Richard Christopher Mansell (born October 1813, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, died 1904, Westmorland) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 railway engineer.

Mansell was carriage superintendent for the South Eastern Railway

South Eastern Railway (UK)

The South Eastern Railway was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury and other places in Kent...

 at Ashford

Ashford, Kent

Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...

 by 1851, and later works manager for the SER. In 1877 he succeeded Alfred Mellor Watkin as locomotive superintendent of the SER. When James Stirling

James Stirling (1835-1917)

James Stirling was a Scottish mechanical engineer. He was Locomotive Superintendent of the Glasgow and South Western Railway and later the South Eastern Railway.-Biography:...

 was appointed in 1878, Mansell resumed the post of works manager until his retirement from the SER in January 1882. On leaving, he was given an annual consultancy fee/pension of fifty guineas.

Carriages

R. C. Mansell was the inventor of the Mansell wheel

Mansell Wheel

The Mansell Wheel is a railway wheel patented by Richard Mansell, the Carriage and Wagon superintendent of the South Eastern Railway in the UK.Dendy Marshall, C.F., History of the Southern Railway, Ian Allan 1963, ISBN 0 7110 0059 X The design was created in the 1840s and was eventually widely used...

, a composite wood and metal carriage wheel, for which he obtained patents in 1848, 1862 and 1866 .

Locomotives

As locomotive superintendent, Mansell was responsible for the design of a dozen locomotives: 9 x 0-4-4T

0-4-4

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles...

 [1878] and 3 x 0-6-0 [completed 1879, 7 others cancelled]. Three 0-6-0Ts

0-6-0

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels...

 that had been designed by Cudworth

James Cudworth

James I'Anson Cudworth was Locomotive Superintendent of the South Eastern Railway . He served in this capacity from 1845–76...

 were also completed under Mansell's supervision in 1877. None of his engines had a distinguished service life. The tanks lasted about 12 years and the 0-6-0s about twice that.

Family

Richard Christopher Mansell was the second of seven children born to John Mansell, a Customs House Officer in Liverpool, and his wife Margaret. Richard married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth Morris, died in 1873, aged 56 - they had three children. He married again, in 1874, to Emmeline Aldgate Clark, a widow, who died in 1912. Richard and Emmeline had a daughter, born in 1877 when Richard was 64.

See also

• Locomotives of the Southern Railway
  Locomotives of the Southern Railway
  The Southern Railway took a key role in expanding the 660 V DC third rail electrified network begun by the London & South Western Railway. As a result of this, and its smaller operating area, its steam locomotive stock was the smallest of the 'Big Four' companies. Yet its locomotives were unique...