John Palmer Scott Main
John Palmer Scott Main (1870-1935)
1935 Obituary [1]
JOHN PALMER SCOTT MAIN, O.B.E., had been connected with the Board of Trade Railway Inspection Department, which later became the Ministry of Transport, for thirty-four years.
He was born in 1870 and served a five years' apprenticeship, commencing in 1887, in the locomotive works of the Glasgow and South Western Railway.
He then joined the Cunard Company and went to sea as third engineer until 1894, when he joined the locomotive running department of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and became a locomotive inspector.
In 1898 he was appointed outdoor locomotive, carriage, and wagon superintendent to the West Australian Government Railways, and took charge of the operation of locomotives on 1,400 miles of line.
He returned to England in 1901, on his appointment with the Board of Trade. He was one of the first two assistant inspecting officers of railways to be appointed under the Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act of 1900.
In 1918 he became assistant to the chief inspecting officer of railways. He served as secretary of the Railway Employment Safety Appliances Committee from its inception in 1906, and as a member of the Committee from 1925.
During the War he served as secretary of the Traffic Diversion Committee (East to West Coast) appointed by the Board of Trade. He was a member of the executive committee of the National Safety First Association. In 1932 he was awarded the O.B.E.
Mr. Main was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1900 and was transferred to Membership in 1902.
His death occurred at Horsham on 14th July 1935.