Francis Webb Sheilds

Francis Webb Wentworth-Sheilds (born Sheilds; 8 October 1820 – 18 January 1906) was an Anglo-Irish civil engineer on the Sydney Railway Company during its construction but before its opening.

In Great Britain and Ireland, Sheilds worked on a number of railway projects, including the then Dublin and Kingstown Railway. He considered himself to be a born railway engineer.

City Surveyor
Sheilds was the Sydney City Surveyor in 1843 for a few years where he worked on water works. He resigned in 1849, in order to take up a post with the Sydney Railway Company.

Sydney Railway Company engineer
Sheilds is mainly remembered because he persuaded the company to adopt the rail gauge, rather than the English standard gauge of. Sheilds had worked on railways in Ireland, which had adopted as its own standard gauge. His proposal was backed by the British Board of Trade, and agreed to by all Australian colonies.

Sheilds resigned in 1850 when his pay was cut due to the company's financial difficulties. His replacement, Scotsman James Wallace, recommended that the track gauge be changed to the, and the New South Wales government concurred. However, the construction of broad gauge lines had already started in Victoria and South Australia, and the necessary rolling stock had been ordered. The two colonies strongly protested about the change and declined to follow suit.

Sheilds's recommendation, and its overturning by New South Wales, is the origin of the huge problems caused by breaks of gauge between and  rail tracks in Australia. To add to the predicament, most other Australian colonies, including parts of South Australia, later adopted the cheaper narrow gauge of. Tasmania's first railway was constructed with a gauge, as per the original agreement, but it was converted to  in 1888.