Worsdell, Nathaniel

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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b. 10 October 1809 London, England

d. 24 July 1886 Birkenhead, England

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English coachbuilder and inventor.

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Worsdell \& Son, Coachbuilders, was set up in Liverpool by Thomas Clarke Worsdell and his son Nathaniel in 1827. They were introduced to George Stephenson and built the tender for Rocket. More importantly, they designed and built for the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway coaches of a type comprising three coach bodies, of contemporary road-coach pattern, mounted together on a rail-wagon underframe. This became the prototype for the conventional, compartment railway coach. Nathaniel Worsdell subsequently became Carriage Superintendent of the Grand Junction Railway and patented the first mail-bag-exchange apparatus early in 1838. The terms he required for its use by the Post Office were too steep, however, and the first bagexchange apparatus of the type subsequently used extensively on British railways was designed later the same year by John Ramsey, a senior Post Office clerk.

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Further Reading

J.Marshall, 1978, A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles (the article on Worsdell is derived from family records).

C.Hamilton Ellis, 1958, Twenty Locomotive Men, Shepperton: Ian Allan.

P.J.G.Ransom, 1990, The Victorian Railway and How It Evolved, London: Heinemann.

PJGR