Alexander Ross (engineer)
Encyclopedia
Alexander Ross was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...

 particularly noted for his work with the railway industry.

Ross was born in Laggan
Laggan, Badenoch
Laggan is a village in Badenoch, in the Highland region of Scotland. It is beside the River Spey, about 10 km west of Newtonmore. The A86 road passes through the village and crosses the river on a nearby bridge...

, County of Inverness in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 on 20 April 1845. He was educated in Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 and at Owen's College in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, an institution now a part of the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

. Ross began his career in railway engineering with the Great North of Scotland Railway
Great North of Scotland Railway
The Great North of Scotland Railway was one of the smaller Scottish railways before the grouping, operating in the far north-east of the country. It was formed in 1845 and received its Parliamentary approval on June 26, 1846, following over two years of local meetings...

 (GNSR) before moving to the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

 (LNWR) in 1871. In 1873 he went to work for the North Eastern Railway
North Eastern Railway (UK)
The North Eastern Railway , was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined, and was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923...

 (NER) before returning to LNWR in the next year. He changed employer again in 1884 when he went to work for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

 (LYR) before becoming the Chief Engineer of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was formed by amalgamation in 1847. The MS&LR changed its name to the Great Central Railway in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension.-Origin:...

 (MS&LR) in 1890. During his time at MS&LR he was responsible for the design of many of the works involved with that company's London Extension.

In 1896 Ross became the Chief Engineer of the Great Northern Railway
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....

 (GNR), a post he held until 1911 when he became an engineering consultant. During his time at GNR his advice was sought by the company's board on the locomotive design to be chosen for their no.1300 series of engines. Several designs were rejected as they were judged to be too long or heavy for the rail infrastructure. Despite several attempts at redesign by Nigel Gresley
Nigel Gresley
Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Eastern Railway . He was the designer of some of the most famous steam locomotives in Britain, including the LNER Class A1 and LNER Class A4...

 the series was scrapped in 1924. His works as an engineering consultant included the Hertford Loop Line
Hertford Loop Line
The Hertford Loop Line is a branch of the East Coast Main Line, providing a commuter route to London for Hertford and other Hertfordshire towns...

 and Breydon Viaduct
Breydon Viaduct
Breydon Viaduct was a railway bridge across the River Yare near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England that was built by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway .-History:...

, with Ross serving as the Engineer-in-Chief of the latter. On 16 June 1897 he was appointed Major in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, an unpaid unit of the Volunteer Force
Volunteer Force (Great Britain)
The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reforms in 1881, before forming part of the...

 which provided technical advice to the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

. He was a Lieutenant-Colonel in that corps at the time it joined the Territorial Force
Territorial Force
The Territorial Force was the volunteer reserve component of the British Army from 1908 to 1920, when it became the Territorial Army.-Origins:...

 on 1 April 1908. He had been a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers
Institution of Civil Engineers
Founded on 2 January 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent professional association, based in central London, representing civil engineering. Like its early membership, the majority of its current members are British engineers, but it also has members in more than 150...

 since before 16 June 1897 and from November 1915 to November 1916 he served as their president. Ross died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

on 3 February 1923.
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