George Whale

George Whale (1842–1910) was a British locomotive engineer who succeeded Francis Webb as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway in May 1903, holding the post until his retirement in November 1909. His brief tenure saw the rapid replacement of Webb's troublesome compound classes with simple-expansion designs of conventional and effective form.

Born at Bocking, Essex on 7 December 1842, Whale was apprenticed at the LNWR's Wolverton Carriage Works in 1858 and moved to Crewe in 1862. He spent most of his career as a running superintendent rather than a designer, knowing the strengths and shortcomings of the LNWR fleet at first hand, before being asked, on Webb's retirement, to take overall charge of locomotive matters.

His main classes were the 'Precursor' 4-4-0 of 1904 and its tank version the 'Precursor Tank' (4-4-2T), and the 'Experiment' 4-6-0 of 1905. Both were straightforward two-cylinder simple-expansion engines that drew freely on Crewe practice but rejected Webb's compounding. They were built in quantity and gave the LNWR reliable express motive power for the rest of the company's independent existence.

Whale retired in 1909 and was succeeded by Charles Bowen Cooke. He died at Crewe on 7 February 1910.