SEPTEMBER 15, 2009, marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel - the genius engineer responsible for building the Great Western Railway ... and much more.  A month later, on 12 October, it will be 150th anniversary of the death of another engineering genius, Robert Stephenson, who built the London and Birmingham Railway - the first main line railway to reach London - and much more, too. Special events are planned to mark these anniversaries.

Brunel died of a stroke on 15 September, 1859, leaving behind railway structures still in use by high-speed trains today - including his last great work, the bridge over the River Tamar between Devon and Cornwall, opened by Price Albert only five months before Brunel's death.

Stephenson, the only son of the celebrated locomotive engineer George Stephenson, was chief engineer of the London & Birmingham line - but also the designer of bridges such as the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick-upon-Tweed and the box-section tubular bridge at Conwy in North Wales. He died on 12 October 1859.

Back in April this year, Network Rail, whose engineers still use original Brunel drawings and plans, announced that one of his greatest engineering triumphs, the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, was to be given a major upgrading to mark the role the bridge has played on the Great Western Railway.

The design and construction of the two main spans of the bridge is unique and was considered an engineering feat of its time.

Brunel - who also designed ships - was appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, which linked London and Bristol, in 1833.

His impressive structures include viaducts at Hanwell and Chippenham, the Maidenhead bridge, Box Tunnel and Bristol Temple Meads station.

Meanwhile, arrangements are being made by the Welsh Institution of Civil Engineers to hold two lectures about the men, to be titled 'Great Bridge Building: Stephenson and Brunel.'

The first is at Kinmel Manor, Abergele, North Wales, on Thursday 17 September; the other at 6pm on Tuesday 22 September at Cardiff University in South Wales. Wales ICE is also finalizing plans to have two commemorative plaque unveilings to coincide with the talks - one, marking Stephenson, at Holyhead on 17 September and the other, marking Brunel's work, in Penarth, South Wales.

Tom Foulkes, director general of the ICE, said: "Brunel was, and still is, one of Britain's most notable engineers. His work was innovative and his visionary ambitions have shaped civil engineering as we know it today.

"He is most well remembered for the construction of the Great Western rail network, which is a complex system of tunnels, bridges and viaducts. This was a tremendous feat of civil engineering in its time and remains unsurpassed."

One of Stephenson's greatest contributions was the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits, linking the mainland of North Wales with the island of Anglesey.
Made up of two huge, rectangular, wrought iron tubes, it enabled the railway to reach Holyhead.

He also built the High Level Bridge at Newcastle and the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick. The Berwick History Society and Berwick Borough Council, supported by the ICE and the Railway Heritage Trust, are together leading the Stephenson 150 Project to commemorate the anniversary of the engineer's death.