Biography

Clarke is a retired professional engineer who was born in Hoyland Common, Yorkshire into a coalmining family and attended Ecclesfield Grammar School, Sheffield and Sowerby Bridge Grammar School. He graduated in Instrument and Control Engineering at City University, London, England. He was editor of the University newspaper and alumni magazine in 1961. He was employed with various engineering companies in the UK, working on instrumentation design for the Folland Gnat, and BAC Concorde, and flow metering for a Russian chemical plant. His work on the theoretical aspects of oscillating piston water meters led to British patent applications. He came to Canada in 1966, initially working on the design of the KANUPP reactor at CGE, Peterborough. His responsibilities included design of special safety systems, radiation and environmental monitoring, and the ergonomics of control room design. The last 27 years of his career were spent with Ontario Hydro. He set up the early environmental protection programs for Ontario Hydro nuclear plants, and on periodic attachment with the IAEA in Vienna wrote documentation providing guidance on nuclear environment programs in developing countries; Canadian Representative; IAEA, Vienna, Austria; 1979-1981. He then moved to Pickering Generating Station A where he was Shift Supervisor, Operating Superintendent, Production Superintendent and latterly Chief Engineer and Engineering Services Manager. In the latter period he was responsible for the engineering team which drove the recovery from the Unit 2 Loss of Coolant Accident. He participated in a Canadian/IAEA/INPO advisory mission to the PAEC in 1994. He retired in 1998. He is a life-long aviation enthusiast and spent the years 1998 to 2006 working on the restoration of the Handley Page Halifax MkVIIA at RCAF Museum Trenton. He was responsible for the restoration of the autopilot, wing leading edges supports, cockpit pilot's chassis, and the design and construction of the new nose section. His major publications were a series of definitive articles on the history and experience of restoration of the Halifax aircraft in international Magazines such as Aeroplane Monthly (UK), Flypast (UK), and Flugzeug (Germany)
Clarke has long been appreciative of the achievements of Victorian engineers, and has a particular interest in the engineering and modelling of narrow gauge railways of the period 1860 to 1900. Based on an introduction to the subject in Canada by Omer Lavallée (former Chief Archivist of the CPR) and finding that there was virtually no technical information on the subject, he set out on 20 years of research on the narrow gauge railways of Ontario. The result is a major publication on the subject, "Narrow Gauge Through the Bush", which has been recognised as "One of the best books on the North American narrow-gauge to be published in recent years." by the Ffestiniog Railway Magazine; "A stunning achievement.....The research and the documentation are impressive." by the historian of the Toronto Railway Heritage Group; and "a 'tour de force' of railway engineering history.....a 'must' for all interested in Canadian Civil Engineering history" in a review in The Canadian Civil Engineer

His studies of the life of civil engineer, Edmund Wragge

Edmund Wragge

Edmund Wragge CE was a British-born and trained engineer who constructed the first common-carrier narrow gauge railways in North America...

, winner of the Telford Gold Medal for his work on the approaches to Marylebone of the Great Central Railway, led to Clarke being asked by the Institution of Civil Engineers to contribute Wragge's entry in The Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers, Vol II :11

Clarke is a member of the Halifax Aircraft Association, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society, and the Gauge O Guild.

External links

• Charles Cooper's Railway Pages; "Narrow Gauge Through the Bush" http://www.railwaypages.com/index.php?t=2&id=33
• "Narrow Gauge Railway Photos by Rod Clarke"; http://www.narrow-gauge.co.uk/gallery/user.php?user_id=1092
• "Historic Railway Book Author in Lindsay"; Lindsay Post, February 4, 2008; http://www.thepost.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=883092
• 'Narrow Gauge Through the Bush' R Milland Pages