Edward Cecil Poultney

Edward Cecil Poultney (1879-1966), Railway engineer and author

1879 August 28th. Born at Ulveston the son of Edward W. Poultney

1901 Locomotive engineer of Hill Top, Ulverston, Lancashire.

1907 April 10th. Married at Blackburn to Edith Alice Forrest

1911 Living at 138 Granfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham: Edward Cecil Poultney (age 31 born Ulveston), Inspecting Engineer. With his wife Edith Alice Poultney (age 30 born Port Elizabeth, South Africa - British by parentage) and their daughter Edith Nancy Poultney (age 2 born Harborne). Two servants.

1965 Listed at Ruislip / Hillingdon area.

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1966 Obituary

"IT is with sincere regret that we have to record the death on October 19 of Mr. E. C. Poultney at the age of eighty-seven years. There can be but few readers of THE ENGINEER to whom his name is not familiar for Mr. Poultney was for over fifty years a regular contributor on the subject of steam locomotives. Mr. Poultney received his initial training in Vickers shipyard at Barrow and later became a pupil of Mr. W. F. Pettigrew, the engineer of the Furness Railway. After having served a period as a draughtsman in the office of the railway he joined Rendel, Palmer and Tritton as an inspecting officer in the Midlands area. In 1914 he became managing director of a steel foundry company and in 1915 left this country for the United States, where he was concerned with the production and purchasing of locomotive and machine tools for the Ministry of Munitions. He later became an assistant director of production and purchasing in the United States and for his services in this connection Mr. Poultney received the M .B. E. in 1917 and the O.B.E. two years later. In 1919 he joined the American Car and Foundry Co and worked for a year in both the United States and India for that company.

Throughout his career Mr. Poultney was keenly interested in locomotive valves and valve gear and was closely concerned with the design and development of locomotive poppet valve gear. From his earliest days he was an enthusiastic technical writer on the subject of locomotives, indeed his first article on the subject of Furness locomotives was published in the Railway Magazine as long ago as 1903. From 1921 onwards he was a regular contributor to the technical Press and authoritative articles by him on steam locomotives were published in practically every technical journal in this country. In addition to his other works he presented four papers to the Institute of Locomotive Engineers: "Locomotive Performance and its Influence on Modern Practice" (1927) ; "Poppet Valve Gears as Applied to Locomotives" (1930); "Notes on the Railways in the Union of South Africa" (1935) ; and "Locomotive Power" (1943). He was also author of two books, "Steam Locomotives" which was published in 1951 and "British Express Locomotive Development, 1896- 1948", published in 1952."

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