Richard Johnson,

MICE A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

(1827 – 9 September 1924) was a British railway engineer, latterly chief engineer for the Great Northern Railway (GNR).

Life and career

Johnson was born in

Spalding, Lincolnshire Spalding () is a market town on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. The town had a population of 31,588 at the 2011 census. The town is the administrative centre of the South Holland District. The town i ...

, and began his career as an apprentice carpenter in 1840. He joined the engineering firm Brydone and Evans in 1847, working on the GNR. He was promoted in 1855 to become the district engineer for the GNR's loop line and then again in 1859 to take responsibility for the Peterborough to Doncaster route. In 1861 he became chief engineer to the GNR upon the retirement of his predecessor Walter Marr Brydone. He was in-post at the time of the Welwyn Tunnel rail crash (1866). He went on to oversee the construction of the

GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension The Derbyshire and Staffordshire extension of the Great Northern Railway was an English railway network built by the GNR to get access to coal resources in the area to the north and west of Nottingham. The Midland Railway had obstructed the GNR in ...

, which involved several significant bridges, including

Giltbrook Viaduct Giltbrook Viaduct was a railway viaduct built in the Erewash Valley between Awsworth and Giltbrook in Nottinghamshire. It was demolished in 1973 to make way for the A610 bypass. Origins The viaduct was built between May 1873 and November 18 ...

in Nottinghamshire,

Bennerley Viaduct The Bennerley Viaduct is a disused railway viaduct spanning the Erewash Valley between Awsworth (Nottinghamshire) and Ilkeston (Derbyshire) in central England. It was built in 1877 but closed to rail traffic in 1968, as part of the Beeching cu ...

near

Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...

on the Nottinghamshire–Derbyshire border, and two in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gain ...

: the Handyside Bridge over the River Derwent and the Friargate Bridge carrying the approach tracks to Derby Friargate railway station, as well as the Kimberley Cutting. Johnson was also involved in the construction of bridges at Newark (at , the longest on the GNR, reconstructed in 1889–90, in place of the 1851-52 Warren Truss bridge),

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated i ...

(the Don Bridge),

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, and the

Copenhagen Tunnel The Copenhagen Tunnel is a set of three parallel railway tunnels carrying the main line tracks out of London's under the rising ground at Barnsbury, about a mile north of the station. Each bore has the capacity for two tracks. The eastern tunn ...

s just north of London King's Cross. He retired in 1896. In his 35 years as CE he converted the whole of the GNR from iron to steel rails. In his personal life, Johnson was teetotal and a missionary. He died on 9 September 1924 in

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people, a tribe holding 300 ...

. His son, T R Johnson, was GNR Assistant Engineer and, from 1907 to 1914,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Chief Railway Commissioner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson (engineer), Richard 1827 births 1924 deaths British railway civil engineers Great Northern Railway (Great Britain) people People from Spalding, Lincolnshire