles on this subject, and for a time was editor of ''Jane's World Railways''. His name was ...
, in 1950.
Allen was a committed Christian and an accomplished organist, writing a chorus "The Lord has need of me". He was offered a place on the train when ''
Mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
'' broke the world speed record in 1938, but declined the offer as the run was scheduled for a Sunday morning and clashed with his regular church (Christian Brethren) attendance. He died on 5 February 1973.
Bibliography
He wrote numerous books on locomotives, and railway company histories, as well as an autobiography "Two Million Miles of Train Travel":
;Locomotives
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
**
*
;Railway company histories
*
*
*
;General railways
*
*''Railways of To-day: Their Evolution, Equipment and Operation.'' Frederick Warne & Company. 1929.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
;Other
*
See also
*
Geoffrey Freeman Allen
Geoffrey Freeman Allen (16 March 1922 – 7 July 1995) was an English author specialising in the field of railways. He authored many books and magazine articles on this subject, and for a time was editor of ''Jane's World Railways''. His name was ...
, his son, also a writer on railway topics, and first editor of ''
Modern Railways
''Modern Railways'' is a monthly British magazine covering the rail transport industry, which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012 and Key Publishing since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was based originally in Shep ...
''
References
British railway mechanical engineers
Great Eastern Railway people
London and North Eastern Railway people
British rail transport writers
1886 births
1973 deaths
{{rail-bio-stub