Conrad Clemmans Skeates
Conrad Clemmans Skeates (c1880-1934)
1934 Obituary [1]
CONRAD CLEMMANS SKEATES was District Electrical Engineer to the Great Eastern section of the London and North Eastern Railway. He was a native of Redland, Bristol, and received his technical education at the Merchant Venturers' Technical College (University of Bristol) from 1897 to 1900.
He served a three years' apprenticeship, commencing in 1897, with Messrs. Mendham and Company, engineers, of Bristol, and after a year's further practical experience at Tunbridge Wells Corporation electrical generating station he was appointed engineer in charge of the generating station of the Great Eastern Railway in London.
In 1905 he became assistant power engineer to the company, and was responsible for the erection and maintenance of driving machinery for the workshops, sawmills, and printing works. He was promoted to be power engineer in 1907, and designed several wharfside travelling cranes and the artesian well pumping plant and storage tank at Liverpool Street. He carried out the power distribution scheme over the suburban area on an extra high-tension three-phase system.
In 1916 he was appointed district electrical engineer, and continued to hold this position in the Great Eastern section after the railway grouping in 1923. He introduced electrically operated goods-handling machinery and installed power plants for the operation of junction points and signals. He was also responsible for the construction of one of the largest goods warehouses in London, having ten overhead travelling cranes and seven trolley hoists, and for the design and erection of several pumping plants and storage tanks for locomotive feed water. Recently he installed flood lighting in various railway yards, and was responsible for the cranage equipment for the new wharf at Bow Creek.
Mr. Skeates was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1911 and was transferred to Membership in 1924. He was also a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
His death occurred on 22nd November 1934, in his fifty-fifth year.