James Szlumper

Sir James Weeks Szlumper, JP, DL, PJGD (1834 – 27 October 1926), was an English civil engineer. He was Chief Engineer on a number of key railway engineering projects in the Victorian era.

James Szlumper began his career with a London firm of engineers, and in 1853 was appointed surveyor to the county of Cardiganshire, a position in which he held for 25 years. In this position, he was often in correspondence and conflict with the local land owners, particularly John Waddingham the then owner of the Hafod Estate. His brother Alfred Weeks Szlumper (1858–1934), was also a railway engineer; their father was Albert Szlumper of Liverpool.

Szlumper had a dual career as a railway engineer, laying out some of key lines linking the major routes to the wider countryside of Wales and the West.

He started his railway career engineering parts of the London Underground in employment in London. When he took the job of Surveyor to the county of Cardiganshire, he also held the role of deputy engineer of the Manchester and Milford Railway, which never reached either of the locations in its title, being restricted to a line between Strata Florida and Pencader, Carmarthenshire. However, he became good friends with the lines manager James Cholmeley Russell, and resultantly later became civil engineer to the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways and in 1906 became a director. Russell and Szlumper were two of the proposers of the Vale of Rheidol Light Railway from Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge (originally proposed by the Manchester & Milford Railway), although Russell resigned from the VofR project in its infancy in 1899.

Szlumper later worked on project in the Montgomeryshire; the South Wales Valleys including the Barry Railway, the Pethick and Vale of Glamorgan Railway and the Pontypridd Caerphilly and Newport Railway; and Devon including the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.

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