William Moorsom Captain William Scarth Moorsom ( 1804 – 1863 ) was an English soldier and engineer . He was born in Whitby to a military family , being the son of an admiral , and trained at the Royal Military College , Sandhurst , becoming a captain in the 52nd regiment . After assisting Robert Stephenson he created railway lines in England , Belgium , Germany and Ceylon . Overview . Moorsom was the youngest of the four sons of Admiral Sir Robert Moorsom , who had served at the Trafalgar , and his wife Eleanor . He entered the Royal Military College in 1819 , and became especially adept in fortification and military surveying . In 1823 he joined the 79th Highlanders Regiment , then stationed in Ireland . During his stay there , he made a survey of Dublin and its neighbourhood . This remained in use until superseded by the Ordnance Survey publication . In 1825 he served in the Mediterranean at the rank of lieutenant of the 7th . Fusileers . In 1826 he transferred to the 69th Regiment , and then to the 52nd Light Infantry in Nova Scotia . During this time he served as deputy quartermaster - general . He produced a survey of the harbour and environs of Halifax , along with reports on transport feasibility to all parts of the province , and published a monograph " Letters From Nova Scotia ; comprising Sketches of a Young Country " in 1830 . Although he was highly regarded he was unable to purchase a suitable promotion so returned to England and bought out his commission in 1832 . He had met his wife , Isabella Ann Morris , daughter of Lewis Wilkins , judge and head of the supreme court in Nova Scotia . They lived with his father at Cosgrove Priory , near Stony Stratford , until his death in April 1835 . With his experience of military surveying Moorsom assisted in the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway construction of which had begun in 1833 and of which his eldest brother , Constantine Richard Moorsom was Secretary to the Board . Moorsom ' s survey of the valley of the Ouse , which allowed for the line to be straightened , and a large amount of embankment dispensed with , attracted the attention Robert Stephenson He then spent two years studying new railway lines all over the country and in 1836 was approached to undertake a survey of the country between Birmingham and Gloucester for the purposes of building a railway Lickey Incline . The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had found Brunel ' s proposals out of its financial reach . His brief in 1836 was to build the line as cheaply as possible , which he did by following open country , avoiding populated areas where land prices would be higher . Arriving at the Lickey Hills there was no option but to climb them , using cable assistance if necessary . Moorsom ' s preference was for locomotives , from experience gained observing mineral railways in the north . The general opinion at that time was that adhesion working was not possible on such an incline and the directors of the company , set out to buy stationary engines for cable working . They found the cost prohibitive so , with the backing of the Deputy Chairman , Mr . Samuel Baker , Moorsom was allowed to continue with what at the time was a considerable gamble . The resulting Lickey Incline has entered railway folklore . Since no English manufacturer would , or could , supply him , he ordered 4 - 2 - 0 locomotives from Norris of Philadelphia in the United States . The loco they supplied had four foot drivers , cylinder bore of 101 inches and 18 inch stroke , weighing less than 10 tons . Moorsom was also awarded the Telford Medal for his method of using iron caissons filled with concrete and masonry to form the foundations of a three - arch viaduct across the river Avon , near Tewkesbury . In passing , one of his assistants was Herbert Spencer , the philosopher , regarded as the founder of social science . F . R . Conder was critical of Moorsom ' s management style and engineering abilities in his " Personal Recollections of English Engineers " ( 1868 ) Spencer was less recriminatory in his " Autobiography " ( 1904 ) describing Moorsom as a kind man , although he felt that he had treated some subordinates meanly . Chrimes suggests that his problems may have been " " due to the financial pressures of bringing up a large family , combined with working for companies which had limited financial resources . " " The period of 1844 – 45 proved to be especially busy with new lines from Birmingham to Wolverhampton , Shrewsbury , Newton , and Chester , ; the Yarmouth Junction , from Diss and Beccles , the Irish Great Western , from Naas , by Tullamore , to Galway , the Metropolitan Counties Junction , from Gravesend , by Reigate , Dorking , Weybridge , Staines , Rickmansworth , St . Albans , Chelmsford , and Billericay to Tilbury , the London , Hammersmith , Staines , and Windsor , 25 miles , and several smaller lines . The Southampton and Dorchester Railway in 1847 was especially notable as " Castleman ' Corkscrew " due to the inststence of its promoters that it should serve as many of the local communities as possible . At this time , Moorsom , surveyed the line from Exeter and Plymouth to Falmouth , the West Cornwall Railway , from Truro to Penzance In 1845 he was in Ireland working on the Waterford and Kilkenny Railway Of note was a timber viaduct over the River Nore , 85 feet in height and of 200 feet span , at the time the largest of its type in the British Isles . In 1850 he won the Prussian government ' s engineering prize for his design for a bridge across the Rhine at Cologne on the line from Prussia ' s Rhine Province to Antwerp in Belgium for the " Königlich Preußische und Großherzoglich Hessische Staatseisenbahn " ( K . P . u . G . H . St . E . ) . However the design was not used . For the next four years there was a general retraction of the industry and in 1852 he became involved with the Britannia and Baltimore Mining Company to prospect for and mine gold in the United Kingdom . Although an amount of gold was produced it was not enough for the company to be viable . During this period he had been appointed engineer to the Cromford and High Peak Railway which was in deep financial difficulty . In 1857 the Stockport , Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway was opened , with a proposal to link with the Cromford line . Plans were laid to capitalise on this by substantially improving the line . However the necessary funds were not forthcoming and there was oppostition from other railway companies . The CH & HPR and Moorsom parted company in about 1856 . Over the years he had gained the reputation of taking on too many schemes : a weakness in which he was not alone , but some of his surveys were found to be wanting . He was frequently replaced by other engineers , and he found it difficult to obtain work . In 1856 he was asked to survey the railway from Kandy to Colombo Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) Under pressure to complete the work before the rainy season , he began early in January and presented his report in May , and part of the work proved to be faulty . In 1860 , his wife Isabella died and , in 1862 he was Engineer the Ringwood , Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway He had been elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers , on 24 March 1835 , and was transferred to the class of Members on the 20th of February , 1849 . Among a number of papers that he read was , in 1852 , " Description of the viaduct erected over the river Nore , near Thomastown . " He became a Member of the Society of Arts on the 31st of January , 1843 . He occupied his retirement by writing a history of his regiment and died of cancer , after a long and painful illness , at his home , 17A Great George Street , Westminster , on 3 June 1863 , aged 61 , and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery .