- Railton, Reid Anthony
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[br]b. 24 June 1895 Alderley Edge, Cheshire, Englandd. 1 September 1977 Berkeley, California, USA.[br]English designer of record-breaking automobiles and motor boats.[br]Railton was educated at Rugby School and Manchester University. From 1915 to 1917 he served an apprenticeship with Leyland Motors, after which he served in the Motor Boat Section of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). Having obtained his Royal Aeronautical Club (RAeC) pilot's certificate in 1918, he went to the United States to study factory layout. He was Assistant to the Chief Engineer of Leyland Motors from 1921 to 1923, when he became Managing Director of Arab Motors Limited of Letchworth, Hertfordshire.Railton was engineering consultant to Sir Malcolm Campbell, and was responsible for Campbell's Bluebird II boat which set a water speed record of 228.1 km/h (141.7 mph) in 1939. He was the designer of John R.Cobb's Napier Railton car which broke the speed record for automobiles on 16 September 1947 with an average speed of 634.3 km/h (394.2 mph); this record stood until 1964, when it was broken by Sir Malcolm Campbell's son Donald. Railton was also responsible for Cobb's boat, Crusader, which was the first to exceed 200 mph (322 km/h).Railton presented many papers to the Institution of Automobile Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers in the United States. In his later years, he lived in Berkeley, California.[br]Further Reading1971–80, Who Was Who, London: A. \& C.Black.IMcN
Biographical history of technology. - Taylor & Francis e-Librar. Lance Day and Ian McNeil. 2005.