Robert Wallace Urie (22 October 1854 – 6 January 1937) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

locomotive engineer who was the last

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 locomotive ...

of the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

Career

After serving an apprenticeship with and working for various private locomotive manufacturers he joined the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was formed in 1845 with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively ex ...

in 1890, and became chief draughtsman, and later Works Manager at

St. Rollox railway works Glasgow Works, formerly the St Rollox Works, is a railway rolling stock heavy maintenance and repair works established in the 1850s in the Glasgow district of Springburn by the Caledonian Railway Company, and known locally as 'the Caley'. Ow ...

under

Dugald Drummond Dugald Drummond (1 January 1840 – 8 November 1912) was a Scottish steam locomotive engineer. He had a career with the North British Railway, LB&SCR, Caledonian Railway and London and South Western Railway. He was the older brother of the eng ...

. In 1897 he moved with Drummond to join the

(LSWR) as works manager at

Nine Elms Nine Elms is an area of south-west London, England, within the London Borough of Wandsworth, with some parts (including the Nine Elms tube station, tube station) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. It lies on the River Thame ...

in London. He transferred to the new works at

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

in 1909. Following the death of

in 1912, Urie became chief mechanical engineer until his own retirement at the grouping of 1923.

Locomotive designs

Robert Urie made a significant contribution to the development of more powerful express passenger and goods locomotives for use on the London and South Western Railway main line, with simple yet robust designs. In particular his

LSWR H15 class The LSWR/SR H15 class was a class of 2-cylinder 4-6-0 steam locomotives designed by Robert Urie for mixed-traffic duties on the London and South Western Railway, LSWR. Further batches were constructed by Richard Maunsell for the Southern Railway ...

, LSWR N15 class and

LSWR S15 class The LSWR S15 class is a British 2-Cylinder (locomotive), cylinder 4-6-0 freight steam locomotive designed by Robert W. Urie, based on his LSWR H15 class, H15 class and LSWR N15 class, N15 class locomotives. The class had a complex build history ...

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abs ...

as well LSWR Class G16 4-8-0T and LSWR H16 class 4-6-2T locomotives continued to be built by the Southern Railway under

Richard Maunsell Richard Edward Lloyd Maunsell (pronounced "Mansell") (26 May 1868 – 7 March 1944) was an Irish Locomotive Engineer who held the post of chief mechanical engineer (CME) of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1913 until the Railways A ...

's direction.

Patents

* GB191410781, published 13 August 1914, Improvements in means for connecting pipes or conduits * GB191410782, published 3 September 1914, Improvements in steam superheaters

Family

His son David Chalmers Urie was a locomotive engineer with the

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north o ...

and later the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

References

* (incorporating ) p. 18

Career

Locomotive designs

Patents

Family

References

Further reading