"Tony Polson" wrote

How does this evidence of practical incompetence support your
assertion that he was "a brilliant railway manager"?

He set himself six principles by which he considered his railway should be
judged - safety, speed, punctuality, convenience, comfort, and economy. He
inspired people to achieve these principles, perhaps especially when he was
District Superintendent, Stratford, and, aided by the Shenfield
electrification, improved his bit of the Great Eastern measured against all
these principles, and again, when he was GM of the Western and brought it
back from being a slow, unpunctual and uneconomic railway to one which was
much faster and more punctual, and which generatyed a better return. He
failed when he interfered in other people's jobs, even if his luck meant
that he often got away with things he shouldn't have done.

Peter