Louis Adolf Gölsdorf (16 February 1837 – 28 November 1911) was an Austrian engineer and locomotive designer. He was the father of Karl Gölsdorf. Louis Adolf Gölsdorf was born in Plaue, Austria, on 16 February 1837 and educated in Chemnitz and Dresden in neighbouring Germany at various technical schools before taking up technical work for the Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company. In 1860 he became a mechanical engineer with the Lokomotivfabrik der StEG in Vienna, but moved in 1861 to the Austrian Southern Railway, the Südbahn, where he soon took on a leading role in the locomotive design office. From 1885 to 1908 he was the chief mechanical engineer (Maschinendirektor) of the Southern Railway (Südbahn).