Everard Richard Calthrop

Birth registration: Bourn Jan-Mar 1857 7a 297

Marriage registration: Rugby Oct-Dec 1890 6d 987

Death registration: Paddington Jan-Mar 1927 1a 131

Everard Richard Calthrop

• Born 3 March 1857
• Deeping St Nicholas, UK
• Died 30 March 1927 (aged 70)
• London, UK
• Occupation Railway engineer

Known for Developing the Barsi Light Railway in India and the Leek and Manifold Light Railway in England.

British railway engineer and inventor. Calthrop was a notable promoter and builder of narrow-gauge railways, especially of 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge, and was especially prominent in India. His most notable achievement was the Barsi Light Railway; however he is best known in his home country for the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway. Later in life he took an interest in aviation, patenting some early designs for parachutes.

Born on 3 March 1857, the eldest son of farmer Everard Calthrop at Deeping Fen, Lincolnshire. He had six brothers, one of whom was Sir Guy Calthrop, general manager of the London & North Western Railway.

Calthrop started work with Robert Stephenson & Co and was apprenticed to the London & North Western Railway at Crewe in 1874. In 1879 he joined the Great Western Railway, where he rose to assistant manager of the Carriage and Wagon Works. In 1882 he went to India to join the Great Indian Peninsula Railway as a locomotive inspector.

In India, Calthrop came to see narrow-gauge railways as a way to help develop the country. He chaired a Government committee to investigate light railways throughout India. He published a pamphlet entitled A System of Standard Details as applied to the Construction of Rolling Stock in India. As a result the Indian Government adopted systems of uniformity of gauge and equipment throughout the country, and eventually adopted 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge as the standard narrow gauge throughout the country.

Reference and further reading -

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everard_Calthrop
• https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Everard_Richard_Calthrop