Children Geoffrey Freeman Allen Died February 5, 1973 | Role Journalist Name Cecil Allen | |
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Books British Pacific locomotives, The North Eastern Railway Employer Great Eastern Railway, London and North Eastern Railway | ||
Crewe locomotive works in 1952. Film 46037
Cecil J. Allen (1886– 5 February 1973) was a British railway engineer and technical journalist and writer.
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Work
Qualified as a civil engineer, Allen worked for the Great Eastern Railway and later the London & North Eastern Railway, becoming an authority on steel rails. He inspected new rails for quality.
He also was the second contributor to the long-running British locomotive practice and performance article series in The Railway Magazine from 1909 to 1958, and then went on to write for Trains Illustrated (now Modern Railways), which at the time was edited by his son, Geoffrey Freeman Allen.
He was a committed Christian and an accomplished organist, writing a chorus "The Lord has need of me". He was offered a place on the train when Mallard broke the world speed record in 1938, but declined the offer as the run was scheduled for a Sunday morning and clashed with his regular church (Christian Brethren) attendance.
Bibliography
He wrote numerous books on locomotives, and railway company histories, as well as an autobiography "Two Million Miles of Train Travel":