Thomas Longridge Gooch (1 November 1808 – 23 November 1882) was

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 ...

of the

Manchester and Leeds Railway The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton, West Yorkshire, Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access L ...

from 1831 to 1844.

Biography

Gooch was born on 1 November 1808. He was the eldest son of John and Anna Gooch. John was cashier at the

Bedlington Ironworks Bedlington Ironworks, in Blyth Dene, Northumberland, England, operated between 1736 and 1867. It is most remembered as the place where wrought iron rails were invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820, which triggered the railway age, with their fi ...

in Northumberland. Anna was the daughter of Thomas Longridge, whose family ran the ironworks and played an important role in the earliest steam railways. John and Anna had ten children, and of their five sons, four became railway engineers: Thomas Longridge Gooch;

John Viret Gooch John Viret Gooch FRSA (29 June 1812 – 8 June 1900) was the locomotive superintendent of the London and South Western Railway from 1841 to 1850. Born at Bedlington, Northumberland, John Viret Gooch (elder brother of Daniel Gooch) was the sec ...

;

Daniel Gooch Sir Daniel Gooch, 1st Baronet (24 August 1816 – 15 October 1889) was an English railway locomotive and transatlantic cable engineer. He was the first Locomotive Superintendent, Superintendent of Locomotive Engines on the Great Western Ra ...

and William Frederick Gooch. On 6 October 1823, Gooch was apprenticed for six years to

George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victoria ...

; with Stephenson, he surveyed the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and for years from 1826 acted as Stephenson's secretary and draughtsman on the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It ...

(L&MR), living in Stephenson's house in Liverpool. When work on the L&MR was suspended due to opposition in Parliament, Stephenson allowed Gooch to spend a few months at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

, studying chemistry and geology. In January 1829, he became Resident Engineer for the Liverpool end of the L&MR, but in April the same year he took a temporary appointment as Resident Engineer of the Bolton and Leigh Railway. In 1830, Stephenson was appointed to survey the route of the proposed

, and Gooch was appointed his assistant. Gooch carried out most of the actual surveying for the new line, and was in charge of the construction. He subsequently resigned from the company due to "chicanery" by the directors. In the 1840s, he worked alongside Robert Stephenson as engineer of the Trent Valley line and the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a Great Britain, British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shro ...

. He retired from engineering in 1851 due to health problems (probably due to overworking), having made over £40,000 during his time in the profession.

Assessment

Railway historian Jack Simmons considered that Gooch was "one of the most reliable railway engineers of the 1840s", praising his teamwork, humility, honesty, and "selfless devotion to his work". His diary and unpublished autobiography, a valuable source on early railway engineering, have been preserved by the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

. Their obituary said that "in the exciting days of the railway mania his name was prominent and ranked second only to that of the Stephensons and Brunel, and had health allowed him to continue his active career, he would doubtless have achieved the fullest honours which the profession could bestow."

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Biography

Assessment

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Further reading