| Martin Atock served as locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the Waterford & Limerick Railway from 1861 until 1872 and of the Midland Great Western Railway for the next 28 years up until 1900. Eminent author on Irish railway matters, Ernie Shepherd, discovered that Martin Atock had served part of his apprenticeship at the Stratford works of the Eastern Counties Railway, where his father George was in charge of carriages and wagons for 29 years on both that company and its successor, the Great Eastern Railway, and where his brothers Frederick and George had also worked. Ernie then decided to follow up the trail. Little did he know that he would trace four generations and 13 members of the family involved in railways spanning a period of nearly 130 years, not only in Britain and Ireland, but also in Australia, Burma, Ceylon, Cuba, Egypt, Malaya, New Zealand, Sudan and Venezuela – truly a great, worldwide, railway dynasty! Some further members of the family led exciting lives apart from the railway scene and are also worthy of mention. The period covered by this book includes the two World Wars in which a number of family members were to play their part. A significant moment in the family's history was when Frederick moved to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in Newton Heath, Manchester in 1876, members of the family were to hold positions within the L&Y, and its successor the LMS, for almost 60 years. When the diesel era dawned Martin Oldacres Attock was at the heart of it, working in the design department for English Electric on main line locomotives, railcars and the ubiquitous 350 hp diesel shunter for British and overseas railways. There had been Atock rocket experiments in Australia in the 1930s and the family can still be found at the cutting edge of technology having been involved with the European Space Agency on the Rosetta spacecraft. This book draws together the extraordinary story of a long, varied and continuing engineering dynasty. Contents:
- Forewords
- Introduction
- 1 – Origins of the Family
- 2 – The Family moves to East Anglia
- 3 – A Decade at Limerick
- 4 – Martin Atock moves to Dublin
- 5 – Twenty Years of MGWR Locomotive Development
- 6 – Carriages, Wagons and Retirement
- 7 – Another Generation of Railwaymen
- 8 – Far East and Latin American Exploits
- 9 – The Australian Branch of the Family
- 10 – Frederick Attock moves to Manchester
- 11 – Tragedy and Change
- 12 – The Family Rift is Healed
- 13 – A Tale of Two Brothers
- 14 – A Career with English Electric
- 15 – Dieselisation at Home and Abroad
- Epilogue
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Continent: Europe
Country: UK |
