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People & Personalities / Brunel

Tension and Teamwork: Brunel never gave

his contractors
Daniel Gooch and Brunel any credit. Instead,

Overshadowed by the showier Brunel, Gooch was one he treated them
of the period’s great engineers, who played a pivotal role
in fulfilling the more famous man’s visions with unequalled
severity
Daniel Gooch (1816–89) started as an the GWR’s board he was forced to resign
apprentice in Robert Stephenson’s in 1864. He was closely involved in the
locomotive works, Newcastle, where his Anglo-American Telegraph Company,
talent for engineering was developed. which laid the first Transatlantic cable “Gentlemen – just returned from Hanwell
In 1837 Brunel selected the 20-year-old using Brunel’s Great Eastern. He returned – observed that by far the largest propor-
as the GWR’s first locomotive superin- to the GWR as Chairman in 1865 (piloting tion of the bricks upon the ground and
tendent. Apart from a brief period, he the company through a period when it actually in use were of a quality quite
was to be associated with the company was close to bankruptcy) and remained inadmissible… I examined the bricks on
for the rest of his life. Brunel’s initial ideas so until his death in 1889. Monday last and gave particular orders to
on locomotive design were unusual, and your foreman Lawrence respecting which I
he set difficult standards for the GWR’s Gooch improved find he has neglected… I must request that
locomotive manufacturers to meet. It is upon Brunel’s he be immediately dismissed.”
not at all clear what he was thinking of, locomotive Brunel and his staff, having produced the
but the resulting engines were under- designs
powered and unreliable: Gooch, detailed designs for a railway line, would
responsible for running them, eventu- divide it into sections to be let as contracts.
ally had to make it clear where Contracts were advertised for tender, and
responsibility for their bad perfor- a master-set of drawings was made available
mance lay, causing considerable at Duke Street: contractors were invited to
tension between him and Brunel. take tracings. They visited the site, made
Allowed to design the GWR’s locomo- their own calculations, and entered a tender,
tives himself, Gooch produced a typically to build five or so miles of the line
superlative series of designs starting with with cuttings, embankments and bridges.
the Firefly class, taking advantage of Bru- The successful contractor would be
nel’s broad gauge to make them stable
as well as fast, setting standards for expected to put up a £5,000 bond as surety
speed and safety not bettered in his for completion.
lifetime. He planned and laid out
the GWR’s new locomotive Close to bankruptcy
works at Swindon, opened in Assembling the armies of men, and moving
1843, and managed the the vast quantities of earth, brick and stone
production of most of the needed to build a railway involved formi-
company’s locomotives, dable logistical problems – especially then,
rolling stock and rails. in a rural landscape and a largely pre-indus-
After disagreements with
trial society. Yet Brunel never seems to have
appreciated this, or given his contractors any
credit for their organisational skills. Instead,
ability in his staff: “(Bell) has been known to lazy, inattentive, apathetic vagabond and he treated them with unequalled severity. He
me for about ten years – I have a high respect if you continue to neglect my instructions became notorious for his insistence on
for his integrity and zeal in the service of his I shall send you about your business. exceptionally high standards of workman-
employers. He is a very well informed young I have frequently told you, amongst other ship, frequently rejecting materials, as seen
man in his profession and particularly also absurd, untidy habits, that of making above. He would refuse “coursed rubble”
in those branches requiring mathematical drawings on the backs of others is inconve- masonry of a quality which any other
knowledge which are too often neglected. nient. By your cursed neglect of that you engineer would have accepted, and insist
He has been engaged on docks works as well have wasted more of my time than your that it be replaced with finely-cut ashlar
as railway construction and if I had an whole life is worth.” (blocks of squared and finished stone)
opportunity I should employ him myself.” If Brunel was a tyrant to his staff, he was instead. One consequence was that as the
But where an assistant called SC Fripp at least capable of being a benevolent one. GWR proceeded, it became harder to find
was concerned, for some reason Brunel was Where the contractors who built his contractors to bid for his work.
unable to sack the man, and instead, fired railways were concerned, Brunel treated Another consequence was that his
off the following missive: “Fripp. Plain them with, at best, haughty distance. Here contractors got into difficulties. James
gentlemanly language seems to have no he is writing to Messrs Grissell & Peto, one and Thomas Bedborough became insolvent
effect on you. I must try stronger language of the most reputable firms of the age, during the construction of the Maidenhead GETTY
and stronger methods. You are a cursed, about the Wharncliffe Viaduct: Bridge and had to withdraw. Another

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