Patrick Stirling
Encyclopedia
Patrick Stirling was Locomotive Superintendent 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....

.

His father Robert Stirling
Robert Stirling
The Reverend Dr Robert Stirling was a Scottish clergyman, and inventor of the stirling engine.- Biography :Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of eight children...

 was also an engineer. His brother James Stirling
James Stirling (1835-1917)
James Stirling was a Scottish mechanical engineer. He was Locomotive Superintendent of the Glasgow and South Western Railway and later the South Eastern Railway.-Biography:...

 was also a locomotive engineer. His son Matthew Stirling
Matthew Stirling (railway engineer)
Matthew Stirling was Locomotive Superintendent of the Hull & Barnsley Railway . He retired in 1922 when the H&BR was taken over by the North Eastern Railway .- Biography :* Matthew Stirling was born in Kilmarnock on 27 November 1856....

 was CME
Chief Mechanical Engineer
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 locomotives and rolling stock...

 of the Hull and Barnsley Railway
Hull and Barnsley Railway
The Hull Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company was opened on 20 July 1885. It had a total projected length of 66 miles but never reached Barnsley, stopping a few miles short at Stairfoot. The name was changed to The Hull and Barnsley Railway in 1905...

.

He was succeeded by Henry Ivatt
Henry Ivatt
Henry Alfred Ivatt was the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Northern Railway from 1896 to 1911.- Biography :...

.

Stirling came 1866 to the GNR, where he constructed several locomotive types.

Stirling's most famous construction was the 4-2-2
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....

 steam locomotive Stirling single
GNR Stirling 4-2-2
The Great Northern Railway No. 1 class Stirling Single is a class of steam locomotive designed for express passenger work. Designed by Patrick Stirling, they are characterised by a single pair of large driving wheels which led to the nickname "eight-footer"...

 called "eight-footer" because of the 8 ft diameter driving wheel. That engine type set speed records during the race to the north
Race to the North
The Race to the North is the name given to two summers in the late 19th century when British passenger trains belonging to different companies would literally race each other from London to Scotland over the two principal rail trunk routes connecting the English capital city to Scotland - the West...

with average train speed between engine changing of more than 60 mph in 1895.

External links

  • http://www.steamindex.com/people/stirling.htm
  • http://www.lner.info/eng/stirling.shtml
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK