Walter Mackersie Smith (1842–1906) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

engineer who made an important contribution to the development of the

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

. His middle name has sometimes been mis-spelt Mackenzie. He was born at

Ferry-Port on Craig Tayport, also known as Ferry-Port on Craig, is a town and burgh, and parish, in the county of Fife, Scotland, acting as a commuter town for Dundee. The motto of the Burgh is ''Te oportet alte ferri'' ("It is incumbent on you to carry yourself ...

(now Tayport),

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

Personal life

He married Margaret Black and they had eight children. One of his sons, Samuel Walter Johnson Smith, became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

. W. M. Smith died in 1906 while still working for the North Eastern Railway.

Work

He was apprenticed to an engineering company in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, worked for

Neilson and Company Neilson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Glasgow, Scotland. The company was started in 1836 at McAlpine Street by Walter Neilson and James Mitchell to manufacture marine and stationary engines. In 1837 the firm moved to Hyde Park ...

for a short time and then joined the

Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 4 July 1838. It was opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow Queen Street railway station (sometimes referred to at first as Dundas Street) and ...

Samuel Waite Johnson Samuel Waite Johnson (14 October 1831 – 14 January 1912) was an English railway engineer, and was Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Midland Railway from 1873 to 1903. He was born in Bramley, Yorkshire and educated at Leeds Grammar ...

was locomotive superintendent of the E&G at the time and the two became lifelong friends. Johnson moved to the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

in 1866 and Smith moved with him. In 1874, Smith became locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent for the Imperial Government Railways of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He returned to Britain in 1883 and joined the North Eastern Railway where he eventually became chief draughtsman. Smith's main contributions to locomotive design concerned the use of

piston valve A "piston valve" is a device used to control the motion of a fluid along a tube or pipe by means of the linear motion of a piston within a chamber or cylinder. Examples of piston valves are: * The valves used in many brass instruments * The va ...

s and

compounding In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of a custom formulation of a medication to fit a unique need of a patient that cannot be met with commercially available products. This may be done for me ...

. The North Eastern Railway was already using the two-cylinder Worsdell- von Borries compound system. Smith improved on this by developing a three-cylinder compound system with one high-pressure cylinder inside and two low-pressure cylinders outside. This was tried out on the NER Class 3CC locomotive.

Locomotives

The North Eastern Railway built only a small number of Smith's compound locomotives but the system had greater success on the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

under

, Smith's old friend. Production of the

Midland Railway 1000 Class Midland Railway 1000 Class is a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotive designed for passenger work. They were known to reach speeds of up to 85 mph (137 km/h). Overview These were developed from a series of five locomotives (2631–2635) introduced i ...

began in 1902 and ran to 45 locomotives. The design was perpetuated in the

LMS Compound 4-4-0 The London, Midland and Scottish Railway Compound 4-4-0 was a class of steam locomotive designed for passenger work. Overview One hundred and ninety five engines were built by the LMS, adding to the 45 Midland Railway 1000 Class, to which ...

from 1924 and production ran to 195 locomotives. A summary of British compound locomotives based on Smith's system is given here: * NER Class 3CC * NER Class 4CC (4-cylinder) * Great Central Railway classes 8D and 8E *

References

External links

LNER Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Walter Mackersie 1842 births 1906 deaths People from Tayport Scottish engineers 19th-century Scottish people People educated at the High School of Dundee

Personal life

Work

Locomotives

References

Further reading

External links