Ivatt, Henry Alfred

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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b. 16 September 1851 Cambridgeshire, England

d. 25 October 1923 Haywards Heath, Sussex, England

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English locomotive engineer, noted for the introduction of 4–4–2-type locomotives to Britain.

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H.A.Ivatt initially joined the London \& North Western Railway as an apprentice at Crewe Works, and in 1877 moved to the Great Southern \& Western Railway in Ireland, eventually succeeding J.A.F. Aspinall as Locomotive Engineer at its works in Inchicore, Dublin. In 1896 he moved back to England to become Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway. Weights of express trains were increasing rapidly there, and in 1898 Ivatt introduced his "Atlantic", or 4–4–2 type, the first locomotive of this wheel arrangement in Britain, which had originated in the USA only three years earlier. It was not until 1902, however, that he took full advantage of its potential, when he introduced an Atlantic with a wide firebox and a larger boiler. Both types were successful and even more so when superheated and fitted with piston valves some years later. The first locomotive of each type to be built is now preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.

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Further Reading

E.L.Ahrons, 1927, The British Steam Railway Locomotive 1825–1925, The Locomotive Publishing Co.

C.Hamilton Ellis, 1959, British Railway History, Vol. II: 1877–1947, London: George Allen \& Unwin, pp. 195 and 268–9.

See also: Bulleid, Oliver Vaughan Snell; Gresley, Sir Herbert Nigel

PJGR