1841 - was apprenticed as a machinery fitter with Miller and Ravenhill, shipbuilders at Orchard Wharf, Blackwall, London. 1846 - joined the firm of Charles Blacker Vignoles (1793–1875) as a draughtsman and, two years later, Philip Taylor, shipbuilder, in Marseilles and Genoa, working as a marine engineer there and in ships of the Royal Sardinian Navy. 1854 - Adams planned the North London Railway's Bow Locomotive and Carriage Works, becoming locomotive and carriage superintendent. 1873 - appointed superintendent to the Great Eastern Railway. 1878 - superintendent of the London and South Western Railway. 1895 - retired due to ill health.