Thomas Brassey Statue for Chester Station

[LNW-GW Joint]

Looks like there will be an interesting addition to Chester station, with planning approval for a statue of Thomas Brassey.
Brassey was the contractor who built many of the UK's railways, including Chester station and most of the lines radiating from there.

Go-ahead for statue of 'world’s greatest railway builder' outside city station

The statue will pay tribute to Thomas Brassey who 'put Chester firmly on the United Kingdom’s railway map'

www.cheshire-live.co.uk

The man hailed as the 'world’s greatest railway builder' is to have a statue erected in his honour outside Chester station - a building he constructed back in 1848. Thomas Brassey, who was born in nearby Aldford, had built one third of all the railway lines in the UK by the time of his death in 1875.
The Thomas Brassey Society, a charity who are funding the construction and erection of the statue, say he deserves better recognition in his home city. The statue represents Thomas Brassey in his mid-40s - his age when he completed the building of Chester Railway Station - reading a map of the Shrewsbury-Chester railway which he completed in the same year.

He deserves to be remembered along with famous engineers like the Stephensons and Joseph Locke whose lines he helped realize, including long stretches of the northern WCML and also the GN.
His first significant railway work was the Penkridge Viaduct on the Grand Junction in 1837, followed by the Trent Valley Railway and the Lancaster & Carlisle.
Brassey also built many lines abroad, including Paris-Rouen and Culoz-Chambéry-Turin-Novara, also Canada's Grand Trunk railway and lines in today's Ukraine.
He also operated some of the lines he built before the big railways took them on (eg Shrewsbury-Hereford), providing rolling stock and signalling.
Brassey was also famous for his working standards and methods, and for "keeping everything in his head".

 

[Dr Hoo]

Excellent news. Thanks for posting.

 

[mwmbwls]

He also played a key role in concert with Thomas Brassey and Edward Betts in building a railway at pace across Crimea - enabling not only the evacuation of troops to Florence Nightengale's hospital and efficient suppilies of ordnance and ammunition to the front line, Anthony Dawson's book "The Railway that helped win the Crimean War!" ISBN978 1 52677 555 9 is well worth a read.

 

[DelW]

He also played a key role in concert with Thomas Brassey and Edward Betts in building a railway at pace across Crimea - enabling not only the evacuation of troops to Florence Nightengale's hospital and efficient suppilies of ordnance and ammunition to the front line, Anthony Dawson's book "The Railway that helped win the Crimean War!" ISBN978 1 52677 555 9 is well worth a read.

Who is "he", since this thread is about Thomas Brassey?

Good to see a contractor's achievements marked, BTW, even if Victorian contractors probably had their shortcomings by 21st century standards. I bet he didn't provide multiple thousands of pages of documentation before building anything!

(The current New Civil Engineer reports that the Lower Thames Crossing development consent order documents run to about 360,000 pages).

 

[mwmbwls]

Who is "he", since this thread is about Thomas Brassey?

Good to see a contractor's achievements marked, BTW, even if Victorian contractors probably had their shortcomings by 21st century standards. I bet he didn't provide multiple thousands of pages of documentation before building anything!

(The current New Civil Engineer reports that the Lower Thames Crossing development consent order documents run to about 360,000 pages).

Apologies - the Engineeringv Team was assembled by Sir Samuel Morton Peto MP who also played a major part in financing the ptoject.

 

[rich.davies]

I mean, they could place it within the station itself somewhere. Not by the bins where it's probably going to get vandalised etc

 

[D6130]

I mean, they could place it within the station itself somewhere. Not by the bins where it's probably going to get vandalised etc

I think it would be better outside the station where it will be more prominent and could be admired and appreciated by non-rail travellers.

 

[BrasseyFan]

Worthy recognition for a great man