Patrick Stirling (29 June 1820 – 11 November 1895) was a Scottish railway engineer, and

Locomotive Superintendent Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

of the Great Northern Railway of England. His father

Robert Stirling Robert Stirling (25 October 1790 – 6 June 1878) was a Scottish clergyman and engineer. He invented the Stirling engine and was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2014. Early life Robert Stirling was born at Fatal Fiel ...

was also an engineer. His brother James Stirling was also a locomotive engineer. His son Matthew Stirling was CME of the

Hull and Barnsley Railway Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in a ...

. Another son, Patrick Stirling played for

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

and was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

Career

Patrick Stirling was

of the Glasgow and South Western Railway from 1853 to 1866. He came in 1866 to the GNR, where he constructed several locomotive types. He was succeeded by

Henry Ivatt Henry Alfred Ivatt (16 September 1851, Wentworth, Cambridgeshire – 25 October 1923) was an English railway engineer, and was the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Northern Railway from 1896 to 1911. Career London and North Western ...

Stirling single

Stirling's most famous construction was the

4-2-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. Other equivalent class ...

steam locomotive Stirling single called "eight-footer" because of the 8 ft 1 in diameter

driving wheel On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled ...

. That engine type set speed records during the race to the north with average train speed between engine changing of more than 60 mph in 1895.

References

External links

* http://www.steamindex.com/people/stirling.htm * http://www.lner.info/eng/stirling.shtml {{DEFAULTSORT:Stirling, Patrick 1820 births 1895 deaths Locomotive builders and designers Scottish railway mechanical engineers Great Northern Railway (Great Britain) people Glasgow and South Western Railway people