Introduction
The Victorian railway engineer Thomas Brassey (1805-1870) is not the household name that he perhaps ought to be, chiefly because he worked through agents and alongside partners. Nonetheless, his knowledge and business acumen lies behind much of the rail network in Britain, and helped start the railway revolution from France to Australia.
THOMAS Brassey, son of a prosperous Cheshire farmer, began his career in road-building as an apprentice to surveyor William Lawton, on Thomas Telford’s Shrewsbury to Holyhead road. Brassey rose from apprentice to partner, and Lawton and Brassey relocated to Birkenhead to make road-building materials.
It was in supplying stone for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway’s Sankey Viaduct that Thomas met George Stephenson, who subsequently employed him for Penkridge Viaduct on the Grand Junction Railway, and Brassey worked with George and with George’s son Robert and protégé Joseph Locke, on projects from Southampton to Chester, Sheffield and Glasgow.
In 1841, Locke awarded Thomas a contract to help construct the Paris to Le Havre Railway, one of France’s first railway ventures. A feature was to be the Barentin viaduct, for which Brassey was required to use local materials, but it collapsed during construction. Brassey rebuilt it at his own expense, this time sourcing the materials himself.* More French railways followed, including the line from Orléans to Bordeaux.
Brassey’s rebuilt viaduct is in operation today, bearing the weight of a modern high-speed line. See a picture at Wikimedia Commmons.
Précis
Thomas Brassey was a Cheshire surveyor who began as a road-builder but went into railway construction at the suggestion of George Stephenson. In 1841, he was rewarded for his work on Penkridge Viaduct with a contract to work in France, where he demonstrated his superior engineering skills and knowledge of materials by rebuilding the collapsed Barentin Viaduct in Normandy. (59 / 60 words)
Thomas Brassey was a Cheshire surveyor who began as a road-builder but went into railway construction at the suggestion of George Stephenson. In 1841, he was rewarded for his work on Penkridge Viaduct with a contract to work in France, where he demonstrated his superior engineering skills and knowledge of materials by rebuilding the collapsed Barentin Viaduct in Normandy.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, despite, if, may, must, until, whereas, whether.
Word Games
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