John Haswell
John Haswell (1812-1897), Locomotive Superintendent of the Austrian State Railway. [1]
1812 March 20th. Born in Lancefield, near Glasgow.
Married Sophia Lane (b.7 March 1821 in Stockport, Cheshire, d. 6 September 1910 in Traunkirchen, Austria)[2]
Described as 'One of the most influential of the early continental European designers. Worked at Fairbairn's works in Manchester. Appointed by the Vienna-Raab Railway in 1840 to manage its new workshops.[3]. Albert Gieseler gives Haswell's starting date on the Vienna-Raaber Bahn as 1837.[4]. He also states that in 1840 the workshop of the "Maschinenfabrik der Wien-Raaber Eisenbahn" under the direction of John Haswell, consisting of the machine factory, the boiler works, foundry and two mills. In 1855 the works was renamed as the "Maschinenfabrik der k.k. priv. Staatseisenbahn-Gesellschaft", and John Haswell retired as head of the business in 1882.
1897 June 8th. Died in Vienna.
1897 Obituary [5]
...one of the first railways laid down in Austria, on the completion of the work he was persuaded by the then chairman of the company to remain permanently in Vienna.
In 1837 he had to lay down the plans and machinery for locomotive repairing works for the then Vienna Gloggnitzer Railway.
On the completion of the works he was asked to remain as chief manager. He very soon began to manufacture engines, and it was here that some of the first, if not the first locomotives were built on the Continent. We believe that a locomotive...[More].
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1876/01/07
- ↑ [1] Grave in Döbling Cemetery - John Haswell Wikipedia entry
- ↑ 'Locomotive Designers in the Age of Steam' by J. N. Westwood, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1977
- ↑ [2] Albert Gieseler's website 'Kraft- und Dampfmaschinen': Maschinenfabrik der Wien-Gloggnitzer Eisenbahn
- ↑ The Engineer 1897/07/09, pp.31-2
![[1]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/D%C3%B6blinger_Friedhof_-_John_Haswell.JPG){kind=link}