Man who gave London drinkable water to be honoured
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- Published on Tuesday, 23 June 2009 00:01
The name of the locomotive, Thomas Wicksteed, honours the man who did most to bring clean drinking water to London and to other world cities. The launch will provide the opportunity to see and photograph the new locomotive in action with passenger and works trains.
Thomas Wicksteed (1806-1871) was appointed Engineer to the East London Waterworks in 1829. He introduced a programme of experiment and innovation which led in 1835 to the introduction of the Cornish high pressure engine to water supply in London. This revolutionised the supply of water to London and other major cities making continuous pumped supply feasible technically and economically. Thomas Wicksteed subsequently became a leading consulting engineer on water supply, working for five of the nine London companies and advising on water supply for many British cities, as well as overseas in Berlin, Boston, Kingston and Valparaiso. His ideas were widely adopted by other engineers; for example he was the first before Bazalgette to propose a London interceptor sewer.
The Wren Class Locomotive is 2 foot gauge contractors steam locomotive to a standard design originally by Kerr Stuart. Construction of the locomotive to be named was started in the workshops at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum and completed by the Hunslet Locomotive Co. at Statfold. It is presented as a metropolitan Water Board locomotive in their green and black operating livery, with appropriate owners and name plates.