James Stirling

James Stirling (1835–1917) was a Scottish locomotive engineer, the younger brother of Patrick Stirling of Great Northern Railway fame, who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the Glasgow and South Western Railway from 1866 to 1878 and of the South Eastern Railway at Ashford Works from 1878 until his retirement in 1898 — one of the few Victorian engineers to hold the senior locomotive post at two major British railways in succession.

Born at Galston, Ayrshire on 2 October 1835, James Stirling was apprenticed at Hawthorn, Leslie and Co. of Newcastle and brought to his railway work the same family design characteristics that distinguished his brother Patrick's work at the Great Northern: domeless boilers, single-arched cabs, and a preference for elegant proportions over mechanical novelty. His Glasgow and South Western locomotives at Kilmarnock gave the G&SWR a capable fleet for its Anglo-Scottish Midland Route services, the 4-4-0 express and 0-6-0 goods types serving the railway well through a period of intense competition with the Caledonian and North British.

At the South Eastern his tenure was longer and more productive. The F Class 4-4-0 of 1883 became the SER's standard express engine for the Folkestone, Dover, and Hastings services through the 1880s and 1890s, a sound and reliable inside-cylinder type that lasted well into the Southern Railway era. The R Class 0-6-0T and O Class 0-6-0 goods completed a practical and economical fleet. Stirling's retention of the family domeless boiler practice gave his locomotives a distinctive appearance, though the absence of domes was by his era becoming an unusual choice in British practice. He retired in 1898 and was succeeded by Harry Wainwright. Stirling died at Ashford on 12 January 1917.