Samuel Betts
Samuel Betts (1841-1924)
1924 Obituary [1]
SAMUEL BETTS was born at Hever, in Kent, in 1841.
He was apprenticed to Messrs. Peto, Brassey and Betts during the construction of the Victoria Docks in 1855-1860.
In the latter year he was employed at the Canada Works, Birkenhead, subsequently being sent by the firm to Russia, where he was in charge of locomotives during the construction of the Dunaburg-Witebsk Railway.
In 1866 he established works in Witebsk for repairing railway rolling-stock, and three years later he became consulting engineer and locomotive superintendent to Messrs. Everingham, Rutherford and Taylor during the construction of the Moscow-Smolensk Railway.
In 1870-71 he acted in a similar capacity on the Konstantinofka Railway, and in the following two years on the Riga-Bolderaa Railway.
Towards the close of 1873 he was appointed mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent during the construction of the Oxelosund-Flen-Westmanlands Railway, Sweden, and on the completion of the work he remained as locomotive superintendent of the railway, additional lines being subsequently added to his responsibility.
From this position he retired in 1910. He was much interested in the light traffic question, and designed and constructed several steam-cars which ran for several years in Sweden.
His death took place at Danderyd, Sweden, on 16th April 1924, at the age of eighty-two.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1893.