Francis Webb Sheilds
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Short description Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image
Francis Webb Wentworth-Sheilds (born Sheilds; 8 October 1820 – 18 January 1906)[1] was an Anglo-Irish civil engineer on the Sydney Railway Company during its construction but before its opening.
In Great Britain and Ireland, Sheilds worked on a number of railway projects, including the then Template:RailGauge Dublin and Kingstown Railway. He considered himself to be a born railway engineer.[2]
City Surveyor
Sheilds was the Sydney City Surveyor in 1843 for a few years where he worked on water works. He resigned in 1849,[3] in order to take up a post with the Sydney Railway Company.
Sydney Railway Company engineer
Sheilds is mainly remembered because he persuaded the company to adopt the Template:RailGauge rail gauge, rather than the English standard gauge of Template:RailGauge. Sheilds had worked on railways in Ireland, which had adopted Template:RailGauge as its own standard gauge. His proposal was backed by the British Board of Trade, and agreed to by all Australian colonies.
Sheilds resigned in 1850[4] when his pay was cut due to the company's financial difficulties. His replacement, Scotsman James Wallace, recommended that the track gauge be changed to the Template:RailGauge, and the New South Wales government concurred. However, the construction of Template:RailGauge broad gauge lines had already started in Victoria and South Australia, and the necessary rolling stock had been ordered. The two colonies strongly protested about the change and declined to follow suit.
Sheilds's recommendation, and its overturning by New South Wales, is the origin of the huge problems caused by breaks of gauge between Template:RailGauge and Template:RailGauge rail tracks in Australia. To add to the predicament, most other Australian colonies, including parts of South Australia, later adopted the cheaper narrow gauge of Template:RailGauge. Tasmania's first railway was constructed with a Template:RailGauge gauge, as per the original agreement, but it was converted to Template:RailGauge in 1888.
See also
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Wentworth-Sheilds Family History details
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
External links
Template:NewSouthWales-rail-transport-stub
Template:Australia-engineer-stub