Richard Christopher Mansell (October 1813 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

– 25 May 1904 in

Long Marton Long Marton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness unitary authority of the English county of Cumbria. In 2011 the population was 827. The village previously had a railway station called Long Ma ...

, Westmorland) was an English railway engineer. Mansell was carriage superintendent for the South Eastern Railway at Ashford by 1851, and later works manager for the SER. In 1877 he succeeded Alfred Mellor Watkin as locomotive superintendent of the SER. When James Stirling was appointed in 1878, Mansell resumed the post of works manager until his retirement from the SER in January 1882. On leaving, he was given an annual consultancy fee/pension of fifty guineas.

Carriages

R. C. Mansell was the inventor of the

Mansell wheel The Mansell Wheel is a railway wheel patented by Richard Mansell, the Carriage and Wagon superintendent of the South Eastern Railway (UK), South Eastern Railway in the UK. The design was created in the 1840s and was eventually used widely on pass ...

, a composite wood and metal carriage wheel, for which he obtained patents in 1848, 1862 and 1866. Use of this design in preference to other methods of affixing tyres to wheels was often indicated following tyre and/or wheel incidents resulting in accidents by investigating officers of the Board of Trade, most notably following the accidents at Hatfield on the Great Northern Railway on Boxing Day (26 Dec) 1870 and Skipton-on-Cherwell on the Great Western Railway on Christmas Eve 1874. By 1874 there were over 20,000 sets of Mansell wheels in use.

Locomotives

As locomotive superintendent, Mansell designed twelve locomotives: 9

0-4-4T Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles. This type was only us ...

in 1878 and 3 0-6-0 in 1879 (7 others were cancelled). Three

0-6-0 is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used o ...

Ts that had been designed by Cudworth were also completed under Mansell's supervision in 1877. None of his engines had a distinguished service life. The tank engines lasted about 12 years, and the 0-6-0s about twice as long.

Family

Richard Christopher Mansell was the second of five children born to John Mansell, a Customs House Officer in Liverpool, and his wife Margaret Rothwell. Richard married twice. He married his first wife, Elizabeth Birchall Norris, 1816 Liverpool - March 1873

Ashford, Kent Ashford is a town in the Borough of Ashford, Ashford district, in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Great Stour at the southern or Escarpment, scarp edge of the North Downs, about by road southeast of centr ...

(died aged 56) at

Edge Hill, Liverpool Edge Hill is a district of Liverpool, England, south east of the city centre, bordered by Kensington, Wavertree and Toxteth. Edge Hill University was founded here, but moved to Ormskirk in the 1930s. History The area was first developed in ...

St Mary in 1836. They had three children: Margaret, James Thomas and James Rothwell. He married his second wife, Emmeline Aldgate Clark, 29 August 1833, St. Pancras, London - 29 August 1912, Long Marton, Westmorland at Camden Haverstock Hill Holy Trinity on 14 April 1874. They had two children: Albert and Emmeline.

References

* * * UK Census Returns * Records of the Registrar for Births, Deaths & Marriages {{DEFAULTSORT:Mansell, Richard 1813 births 1904 deaths Locomotive builders and designers English railway mechanical engineers Engineers from Liverpool South Eastern and Chatham Railway people

Carriages

Locomotives

Family

See also

References