Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 3, 2009

Everard Richard Calthrop (1857–1927) was a British railway engineer and inventor. Calthrop was a promoter and builder of narrow gauge railways, especially of gauge, and was especially prominent in India. His most notable achievement was the Barsi Light Railway which opened in 1897; however he is best known in his home country for the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway in Staffordshire, which operated from 1904 to 1934. Later in life Calthorp took an interest in aviation, patenting some early designs for parachutes.