Walter Chalmers followed his father into the North British Railway

North British Railway

The North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923.-History:...

, starting as an apprentice at Cowlairs railway works

Cowlairs railway works

Cowlairs Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Works , at Cowlairs in Springburn, an area in the north-east of Glasgow, Scotland, was built in 1841 for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and was taken over by the North British Railway in 1865. It was named after the nearby mansion of Cowlairs, with both...

. In 1904 he became Chief Draughtsman

Technical drawing

Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....

 and, from 1920–1922, he was Chief Mechanical Engineer

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...

.

Locomotives

Because Grouping

Railways Act 1921

The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...

 was imminent, Chalmers had little opportunity to develop new steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

 types but he did supervise the rebuilding of the last eighteen locomotives of NBR Class M 4-4-0

NBR Class M 4-4-0

The NBR Class M was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotive of the North British Railway. The class was rebuilt during the tenures of William P. Reid and Walter Chalmers from three earlier classes, the "574", "633", and "729" which had been designed by Matthew Holmes.The locomotives passed to the London...

 (later LNER Class D31) . He also designed a three-cylinder 2-8-0

2-8-0

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle , eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels...

 mineral engine but this never got beyond the drawing board.

Dimensions of LNER Class D31 (as rebuilt)

• Weights:
  • Locomotive, 46 tons 8 cwt
  • Tender, 33 tons 9 cwt
• Boiler pressure, 175 psi
• Superheater, no
• Cylinders, 18¼" x 26"
• Driving wheel diameter, 6' 6"
• Tractive effort, 16,515 lbf

Seven D31s passed into British Railways ownership in 1948 but three of these were quickly withdrawn leaving BR numbers 62059, 62060, 62065 and 62072. The last D31 was withdrawn in 1952 and none was preserved.

Post-grouping

Chalmers continued to work for the London and North Eastern Railway

London and North Eastern Railway

The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...

after the 1923 Grouping but retired in June 1924.