Talk:Thomas Brassey

GA Review
Thomas Brassey has been languishing for too long in GAN.

Please give me a day or two to get my thoughts together before I offer my review. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 21:45, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Having now looked through the article in some detail, I've only got a few small points really:


 * "Following the success of the early railways in Britain, the French wanted to build railways ..." seems to read a bit awkwardly to me. What about something like "the French were encouraged to develop a railway network"?
 * Agree. Done
 * "Stephenson went with Brassey to a quarry in Storeton, a village near Birkenhead. Following that meeting, Stephenson ..." seems to imply that the quarry meeting was the trigger for the suggestion to tender. Was it?
 * I have re-read Walker and he says that it was. Text revised.
 * "... assisting the surveyor of the road, a Mr. Penson". The a Mr. seems strange. Is the surveyors' name relevant?
 * The name is superfluous - deleted.
 * "The Harrison children had been taught to speak French, while Thomas himself was unable to do so. Therefore when the opportunity arose to apply for the French contracts, Maria encouraged Thomas to bid for them". This seems on the face of it to be a non sequitor?
 * A few words added. Does this resolve it?
 * "... with a Mr. Alexander and William Heap". The a Mr. thing again.
 * William Heap (who later founded an engineering business himself) may form the subject of a future article and it would be useful to keep his name available as a link. I do not know Mr. Alexander's first name.  Can you live with it as it is?
 * Is it worth including the phrase that the ODNB article uses about Brassey, that he died "one of the wealthiest of the self-made Victorians" do you think?
 * Done.

That's just about it. A really nice, well-researched and well-referenced article. I don't think it's worth putting it on hold waiting for these very minor points to be addressed, so I'm going to list this as a GA. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 18:30, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Reading through it again, an extra point has struck me. "Brassey was a major shareholder in the ship and after Brunel's death, he, together with Gooch and Barber, bought the ship and used it, the only ship large enough at the time, to lay the first Transatlantic telegraph cable across the North Atlantic in 1864". Leaving aside the awkward repetition of "ship", I'm still not certain what this is saying. What was Brasseys's involvement with the ship before Brunel died? Did Brassey play any kind of part in laying that first trans-Atlantic cable, or did he just hire out his ship? --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 02:00, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I have amended the text and hope it both reflects what the sources say and makes it clear to the reader. I also corrected the reference: I had the wrong page number!
 * Thanks for the advice and I hope this fully answers the comments. Peter I. Vardy (talk) 15:31, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * More than satisfies the comments. A very nice piece of work. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 16:57, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

B. built the Bergen line?
In the article is written: "Brassey built the Oslo to Bergen Railway of 56 miles (90 km)". The article Bergen Line says: "The first documented idea of building a railway between Norway's two largest cities was launched by Hans Gløersen on 24 August 1871". That is after Brassey's death! Clausthal (talk) 11:20, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * That's interesting. I took the information from Charles Walker's biography of Brassey and assumed it was reliable, but it cannot, as you say, be correct; I also suspect that the distance between the two cities is more than 90 km.  In List of structures built by Thomas Brassey (also based on Walker) it is called "Norwegian Railway" with a length of 90 km.  This leads me to think that it was the "Norwegian Trunk Railway" or Hoved Line.  This line is said to have been built by Robert Stephenson, but he was an engineer rather than a contractor, and it is quite possible that the line was surveyed and designed by Stephenson, while the actual building work was supervised by Brassey, as contractor.  The facts do not quite fit; the Hoved Line is 68 km rather than 90 km, and was opened in 1854 rather than 1851, but I think it is a likely possibility.  What do others think? Peter I. Vardy (talk) 21:31, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

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