Robert Urie

Robert Wallace Urie (22 October 1854 - 6 January 1937) was a Scottish locomotive engineer who was the last chief mechanical engineer of the London and South Western Railway.

After serving an apprenticeship with and working for various private locomotive manufacturers he joined the Caledonian Railway in 1890, and became chief draughtsman at St. Rollox railway works under Dugald Drummond. In 1897 he moved with Drummond to join the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) as works manager at Nine Elms in London. He transferred to the new works at Eastleigh in 1909.Following the retirement of Dugald Drummond in 1913 Urie became chief mechanical engineer until his own retirement at the grouping of 1923.

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 Class H15, LSWR N15 Class and LSWR Class S15 4-6-0 locomotives continued to be built by the Southern Railway under Richard Maunsell's direction. His son D.C. Urie was a locomotive engineer with the Highland Railway and later the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.

References

Further reading

* John Marshall, (1978) "A biographical dictionary of locomotive engineers", David & Charles

External links

* [http://www.steamindex.com/people/urie.htm Robert Urie, his son & possible other relative ] at www.steamindex.com