John Aspinall (engineer) - Biography

Biography

Aspinall was born on 25 August 1851 in Liverpool to a Roman Catholic judge. He attended the Roman Catholic boarding school of Beaumont College, Berkshire before being apprenticed to engineers John Ramsbottom and Francis Webb of the London and North Western Railway in 1868. He was sent by Webb to the United States of America in 1872 where he was greatly impressed by the larger loading gauge in use there. In 1875 he moved to the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland and became their works manager at Inchicore, Dublin. Aspinall was promoted to Locomotive Superintendent in 1882 and introduced a form of vacuum braking to his locomotives which was soon adopted by several other lines, including the London and North Western and Great Northern Railways.

He became the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1886 and their general manager in 1899. In this capacity he introduced electrification and greatly expanded the transport of coal. He was promoted to Locomotive Superintendent in 1883 and, continuing the work of his predecessor, William Barton Wright, he modernised the locomotive stock, bringing in several of his own design. Aspinall served as president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers between 1909 and 1910 and was interned in Germany at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Aspinall received a knighthood on 13 June 1917 for his contributions to the war effort and national transport system. He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers between November 1918 and November 1919. He was the first recipient of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' James Watt International Medal, receiving it in 1937. He died on 19 January 1937.

He wrote seven academic papers and was the holder of fourteen patents.