William Bridges Adams

For the theatre director, see William Bridges-Adams.

William Bridges Adams
Born1797
Woore, Shropshire, England
Died23 July 1872
Cuthbert House, Broadstairs, Kent, England
Occupationrailway engineering
Known forAdams axle and railway fishplate inventions
Steam railmotor Enfield built at the Fairfield Locomotive Works in 1849. Used on the Enfield branch of the ECR, but also employed on occasions as a locomotive on the main line – note the raised buffers for use with other rolling stock.

William Bridges Adams (1797 – 23 July 1872) was an English locomotive engineer, and writer. He is best known for his patented Adams axle – a successful radial axle design in use on railways in Britain until the end of steam traction in 1968 – and the railway fishplate. His writings, including English Pleasure Carriages (1837) and Roads and Rails (1862) covered all forms of land transport. Later he became a noted writer on political reform, under the pen name Junius Redivivus (Junius reborn); a reference to a political letter writer of the previous century.