London and North Western Railway In 1872 he began an
apprenticeship under
Francis William Webb at the
London and North Western Railway's
Crewe works. In 1878 Hoy transferred to the drawing office, where he designed continuous brakes.
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway In 1884 Hoy moved to the L&YR, becoming an outdoor assistant in the locomotive department under
Barton Wright in
Manchester; he was promoted to works manager a year later. In 1886 Hoy was made works manager at the L&YR's new works at
Horwich. He worked principally on electrical engineering. When
John Aspinall was appointed General Manager in 1899, Hoy became
Chief Mechanical Engineer. His principal contribution was the design of an
electrification system for the
Liverpool to Southport line, including motor bogies.
Locomotive designs :
See: Locomotives of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Hoy's only locomotive design was a twenty-strong
class of troublesome
2-6-2Ts, built 1903–04, which became
LMS nos. 11700–11716. He conducted various other experiments. One of these was the use of a new
brass alloy for making
firebox stays. Its composition was 62% parts copper, 38% parts zinc and 0.37% of iron. This alloy was a failure. Despite being claimed to be more elastic, it suffered problems in service. In the worst of these, a fatal
boiler explosion with a
Class 30 0-8-0 near
Knottingley in 1901 was caused by the failure of a number of firebox rod stays made from this alloy. These locomotives were an
Aspinall design, but had been constructed during Hoy's tenure. On investigation it was found that the alloy was brittle enough to have cracked, even within the thickness of the copper plates of the firebox. Previously the boiler had given trouble with leaks from its stays, probably from early cracking, and where the heads of the stay had been hammered to caulk this, this had caused the heads of the stays to crack. The size of the firebox waterspace was also criticised, although this was due to Aspinall's standard boilers, rather than Hoy's construction. A waterspace of only was narrow, but not unique for contemporary practice. The L&Y did though make it a policy to provide a waterspace of 4 inches after this, even at the cost of a reduction in grate area. The furnace was also of steel, rather than the
copper used for fireboxes at this time.
Beyer Peacock In 1904 Hoy resigned from the L&YR to become general manager of
Beyer, Peacock and Company in
Manchester. He was replaced by
George Hughes. There he reorganised the works, but died on 24 May 1910. ==Patents==