Bennie, George (1891-1957), inventor, was born on 29 August
1891 in Auldhousefield, Harriet Street, Pollokshaws, near
Glasgow, the second of four children of John Bennie of John
Bennie Ltd, general and hydraulic engineers, and his second
wife, Elizabeth Gillespie. His father, who owned the Star
Engine Works in Calton, in Glasgow’s East End, had eight
children with his first wife, Elizabeth Fisher. George was
brought up at Auldhousefield, the family’s mansion. There
is no known record of his school education, and he may have
served an apprenticeship in the Star Engine Works before
the outbreak of the First World War. He joined the Army
Service Corps in October 1914 to serve as a ’shoesmith’
before becoming an air mechanic in the Royal Flying Corps
in 1916, and then an aero-engine fitter.
After the war Bennie lived with his mother in the family’s
home, Normanhurst, in Craigmore, near the holiday resort of
Rothesay on the island of Bute. He seems to have had a
comfortable private income which permitted him to work on
the development of a number of minor inventions. These
included a putter that he claimed would enable more
accuracy on the golf course. However, the greatest amount
of his energy was devoted to the design and promotion of
the ‘George Bennie railplane system of transport’, to
provide safe, rapid rail services for passengers, mail, and
perishable goods.
Bennie was granted his first airplane-related patents in
the early 1920s. He quickly gained publicity for his
scheme, which was publicized in 1923 as one of a number of
futuristic transport systems that might be built in
connection with the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley,
north London. The railplane was intended to solve one of
the great transport challenges of the day, achieving faster
means of travel without the expense of taking to the air.
It was claimed to offer the passenger ‘flight, with all the
dangers and uncertainties eliminated’ (Herald, 22 Nov
1921). Bennie described his invention in his booklet The
George Bennie Railplane System of Transport, published
about 1930.
Bennie’s railplane was a self-propelled passenger car
driven by propellers, fore and aft, along a single overhead
rail suspended from a series of simple steel gantries.
Since the gantries could be erected above existing railway
lines, the construction of a track would require the
acquisition of much less new land than a conventional
railway or roadway. The lightweight car was designed to
achieve speeds of 120-200 m.p.h., and its underside was
connected to a guide rail that prevented swaying. The
design of the car was heavily influenced by that of airship
gondolas. William Beardmore & Co. built a prototype for
Bennie at the Dalmuir works, where several airships
including the famous R34 were built.
The George Bennie Railplane Trust Ltd was formed in 1927 to
develop the system commercially, but the company was
apparently inactive and was dissolved in 1933. InterCounties Ltd was formed the following year, with Bennie as
one of the directors. In 1929 work began to erect a test
track, 130 metres long, above a siding to the London and
North East Railway line at Burnbrae, near Milngavie
station. The Bennie railplane test track was opened in July
1930 and guests were taken on short runs in the luxurious
surroundings of the well-appointed car. Hundreds of
visitors were said to have included David Lloyd George,
Ramsay MacDonald, and railway company directors from the
United Kingdom and many other countries.
Newspapers reported interest in building railplane lines
from Blackpool to Southport; from Manchester to Liverpool;
from London to Croydon airport; and in Palestine. Charles
Boot of Henry Boot (Construction) Ltd became involved with
Inter-Counties Ltd to promote a cross-London railplane
connection between Dagenham and Waltham Avenue, in
connection with a major slum clearance programme, as well
as a railplane-seaplane service connecting London, Paris,
and Brussels. However, the prospects of commercial
investment in new transport links were severely damaged by
the onset of the depression after 1929. The Minister of
Transport announced in 1931 that he would not make any
further investigation of the ‘Bennie system’, in which the
inventor had invested so much of his time and personal
fortune.
In 1936 Bennie ceased to be a director of Inter-Counties
Ltd and transferred his rights to the railplane patents to
the firm. He was adjudged bankrupt in February 1937 with
unsecured debts of £5,061 and contingent liabilities of
£22,231. He told the London bankruptcy court in June that
his embarrassment was due to delay in settling payment from
Inter-Counties Ltd for his patents, and that he expected to
have a substantial surplus over his liabilities.
Inter-Counties Ltd continued to develop the railplane
concept after Bennie’s departure, with no commercial
success. Bennie worked on alone, and was granted eight new
railplane-related patents during the 1940s. The town
planner Sir Patrick Abercrombie championed the cause of the
‘brilliant Scots inventor’ (The Times, 3 Dec 1952),
proposing the construction of a railplane system in
Plymouth and another to link Gatwick and Heathrow airports
with central London. Bennie himself put forward proposals
to build an overhead railway on the Isle of Wight and in
other places. None of the proposals was taken up. Bennie
died in a nursing home at Epsom, Surrey, on 19 November
1957, a year after the railplane test line at Milngavie was
sold for scrap.
Bennie was a keen golfer, and presented the Bennie trophy
for the annual Bute amateur open championship. He was also
an enthusiastic sailor, acquiring a 25 foot motor launch,
the Devonia. There were newspaper reports in 1935 that he
was interested in acquiring Feorlinn, a mansion in
Colintraive, for a hotel, but it is unclear if his plans
came to fruition. He was certainly interested in the
development of tourism on Bute, presenting a scheme for the
construction of a leisure centre in Rothesay, and
reportedly put up a prize for the fastest ferry crossing
from the mainland. He did not marry.
Iain F. Russell
Sources W. B. Black, The Bennie railplane (2004) + M.
Thwaite, The George Bennie railplane and Hugh Fraser
airrail systems of transport, privately printed (2004) + G.
Bennie, The George Bennie railplane system of transport
[n.d.] + The Herald [Glasgow] (22 Nov 1921), 9 + The Times
(24 Nov 1923); (19 Nov 1931), 7; (31 Aug 1933), 7; (10 Oct
1933); (11 Oct 1933), 9; (1 Sept 1936); (1 July 1937); (3
Dec 1952), 9; (21 Oct 1953), 4 + The Scotsman (28 Oct
1930); (19 June 1935) + Milngavie and Bearsden Herald (3
July 1937)
Archives U. Glas., Archives and Business Records Centre,
records of the railplane designed by George Bennie, GB 248,
DC 085 FILM Scottish Screen Archive, ‘The George Bennie
railplane system of transport’, 1930.