Locomotive Encyclopaedia

Benjamin Cubitt, the GNR's first Locomotive Engineer, was the son of William Cubitt, Chief Civil Engineer and consultant to the GNR. Having already worked on the Joint Locomotive Comittee of the Brighton, Croydon and Dover Railways, and for a two locomotive manufacturers, when he was appointed Locomotive Engineer in 1846 he already had a wealth of experience with regards to locomotive designs.

While at the GNR, Cubitt ordered almost a hundred locomotives for use on the line, but he died within two years on 12th January, 1848.

Born in Salford in 1794, Edward Bury was educated in Chester, and quickly found himself interested in machinery and construction. In 1823, he founded the engine manufacturer, Edward Bury and Co, and by 1830, he became a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

After a time as Locomotive Superintendent at the London and Birmingham Railway, and working on improving steamboat engines on the Rhone, Bury was looking for a new challenge. He became Locomotive Engineer on the new Great Northern Railway in February 1848 and created such a good impression that in June 1849 he was also appointed General Manager of the line. However, after a (possibly malicious) accusation that he had placed a small order for ironwork with a firm with which he was associated, he resigned from the G.N.R. in March 1850.

Bury resigned from the Institute of Civil Engineers on his retirement in 1857, and he died on 25th November 1858 in Scarborough.

Edited from Wikipedia

Archibald Sturrock (30 September 1816 – 1 January 1909) was a Scottish mechanical engineer who was born at Petruchie, Angus, Scotland. He was locomotive superintendent of the Great Northern Railway from 1850 until c. 1866, having from 1840 been Daniel Gooch's assistant on the Great Western Railway.

Archibald Sturrock is often remembered for his unsuccessful experiment with steam tenders. However, his principal achievement was the opening of the Great Northern main line and the establishment of GNR’s reputation for a reliable and comfortable passenger service from London to York and beyond.

During his 16 years with the GNR, Sturrock designed over a dozen classes of both passenger and goods locomotives to meet the needs of the fast-growing railway, where the transport of coal and other minerals was as important to the profitability of the line as passenger traffic. Sturrock was accountable for around 40% of expenditure and he continually battled with the chairman and board to persuade them to purchase locomotives, wagons and carriages in time to meet the growing demands of the line. In 1850 when Sturrock joined the GNR, there were 340 employees in the Locomotive Department and the locomotive mileage was 609,092. When he retired in 1866, the employees numbered 3,834 and the mileage was 4,873,113.

Mr. Sturrock had previously gained upwards of ten years' experience in the Great Western Works at Swindon under 'Sir. Daniel Gooch, and there can be no doubt that the excellent training thus acquired fitted Mr. Sturrock in a most eminent degree to undertake the duties of his new appointment on a railway to which the qualities of speed and power in its locomotive stock were absolutely necessary for a continued and prosperous existence. From the start the new locomotive engineer kept two main ideas strongly to the front in providing engine-power for the railway, those two ideas being the vital influence of the firebox in determining the capability of an engine, and the need of a high boiler pressure to develop the full capacities of the machine.

Edited from Bird’s Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway, and Wikipedia

STURROCK’S successor on the line was Patrick Stirling, at that time forty-six years of age. Stirling was born at Kilmarnock in 1820, and at the age of seventeen began a five years’ apprenticeship at the Dundee Foundry. After serving his full period, he remained at the same works for a year as journeyman. In 1843 he left Dundee to enter into employment at the Vulcan Foundry, Warrington. After a short stay there he obtained the post of foreman at the works of Messrs. Neilson & Co., of Glasgow, where he undoubtedly received much valuable experience which stood him in good stead in later years.

In 1851 he became Locomotive Superintendent of the Bowling and Balloch Railway—a small concern perhaps, but another stepping-stone in his career. His next move was something in the nature of a divergence, for he left the railway to work for the shipbuilding firm of Laurance Hill, Port Glasgow before being employed as foreman to Messrs. R. & W. Hawthorn, returning to the world of railways.

After eighteen months’ employment with the Newcastle firm, in 1853 he once more took over the duties of a Locomotive Superintendent, this time on no less important a line than the Glasgow and South Western Railway and now he was able to show a direct contradiction to the usual application of the proverb about a “rolling stone.” He had, in fact, gathered sufficient ‘moss’ in the shape of a varied experience and sound judgment to occupy his new position with honour until 1866, when the vacancy on the G.N.R. was offered to him. He transferred his services from the Glasgow and South-Western, on which he had controlled the locomotive department for thirteen years, to the English line. As successor to Sturrock he held this, his last appointment, for almost twenty-nine years.

He died on November 11th, 1895, while he was virtually still in harness aged 76 years.

From Bird's Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway.

On the death of Mr. Patrick Stirling at the close of the year 1895, Mr. H. A. Ivatt was appointed locomotive engineer of the Great Northern Railway. At the time of accepting this new and distinctly honourable post of succeeding so distinguished a locomotive superintendent as Mr. Stirling, Mr. Ivatt held the same position on the G. S. and W. Railway of Ireland, and the new chief of the G. N. loco, department brought with him from across the Irish Sea a  reservedly high reputation which has certainly suffered in no degree from his change of scene. As some time had necessarily to elapse, however, before he was able completely to relinquish his former duties to take up the newer, it was not until the close of 1896 that any engine exclusively of his design made its appearance on the Great Northern metals. In the interval a certain number of engines were, indeed, placed upon the line, but they were practically built to Mr. Stirling's standard patterns.

From Bird's Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway.

Notable Dates

• Born 16 Sep 1851
• Started out in Railways when 17 in 1868 for John Ramsbottom at the LNWR
• Went on to work at the Great Southern & Western Railway in Ireland in 1877 becoming their loco engineer in 1882
• Employed by GNR to replace Stirling after his death in Nov 1894 – start date not completely certain but Mar 1895 is generally accepted timeline.
• Retired from GNR on 2nd Dec 1911 and Nigel Gresley took his place with job title of Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME)
• Ivatt was famous for his introduction to the UK of the Atlantic C1-class locomotives and also the Walschaerts Valve Gear.
• He died on 25th October 1923.

Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941) was a British railway engineer. He was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). He was the designer of some of the most famous steam locomotives in Britain, including the LNER Class A1 and LNER Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific engines. An A1 Pacific, Flying Scotsman, was the first steam locomotive officially recorded over 100 mph in passenger service, and an A4, number 4468 Mallard, still holds the record for being the fastest steam locomotive in the world (126 mph).

Gresley's engines were considered elegant, both aesthetically and mechanically. His invention of a three-cylinder design with only two sets of Walschaerts valve gear, the Gresley conjugated valve gear, produced smooth running and power at lower cost than would have been achieved with a more conventional three sets of Walschaerts gear.

Edited from Wikipedia