Locke, Joseph (1805-1860)

English railway engineer, an associate of railway pioneers Isambard Kingdom Brunel and George and Robert Stephenson. He built many railway lines in the UK and France.

Lock was born near Sheffield, Yorkshire, and left school at 13. In 1823 he went to work for George Stephenson, and learned much about surveying, railway engineering, and construction. From 1847 he was Liberal member of Parliament for Honiton, Devon.

Locke's first task undertaken alone was the construction of a railway line from the Black Fell colliery to the River Tyne. He then began surveys for lines running between Leeds and Hull, Manchester and Bolton, and Canterbury and Whitstable. Locke built as straight as possible, used the terrain, and avoided the expense of tunnels whenever he could. Building the London to Southampton line, which opened 1840, he cut through the chalk Downs. He also built the Sheffield-to-Manchester route through the millstone grit of the Pennines. In 1841 he began work as chief engineer on the Paris-to-Rouen line, the first of several contracts in France.