William Alfred Webb

At the age of 12, Webb began as a messenger boy on the Colorado Midland Railway. He rose from traffic clerk to telegraphist, studied shorthand at night school and became stenographer to the general manager. Appointed secretary to the president of the Colorado and Southern Railway in 1900, Webb was assistant to its vice-president by 1911. He became general manager of the Texas Central Railroad and in 1914 general manager, operations, of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad. When the United States entered the World War he was called by the United States Railroad Administration to Washington. His wide experience in the private enterprise American railroads had given him a practical grounding in every aspect of rail management.[3][4][5] Webb resigned from the United States Railroad Administration in 1920 to become Vice President and General Manager of the St Louis Southwest system until May 1921. This was then followed by a brief period in 1922 as the elected President of the Cambria and Indiana Railroad, which he left due to tensions with the new owner of the railroad.

Webb was one of dozens of candidates who responded to an international call by the South Australian government for a Commissioner to manage its South Australian Railways in 1922. By this time the railways had decayed to the point of imminent total collapse.[6] In 1922, when he started his controversial appointment in Adelaide, Webb considered that by applying business operating principles he would be able to get the South Australian Railways on a footing where they would give a minimum return of 6 per cent on the investment. He did not, however, reckon on the impacts of the Great Depression and the growth of ownership of motor cars; nor was he at the time fully aware of what a millstone were the hundreds of miles of developmental lines with their unpredictable seasonal agricultural traffic. [7]

Webb concentrated on reducing gross ton miles and augmented net ton miles by increasing full carload lots. He introduced large freight cars and locomotives, heavy track, stronger bridges and efficient practices. His most important changes to working methods occurred in 1924–26: the train control organization[8] was introduced in 1924, high-capacity bogie freight cars[9] in 1925, and large-power locomotives[10][11][12] in 1926. Webb's dramatic railway rehabilitation left few aspects untouched by forced technological change and innovation.[3] He rehabilitated the South Australian Railways so well that for twenty-five years they were a paragon among Australian railways.[7]

On returning to Dallas, Webb, now very well off financially, served as a member of the city council and did a lot of work for charities. In 1935 he became purchasing agent, then general manager leading preparations for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. He worked up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week in the job, and his health deteriorated badly.

He died of an intracranial haemorrhage on 9 August 1936, two months after the exposition opened. He had been approached to become manager of the projected 1939 World's Fair, New York. His death was widely mourned in Dallas and he received a state funeral.[3][17]

• National Library of Australia. Biographical cuttings on William Alfred Webb, public servant, brought to S.A. by Barwell Government in 1922, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals. Early 20C to 2000. NLA
• Jennings, R. I. (Reece Ian) (1973), W.A. Webb, South Australian Railways Commissioner, 1922-1930 : a political, economic and social biography (2nd ed.), Nesfield Press, ISBN 978-0-9599230-0-1
• Jennings, Reece in the Australian Dictionary of Biography [ADB]. "Webb, William Alfred (1878–1936)".