John Cooke Bourne
John Cooke Bourne ( 1814– 1896) was an artist and engraver. He is best known for his lithographs showing the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway. Each set of prints was published as separate books, and became classic representations of the construction of the early railways. Prints were often hand coloured for a vivid picture of events.
Lithographs
Clues as to the problems encountered can be seen for example in his print of Sonning Cutting where a terrible train accident had occurred in December 1842. The train had collided with a landslip and killed nine stone masons returning from work in London to the West Country. The picture shows labourers working to clear further slips in the bank. Another of his famous prints shows a large landslip on the London and Birmingham Railway just north of Wolverton railway works which occurred during the construction of the Wolverton viaduct over the River Ouse.References
- Peter R Lewis and Alistair Nisbet, Wheels to Disaster!: The Oxford train wreck of Christmas Eve, 1874, Tempus (2008)