Patrick Stirling

Born	29 June 1820
Died	11 November 1895
Nationality	Scottish
Employer	Dundee, Perth & Aberdeen Junction Railway; Glasgow & South Western Railway (Locomotive Superintendent 1853–1866); Great Northern Railway, Doncaster (Locomotive Superintendent 1866–1895)

Patrick Stirling (1820–1895) was a Scottish locomotive engineer who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway at Doncaster from 1866 until his death in office in 1895, during which time he produced the Stirling Single 4-2-2 — with its iconic 8 ft driving wheels, domeless boiler, and outside cylinders — that is widely regarded as the most beautiful British express locomotive of the Victorian era.

Born at Kilmarnock on 29 June 1820, the son of the Reverend Robert Stirling who was himself a noted inventor of the Stirling air engine, Patrick was apprenticed at Wallace's foundry in Dundee and worked at Robert Hawthorn's Newcastle works before being appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the Glasgow and South Western Railway at Kilmarnock in 1853. He moved to Doncaster in 1866 on the resignation of Archibald Sturrock, taking with him the design philosophy he shared with his brother James — domeless boilers, single-arched cabs, and an instinct for elegant proportion.

The first Stirling Single, GNR No. 1, was completed at Doncaster in 1870. The combination of 8 ft single driving wheels — the largest used on any British locomotive — with outside cylinders, a slender boiler, and the characteristic curved splasher over the great wheel gave the design an elegance of line that made contemporary observers describe it as the most beautiful locomotive they had seen. Fifty-three singles were built in total, the last in 1895, with successive examples incorporating larger boilers but retaining the essential character of the original design. They worked the GNR's East Coast main line expresses at average speeds approaching 60 mph, frequently exceeding 80 mph on favourable stretches.

Stirling died in office at Doncaster on 11 November 1895 and was succeeded by H.A. Ivatt. GNR No. 1 is preserved at the National Railway Museum, York, one of the most admired exhibits in the national collection.

Biography

Patrick Stirling (1820–1895) was a Scottish locomotive engineer who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the Glasgow & South Western Railway from 1853 and as Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway at Doncaster from 1866 until his death in office aged 75. He is celebrated above all as the designer of the Stirling Single 4-2-2, a locomotive whose 8-foot driving wheels, slender boiler and outside-cylinder layout made it the most elegant British express engine of its time.

Born at Kilmarnock on 29 June 1820, the son of the Reverend Robert Stirling (an inventor in his own right of the air engine), Patrick was apprenticed at Wallace, Foundery, Dundee. He worked at Hawthorn's Newcastle and on the Dundee, Perth & Aberdeen before being appointed to Kilmarnock in 1853. The Glasgow & South Western post took him to Doncaster on the resignation of Archibald Sturrock.

The first Stirling Single, GNR No. 1, was completed in 1870 and was followed by 53 successive engines until 1895, the design retaining the same general outline despite the addition of larger boilers. With them the GNR's East Coast expresses ran daily at average speeds approaching 60 mph. He was succeeded at Doncaster by Henry Ivatt. He died in office at Doncaster on 11 November 1895. His brother James Stirling was Locomotive Superintendent of the South Eastern Railway.

Locomotives designed

GNR Large Boiler Single — Sturrock's later 1850s GNR 2-2-2 express engines with enlarged boilers, the predecessors of Stirling's famous singles.
GNR Small Boiler Single — Sturrock's early 1850s GNR 2-2-2 express engines with relatively small parallel boilers, the GNR's standard express type before the introduction of the larger-boilered singles in the late 1850s.
GNR Stirling Single — Patrick Stirling's celebrated outside-cylinder 4-2-2 express engine for the Great Northern Railway. Fifty-three were built at Doncaster between 1870 and 1895 with 8 ft 1 in single driving wheels, among the largest ever fitted to a British locomotive. The class worked the principal East Coast expresses for nearly thirty years and is famous for its role in the Race to the North in August 1895. The prototype No. 1 of 1870 is preserved at the National Railway Museum, York.