George Whale
| George Whale | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 December 1842 Bocking, Essex, England |
| Died |
7 March 1910 (aged 67) Hove, Sussex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Mechanical engineering |
George Whale (7 December 1842 – 7 March 1910) was a British locomotive engineer who was born in Bocking, Essex, and educated in Lewisham. He worked for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR).
In 1858 he entered the LNWR's Wolverton Works under James Edward McConnell, and when in 1862 the LNWR Board decided to concentrate locomotive construction and repair at Crewe Works under John Ramsbottom, Whale was one of around 400 workers transferred from Wolverton to Crewe. In 1865 he entered the drawing office at Crewe Works, and in 1867 joined the LNWR running department under J. Rigg. In 1898 he was made responsible for the running of all LNWR locomotives.
Francis William Webb, the LNWR Locomotive Superintendent, gave twelve months notice of retirement to the LNWR Board in November 1902. On 22 April 1903, the Board announced that Whale had been chosen to succeed Webb, who was to retire at the end of July 1903. Webb's health was failing, and Whale soon took up some of his duties, and began signing official documents on 25 May; by 30 May, Webb was too ill to work.
Webb's compound locomotives were generally considered a failure and Whale commenced the programme of converting some of these to simple-expansion locomotives, and replacing others. In 1904 he introduced the 4-4-0 Precursor class, an entirely new design which was in production within nine months of Whale's appointment; by June 1906, there were 110 in service. The Precursors were able to keep time when handling greater loads than their predecessors. They were followed by the 4-6-0 Experiment class, and these two formed the basis for several subsequent LNWR locomotive classes.
Whale introduced four new classes of locomotive; a fifth design was ordered by Whale but not delivered until after his retirement.
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