Alfred Ernest Hudd
Alfred Ernest Hudd (c1883-1958)
1958 Obituary [1]
IT is with regret that we have to record the death of Mr. Alfred Ernest Hudd at the age of seventy-five years on Friday, January 31.
Probably outside railway engineering circles there were but few engineers to whom the name of Hudd meant anything until the day before his death, when the railway collision occurred at Dagenham on a section of line fitted with the system of automatic train control he introduced just before the war. Even then the system was possibly better known as the London, Tilbury and Southend system, for he retired in 1940.
Mr. Hudd began his career as a pupil at the Harwich works of the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and later became interested in electric traction. After being concerned closely with the electrification of the Liverpool and Southport line, Mr. Hudd set up as a consulting engineer and signal specialist. In this capacity he served as a consultant to railway companies in America and Australia.
In 1933 Mr. Hudd became consultant engineer to the signal department of the former London Midland and Scottish Railway Company. After working on the development and improvement of signalling on the Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness line of the company, during the course of which he developed his automatic train control system, Mr. Hudd retired from business in 1940.