Edward Fletcher

Edward Fletcher (1807–1889) was a British locomotive engineer who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the North Eastern Railway from its formation in 1854 until his retirement in 1883, a tenure of just under thirty years. He was apprenticed at Robert Stephenson and Company in Newcastle and was one of the small group of engineers in personal contact with George Stephenson in his early years.

Born at Whickham, County Durham on 30 March 1807, Fletcher was apprenticed at the Forth Street Works in 1825. He worked with Robert Stephenson on the locomotives for the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and accompanied Invicta to the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway in 1830 to assist with its commissioning. He joined the York, Newcastle & Berwick (an NER predecessor) and became Locomotive Superintendent of the new NER on amalgamation in 1854.

His designs were famously varied, different works in the NER (Gateshead, Darlington, York, Leeds) being given considerable design latitude, but they were also long-lived; the famous 901 Class 2-4-0 of 1872 worked over the East Coast in NER and LNER service until the 1920s. He retired in 1883 and was succeeded by Alexander McDonnell. He died at Saltburn-by-the-Sea on 31 December 1889.