Douglas Earle Marsh was the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway

London, Brighton and South Coast Railway

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...

 from November 1904 until his early retirement on health grounds in July 1911.

Early career

Marsh was born at Aylsham

Aylsham

Aylsham is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Bure in north Norfolk, England, about north of Norwich. The river rises near Melton Constable, upstream from Aylsham and continues to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea, although it was only made navigable after 1779, allowing grain,...

 in Norfolk on 4 January 1862, and was educated at Brighton College

Brighton College

Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...

 and University College London

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

. He worked for the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 under William Dean becoming Assistant Works Manager at Swindon

Swindon

Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...

 in 1888. In 1896 he became Chief Assistant Mechanical Engineer of the Great Northern Railway

Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)

The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....

 at Doncaster railway works under H.A. Ivatt, where he participated in the design of the Ivatt Atlantics.

LB&SCR

Marsh succeeded R.J. Billinton as the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent at Brighton Works on 23 November 1904. Marsh's locomotive classes included two designs of Atlantic 4-4-2 (H1 Class

LB&SCR H1 class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway H1 class was a class of 4-4-2 steam locomotives for express passenger work. They were designed by D. E. Marsh and were built by Messrs Kitson & Co...

 and H2 Class

LB&SCR H2 class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway H2 class was a class of 4-4-2 steam locomotives for express passenger work. They were designed when D. E. Marsh was officially Locomotive Superintendent, and were built at Brighton Works in 1911 and 1912...

), and four designs of 4-4-2

4-4-2 (locomotive)

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

T (I1

LB&SCR I1 class

The LB&SCR I1 class was a class of 4-4-2 steam tank locomotives designed by D. E. Marsh for suburban passenger service on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.-History:...

, I2

LB&SCR I2 class

The LB&SCR I2 class was a class of 4-4-2 steam tank locomotives designed by D. E. Marsh for suburban passenger service on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway...

, I3

LB&SCR I3 class

The LB&SCR I3 class was a class of 4-4-2 steam tank locomotives designed by D. E. Marsh for suburban passenger service on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.-History:...

, and I4

LB&SCR I2 class

The LB&SCR I2 class was a class of 4-4-2 steam tank locomotives designed by D. E. Marsh for suburban passenger service on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway...

. In 1910 he designed two 4-6-2T tank locomotives of the J1 and J2 classes

LB&SCR J1 class

The LB&SCR J1 and J2 classes were 4-6-2 steam tank locomotives designed by D. E. Marsh for express passenger services on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.-History:...

. His least successful design was the LB&SCR C3 class

LB&SCR C3 class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway C3 class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives, intended for heavy freight trains. Ten were built by Brighton railway works in 1906 to the design of Douglas Earle Marsh.-History:...

 0-6-0

0-6-0

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

 freight locomotives.
Marsh also rebuilt many of his predecessors' locomotives with larger boilers thereby creating the A1X

LB&SCR A1 Class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway A1 Class is an English class of 0-6-0T steam locomotive. Designed by William Stroudley, 50 members of the class were built in 1872 and between 1874 and 1880, all at Brighton Works. The class have received several nicknames, initially being known as...

, B2X

LB&SCR B2 class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway B2 class was a class of small 4-4-0 steam locomotives intended for express passenger work on the LB&SCR London to Portsmouth line. They were designed by R. J. Billinton and built at Brighton works from 1895 to 1897...

, C2X

LB&SCR C2 Class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway C2 class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives, intended for heavy freight trains. Fifty-five were built by the Vulcan Foundry between 1893 and 1902 to the design of Robert J. Billinton.-History:...

, E4X

LB&SCR E4 Class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E4 Class is a class of 0-6-2Tside tank steam locomotive designed by Robert Billinton. They were introduced in 1897 and were essentially a larger version of the E3 Class...

, E5X

LB&SCR E5 class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E5 Class is a class of 0-6-2Tside tank steam locomotive designed by Robert Billinton. They were introduced in 1902 and were a larger version of the E4 Class intended for semi-fast secondary passenger work....

 and E6X

LB&SCR E6 class

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E6 Class is a class of 0-6-2Tside tank steam locomotive designed by Robert Billinton. They were introduced in 1904 and were a development of the E5 class with smaller driving wheels intended for heavy short and medium-distance freight...

 classes. In 1907 he introduced an example of the Schmidt superheater

Wilhelm Schmidt (engineer)

Wilhelm Schmidt, known as Hot Steam Schmidt was a German engineer and inventor who achieved the breakthrough in the development of superheated steam technology for steam engines....

 on one of his LB&SCR I3 class

LB&SCR I3 class

The LB&SCR I3 class was a class of 4-4-2 steam tank locomotives designed by D. E. Marsh for suburban passenger service on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.-History:...

 locomotives, with dramatically improved results. Whilst at Brighton he abolished the Stroudley

William Stroudley

William Stroudley was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers of the nineteenth century, working principally for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway...

 yellow livery for passenger locomotives and removed the names from them.

During Marsh's period in office Brighton railway works

Brighton railway works

Brighton railway works was one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works, founded in 1840 by the London and Brighton Railway in Brighton, England, and thus pre-dating the more famous railway works at Crewe, Doncaster and Swindon...

 built up a serious backlog of locomotives awaiting repair, and by 1910 30% of the locomotive stock was unusable. Marsh received a lot of the blame for this situation although it was partly because the works was overwhelmed with work.

Resignation and retirement

Marsh was never popular with the workforce at Brighton, and he resigned on the grounds of ill health in July 1911, following accusations of a number of irregularities in his accounting. Shortly after his resignation he became a consulting engineer for the Rio Tinto Company

Rio Tinto Group

The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...

 until 1932. He died in Bath in May 1933.

Sources

• D.L. Bradley, Locomotives of the LB&SCR, Parts II. and III. Railway Correspondence and Travel Society
  Railway Correspondence and Travel Society
  The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society is a national society founded in Cheltenham, UK in 1928 to bring together those interested in rail transport and locomotives....
  
  , 1972.

, 1978.

• Klaus Marx, Douglas Earle Marsh: his life and times. Oakwood Press, 2005.