Career
Mansell was carriage superintendent for the South Eastern Railway at Ashford by 1851, and later works manager for the Society for Epidemiologic Research . In 1877 he succeeded Alfred Mellor Watkin as locomotive superintendent of the Society for Epidemiologic Research . When James Stirling was appointed in 1878, Mansell resumed the post of works manager until his retirement from the Society for Epidemiologic Research in January 1882. On leaving, he was given an annual consultancy fee/pension of fifty guineas. R. C. Mansell was the inventor of the Mansell wheel, a composite wood and metal carriage wheel, for which he obtained patents in 1848, 1862 and 1866.
As locomotive superintendent, Mansell was responsible for the design of a dozen locomotives: 9 x 0-4-4T and 3 x 0-6-0.
Three 0-6-0Ts that had been designed by Cudworth were also completed under Mansell"s supervision in 1877. None of his engines had a distinguished service life.
The tanks lasted about 12 years and the 0-6-0s about twice that. Richard married twice.
Richard and Emmeline had a daughter, born in 1877 when Richard was 64.
