Papers of Norman Charles Watney

Papers belonging to Norman Charles Watney. Watney was a member of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers (ILocoE) which amalgamated with IMechE. The collections contains both the working and personal papers of Watney, and contains a great deal of information about the North Western Railway in India where Watney spent most of his career. The items are arranged into career and personal sections.

Items include:

• Technical and railway photographs
• Personal photographs
• North Western Railway and Indian State Railway information and photographs
• Personal effects and papers, such as Watney's passport, driving license for India, railway ticket stubs

The collection also contains some items about cricket in India, of which Watney was a fan.

Full catalogue.

Watney was born in 1901 in Hendon, Middlesex. He attended the General Engineering College in Earls Court, London, before heading north to begin an apprenticeship with Beyer, Peacock and Co in Gorton, Manchester, in 1922. He spent three years there, and then went to work as a skilled fitter in the Kentish Town running shed, which was part of the London Midland and Scotland Railway. After a year at Kentish Town, Watney was appointed assistant locomotive superintendent on the Indian State Railways, and was posted to the North Western Railway. In 1929, he transferred to the mechanical workshops at Moghalpura as assistant works manager – eventually becoming production engineer and deputy chief mechanical engineer.

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By appointment - email us.

Opening times/location etc.

Compiled by Karyn French, Archivist, Mar 2018.