Charles Benjamin Collett (1871 to 1952) was a British railway engineer who served as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He is best known for designing the GWR's celebrated express passenger locomotives, most notably the Castle class and the King class. The King class became the heaviest and most powerful 4-6-0 type locomotive built in Britain at the time, and its performance pushed competing railway companies to develop more powerful designs of their own. Collett was primarily a developmental engineer rather than a radical innovator, refining and expanding the locomotive designs of his predecessor G.J. Churchward into a standardized fleet well suited to the Great Western Railway's operations across southern and western England and Wales. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and the City and Guilds Engineering College, was appointed OBE for his engineering work, and was succeeded as Chief Mechanical Engineer by Frederick Hawksworth. Collett was born on 10 September 1871 and died on 5 April 1952 at the age of 80.
Facts
FAQs
Did Charles Collett alone design the King class locomotives?
Collett is credited with the class, but a suggestion has been made that it was largely the work of Hawksworth.
Collett is the engineer credited with the King class and it has been described as his masterpiece. The same source also records a suggestion that the design was largely the responsibility of Frederick Hawksworth, who was then Chief Draughtsman and later succeeded Collett as Chief Mechanical Engineer. The source states the point as a suggestion rather than a settled finding. What it does say firmly is that the class was pushed to a calculated tractive effort over 40,000 pounds, as required by the General Manager Sir Felix Pole, and that it remained the heaviest and most powerful 4-6-0 engine in Britain.
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Sources
1. Charles Collett (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph (birth date)
10 September 1871
Lead paragraph (death date)
5 April 1952
Lead paragraph (nationality)
a British railway engineer
Lead sentence, full name
Charles Benjamin Collett OBE JP MInstCE MIMechE
In Group: Railway Engineers and Locomotive Designers, Lead sentence
Charles Benjamin Collett (10 September 1871-5 April 1952) was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941.
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