Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Railway engineer. Robert Greene was born in 1835, the son of the Rev. Robert B. Greene, rector of Killodiernan, Co.Tipperary. After being educated by the Rev. Mr Bullen at Nenagh, he went to Canada at the age of seventeen to be trained as an engineer by his cousin Frederick Rowan, Chief Engineer of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. He spent three years in Canada and then returned to Ireland to continue his training with Sir JOHN MACNEILL JOHN MACNEILL . Under Macneill he took part in the construction of the County Down Railway and the Dublin and Meath Railway. In 1858 he worked under Edward Wilson on various railway projects in England and, after Wilson's death, remained with the firm of Edward Wilson and Co. until 1878. In that year he was elected from among a hundred competitors to the position of Chief Engineer to the Midland Great Western Railway Company of Ireland and the Royal Canal. During the four years he held the post he was responsible for the re-laying of over 200 miles of line with steel rails, for the installation of new signal apparatus, for the remodelling of several stations, and for the construction of a new approach road to the Broadstone Station in Dublin. He also prepared plans for a new branch railway between Crossdoney and Killeshandra in Co. Cavan. On 25 October 1882, while he was on business in Sligo, Greene caught a severe cold which developed into a virulent form of typhoid. He died at his house at Highfield, Dublin, on 18 November 1882, aged only forty-seven.

ICEI: elected member, 5 Mar 1879.(1)
Inst. CE: elected member, 2 Apr 1878.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the memoir of Greene in Min. Proc. ICE 72 (1882-3), 308-9, and the obituary in IB 25, 15 Feb 1883, 64.

(1) TICEI 12 (1876-79), 133.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for GREENE, ROBERT ROWAN


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Building: CO. GALWAY, ATHENRY, RAILWAY STATION
Date: 1880ca
Nature: Remodelling of station for Midland Great Western Railway Co.
Refs: Min. Proc. ICE 72 (1882-83), 309

Building: CO. WESTMEATH, ATHLONE, GRACE ROAD, RAILWAY STATION (MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY)
Date: 1880ca
Nature: Remodelling of station for Midland Great Western Railway Co.
Refs: Min. Proc. ICE 72 (1882-83), 309

Building: CO. WESTMEATH, MULLINGAR, RAILWAY STATION (MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY)
Date: 1880ca
Nature: Remodelling of station for Midland Great Western Railway Co.
Refs: Min. Proc. ICE 72 (1882-83), 309

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, BROADSTONE, RAILWAY STATION (MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY TERMINUS)
Date: 1880ca
Nature: Remodelling of station and creation of new approach by removing aqueduct and filling up part of the Royal Canal Harbour. For Midland Great Western Railway Co.
Refs: Min. Proc. ICE 72 (1882-83), 309