Richard Deeley

Richard Mountford Deeley (1855–1944) was a British locomotive engineer who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the Midland Railway at Derby from 1903 until his resignation in 1909, and who developed the Midland Compound 4-4-0 from Johnson's original design into the form in which the LMS subsequently built 195 examples — making it the most numerous British compound locomotive type and the most successful expression of compound expansion in British main-line practice.

Born at Chester on 31 January 1855, Deeley was apprenticed at Derby Works in 1875 and spent his entire pre-resignation career in the service of the Midland Railway, rising through the boiler inspection and works departments to become Works Manager in 1902. He succeeded Samuel Waite Johnson as Locomotive Superintendent in 1903, inheriting Johnson's compound 4-4-0 design that had been developed in collaboration with Walter Smith of the Midland's consulting engineers.

Deeley's principal contribution was the simplification of Johnson's compound valve gear from a system requiring careful manual management by the driver to a simpler arrangement that could be operated more intuitively. The Deeley compound's admission valve arrangement allowed the driver to start from rest in simple expansion mode and automatically transfer to compound working once speed was established — a practical improvement that made the class far more accessible to footplate crews and dramatically improved its reliability in day-to-day service. The LMS subsequently ordered 195 compounds to a further-developed version of Deeley's design, and examples worked the Midland Main Line and Settle-Carlisle route into the 1950s.

Deeley resigned in 1909 after disagreements with the Midland's management over engineering authority and was succeeded by Henry Fowler. He devoted his later career to research in metallurgy and lubrication and died at Bromley, Kent on 19 August 1944 at the age of 89.