If he had not done so, someone else would have. The things that Brunel designed that were novel were not successful, the things he designed that were successfu

If he had not done so, someone else would have. The things that Brunel designed that were novel were not successful, the things he designed that were successful were not novel. It's a good idea to note that a lot of the railways he designed were designed as very different than what they would eventually become, having had all the distinctiveness he brought to the projects removed in order for them to become commercially viable. In the end, none of his successes elevates him above any of the hundreds of other engineers working at the same time as he did. What separates him from the rest were his glorious failures.