Charles Fairburn

Charles Edward Fairburn (1887–1945) was a British railway engineer who served as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway from May 1944 until his sudden death in October 1945. His tenure was brief but he is remembered for the Fairburn 2-6-4T tank, a development of Stanier's 4MT 2-6-4T with reduced wheelbase and other minor improvements, of which 277 were eventually built and which became one of the standard British suburban tank classes.

Born at Bradford on 5 August 1887, Fairburn was educated at Bradford Grammar School and read engineering at Brasenose College, Oxford. He joined Siemens Brothers and afterwards English Electric, where he became Manager of Traction. He moved to the LMS in 1934 as Electrical Engineer and rose to become Deputy CME under Stanier in 1937, taking over the running of the office from 1942 when Stanier was loaned to the Ministry of Production.

His electrical-engineering background showed through in his strong support of the 1500 V dc Manchester–Sheffield Woodhead Route electrification then being prepared. He died unexpectedly at Glasgow on 12 October 1945 and was succeeded by George Ivatt.