James Stirling (1835–1917) was a Scottish mechanical engineer. He was

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

Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railways ...

and later the South Eastern Railway. Stirling was born on 2 October 1835, a son of

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 ...

, rector of

Galston, East Ayrshire Galston ( Lowland Scots: ''Gauston'', Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile nan Gall'') is a municipality in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which has a population of 5,001 (2001) and is at the heart of the civil parish of the same name. It is situated in wooded co ...

Career

Glasgow and South Western Railway

After working for a village millwright he joined the

(GSWR) where he was apprenticed to his brother Patrick, who had been

of that railway since 1853. On completion of his apprenticeship, he spent a year as a fitter at

Sharp Stewart Sharp, Stewart and Company was a steam locomotive manufacturer, initially located in Manchester, England. The company was formed in 1843 upon the demise of Sharp, Roberts & Co.. It moved to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1888, eventually amalgamatin ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, before returning to the GSWR drawing office at

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

; he later became works manager. On 1 March 1866, his brother Patrick left the GSWR for the Great Northern Railway (GNR), where he became Works Manager at

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 ...

, and James was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the GSWR in his place. Patrick became the Locomotive Superintendent of the GNR from 1 October 1866),

South Eastern Railway

At the end of June 1878 he left the GSWR for the South Eastern Railway. He retired in 1898 and died in

Ashford, Kent Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the southern or scarp edge of the North Downs, about southeast of central London and northwest of Folkestone by road. In the 2011 census, it had a populati ...

in 1917.

Locomotives

Like his brother, James Stirling favoured the domeless boiler, known as the "straightback" and cabs for the enginemen. Although not the first British locomotive engineer to use the

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four ...

type, he was the first to produce a 4-4-0 which could be regarded as successful, with his G&SWR 6 Class of 1873. Stirling also invented a

steam reverser On a steam locomotive, the reversing gear is used to control the direction of travel of the locomotive. It also adjusts the Cutoff (steam engine), cutoff of the steam locomotive. Reversing lever This is the most common form of reverser. It consist ...

, using it on most of his designs from 1874. On the South Eastern Railway, Stirling designed just six classes of locomotive in his twenty years – three of these were of the

type for express passenger work, each more capable than the last; his other three classes were an

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrang ...

for goods, an

0-4-4T Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles. This type was only used ...

for suburban passenger, and an

T for shunting. At his retirement at the end of 1898, the SER had 459 engines, of which 384 were to Stirling's design, and seven others had been purchased to outside design; ten more to Stirling's design would be built in 1899.

Notes

References