Pontrhydyfen Viaduct, 1897

Figure 1, Pontrhydyfen Viaduct in 2015

For most of us with an interest in family history, we discover what our ancestors had been up to by trawling through dusty archives and libraries, or by spending many hours scouring computer databases.

In the case of my maternal Great Grandfather Alan Railton, this has been a really frustrating experience, because despite his being one of my most recent ancestors, who I have been researching, he has been one of the hardest to find.

Yet as a Civil Engineering contractor he holds a particular fascination for me because , I find myself following in his footsteps in my career as a contractor. In Alan Railton's case, it is not on paper that I have found this story, but in a huge brick & stone structures.

Pontrhydyfen Viaduct, which I was fortunate enough to visit recently is one of the finest of these records.

Figure 2, Pontrhydyfen Viaduct under construction in 1897. [1]

Alan was born on the 31st August 1864, in Manchester. He was the son of Joseph Arthur Railton, (1830-1902) and his second wife Miss Davies. Joseph was a successful Manchester merchant (of what I do not know) who was able to retire early, become a Justice of the Peace and the Chairman of the Union Bank of Manchester. His second wife is believed to have been the daughter of a brick maker or factor originally from the Isle of Man, which might account for his grandsons involvement in construction.

Figure 3, Pontrhydyfen Viaduct constructed in 1897

Alan started his career in Civil Engineering with the newly established Lancashire County Council bridges department, however by 1888, he was working on the staff of the Manchester Ship Canal Company in the Chief Engineers Office.  He produced many of the detailed drawings for the works on the canal under the direction of Sir E Leader Williams and Mr. W. H. Hunter. At that time the Ship Canal was one of the very largest projects in the World, linking Manchester to the sea, with the aim of bypassing Liverpool that had been exercising a stranglehold on Manchester's trade to the Empire and America.

The main contractor on the Ship Canal was Thomas Walker, an extremely able and experienced contractor with a track record that went back the great days of the 1850's Railway Mania.  He had worked in Canada and Russia, and was instrumental in rescuing the unfinished and disastrously flooded Severn Tunnel, as well as building many other projects.  Walker took great pains to look after his workforce, building camps for them, which at the time were greatly better than those of other contractors. He also applied the latest in technology to his work. At Manchester he amassed a great many of new steam excavators, that had only been used to up to that date to any great extent in the United States.  He also assembled about 171 locomotives and 14,000 men. Unfortunately on the 25th of November 1889 Thomas Walker died, leaving the work unfinished. [2]

Walker who had been born in 1828 had planned for the continuing of the work in the event of his death, and the Ship Canal Company made arranged to take over the plant and men.  

Alan's career progressed along with the construction of the canal, and as he gained experience.  Starting in the design office, he progressed to become Chief Resident Engineer on the Irlam Division of the Canal.  In 1894 he was appointed Resident Engineer in place of Mr. Congreve, continuing in the post until 1897 when the construction of the Canal was substantially complete. Alan is believed to have overseen the construction of the Barton Swing Bridges while Resident Engineer.

Figure 4: Barton Swing Bridges Under Construction [3]

The plant that had been used on the canal now became available for sale, and a new company was formed, Messrs Topham, Jones and Railton, who were able to rapidly acquire a great deal of the machinery, and to start to win major contracts on several ports and railways.

The member of the Railton who seems to have been instrumental in founding Topham Jones and Railton, was not Alan Railton, who appears to have been more of an engineer,  and to have been a more retiring person, but to have been James Railton (1863-c.1944).

James was the son of another James Railton from Malpas in Monmouthshire.  I do not know exactly how he was related to Alan, or if he was a cousin or close relative of Alan Railton.  I would be fascinated to learn more, if you happen to know the answer.

James Railton had joined the staff of T.A. Walker in 1882, and had worked on Penarth and Barry Docks as well as the Severn Tunnel.  In 1890 he became a partner in J.J. Bithell, for whom he went out to Argentina where he built 200 kilometres of the Great Southern Railway in about two years.
  

Like Alan Railton, W.H. Topham had worked on the Canal acting as Works Superintendent and labour supplier to Thomas Walker.  After Walker's death, when the contract was taken in-house by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, he had supplied direct labour from 1889 to the company.  He took over the direction of the labour on the Ship Canal after the death of Thomas Walker.

Topham's business W. H. Topham & Co. had the telegraphic address, "Canal", and a London Office at 2.Great George Street, Westminster by 1893.

The other partner was Sir Evan D. Jones, (1859-1949) who came from Fishguard, and who had previously worked on the Severn Tunnel. [4]

In 1892 Topham Jones and Railton Limited was formed and rapidly began to made its mark bidding for, and winning railways projects.  By September 1894 they had become one of seven successful contractors winning sections of the Great Central Railway winning the Aylestone to Rugby section, 15 miles and 69 chains long. [5]

Figure 5: Pontrhydyfen Viaduct showing the timber centring, and the brick hoist, in the centre.

Figure 6: The original tender winning submitted by Topham, Jones & Railton for Pontrhydyfen Viaduct

Figure 7: In additional to the viaduct several other bridges were included in the tender

Figure 8: The bill of quantities showing costs to construct elements to build the viaduct broken by items. 

[1] Photo copied from "Port Talbot Railway & Docks Company and the South Wales Mineral Railway Company, Volume 1: 1853-1907, by Robin G. Simmonds, published by Lightmoor Press in 2012, to whom I am indebted for much of the research here.  The photo comes originally from the West Glamorgan Archive Service.

[2] See http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Thomas_Andrew_Walker for more on this extraordinarily able but largely unknown man.
[3] http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/aimages/T1672.jpg
[4] See http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s2-JONE-DAV-1859.html more about Sir Evan Jones.
[5] From Alan Railton's training record and application for Membership to the Institution of Civil Engineers.

[6] http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=1103
[6] LTC Rolt, The Making of a Railway, published 1971, London page 15.
[7]  RAIL 574/7