SteamIndex

Dugald Drummond and
his brother Peter
and Dugald's sons Walter and Geoge William

T9 entering Halwill Junction in "summer" of 1960 (KPJ)

Dugald is surveyed below and Peter, as usual, follows. There is now a wealth of material about the Drummond brothers, including a Chacksfield biography. Chacksfield makes it abundantly clear that Dugald Drummond was afflicted with extreme personal tragedy: two baby sons were lost in unsanitory nineteenth century Inverness. There are also recent assessments by Michael Rutherford..

Dugald Drummod

Dow notes that Dugald Drummond like Stirling, received a mixture of locomotive and marine engineering experience in the early days of his career. He is incorrect in stating that he was born in Aberdeen not Ardrossan. Marshall records that he was born in Ardrossan on 1 January 1840 (a noteworthy day) and died in Surbiton on 8 November 1912 (the cause of his death is noted in part 4 of Rutherford). According to Marshall he was apprenticed with Forrest & Barr of Glasgow.
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia

Patents

6/1873: Casting metals with W. Stroudley 1 January 1873
1986/1875. . tyre fastening device. 31 May 1875
5119/1894. Improvements in apparatus for expressing sap or juice from fibrous canes and other materials. Applied 12 March 1894. Published 19 January 1895.
27949/1897 Improvements in locomotive boilers. Applied. 17 November 1897. Published 15 October 1898.
The firebox, of the ordinary shape; but in the sides or walls of the inner shell, orifices are formed for the reception of water tubes extending across the firebox and the ends of which are expanded or otherwise secured in the side walls.
1077/1899. Improvements in apparatus for use in heating railway carriages. Applied 17 January 1899. Published 2 December 1899.
6293/1899. Apparatus for automatically regulating the heating and ventilation of railway carriages and buildings. Applied 23 March 1899. Published 20 January 1900.
23631/1900. Improvements in steam generators of the marine type. Applied 27 December 1900. Published 2 November 1901
23630/1900. Improvements in steam generators of the locomotive type. Applied 27 December 1900. Published 2 November 1901.
The improved steam generator is externally of the form of the ordinary locomotive boiler, but in lieu of and in the space occupied by the usual fire tubes extending from the firebox to the smoke box tube plate fit a single horizontal barrel or flue wherein numerous rows of transverse water tubes are secured.
13769/1901 Spark arrester for locomotive and other engines. Applied 6 July 1901. Published 5 July 1902.
26407/1907 Improvements in and relating to blast pipe nozzles for locomotives and the like. Applied 29 November 1907. Published 26 November 1908

Papers

On the heating of carriages by exhaust steam on the Caledonian Railway. Min. Proc. Instn Civ Engrs., 1888, 92, 294-8.

An investigation into the use of progressive high pressures in non-compound locomotive engines. Min. Proc. Instn Civ Engrs., 1896/7, 127, 218-47. (Paper 2497)

"The design of the cylinders is a departure from the normal arrangement with a central valve-face. The steam ports were moved to the cylinder-ends, and the slide valve was divided, each having its own exhaust port. In this way the port-clearance was reduced to a minimum, and a reduction in back pressure was affected. The weight of the valve, however, was increased by 70 per cent. The exhaust passages were increased so that the belt from the lower and top valves extended along the whole length of the cylinder thus forming an exhaust steam jacketed cylinder. The blast pipe which was of the vortex-type, had likewise a large exhaust capacity with a nozzle equal to a 4 in opening.

Having noted that this led a free running engine Drummond went on:

"During part of the running of engine No. 76, five expansions were made, the efficiency increasing to the highest point. As the whole question of engine-economy resolves itself into the number of times steam can be expanded, and as in this case five expansions were within the economical limit in a single cylinder, compounding within this limit appears to be unnecessary.

If, however, the thermal and dynamical conditions of the non-compound are superior to the compound engine, how is it that those who favour the latter system have attained superior results? The reply must be that the two systems have been compared on a fair basis. In the first place, the boiler pressure of the compound locomotive has usually been higher. In the second place, the driver of the compound engine is obliged to keep up the boiler pressure, as there must be considerably less range of cylinder pressure than in the non-compound engines which can expand steam as low as one-and-a-quarter times, and all starting from stations is so done – whereas the compound locomotive cannot expand less than two-and-a-half times. This reduction of range in the power of the latter engine is undoubtedly the cause of reduced coal consumption over what is due to higher boiler pressure. Other things being equal, coal consumption is the measure of the work done by an engine, and if the compound engine cannot run so fast in express traffic, or has to be assisted on up-gradients, the result should not be credited to increased efficiency. The Author is of the opinion that that in a comparative trial of the simple and compound systems, the boiler pressure should be alike. The minimum number of expansions should be alike, and the low-pressure cylinder of the compound engine should be equal to the combined areas of the non-compound cylinders. On this common basis only should the trials be conducted.

Particulars of the most recent parts of the London and South Western Railway Company's engines. Min. Proc. Instn Civ Engrs., 1897/8, 133, 311-15

Contribution to others' Papers

Marshall, W.P.'s Evolution of the locomotive engine. Min Proc. Instn civ. Engrs., 1897/98, 133, 241

Sauvage, Edouard. Recent locomotive practice in France. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1900, 59, 429.
noted "the [French] two-cylinder engines of modern type which were being replaced by four-cylinder engines, supplementing it with the train load, speed, and a complete set of indicator diagrams of both classes of engines working express trains, the coal consumption per horse-power per hour and the coal consumption per ton of train per mile" but gave no indication of his own limited success with four cylinders

Publications

Drummond, D. Lectures delivered to the enginemen and firemen of the London & South Western Railway Company, on the management of engines. London, 1908.
At least six editions. Ottley 3013.

The Nine Elms Locomotive Works of the London and South-Western Railway. Rly Mag., 1903, 11, 193-203.

After occupying responsible posts on the Highland, and London, Brighton & South Coast Railways, on both of which he served under Stroudley, he was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the North British in 1875.

John Thomas wrote that: Dugald Drummond, the sixth North British locomotive superintendent, was a rugged Scotsman. He took office on 1 February 1875, but a visitor from Sussex three years later could have been forgiven for thinking that an Englishman was in charge—William Stroudley.

Wheatley green had given place to Stroudley yellow, and North British engines now had regional names after the fashion of LB & SC engines. If the visitor travelled on the Edinburgh and Glasgow main line he might have been lucky to get one of the expresses that did the journey in 70 minutes with two stops behind a 2-2-2 with 7 ft driving wheels and 17 in by 24 in cylinders that looked very like Stroudley's Grosvenor. And all over the system he would have come across 0-6-0 goods engines that at first sight he might have taken for Stroudley's 0-6-0s of 1871. A visit to a branch line would have yielded one of the twenty-five 0-6-0 tanks that looked like Brighton Terriers; these were built by Drummond between 1875 and 1878 and had 4 ft 6 in wheels and 15 in by 22 in inside cylinders. Our visitor only had to take one of the fast trains from Glasgow down to Helensburgh to encounter one of the six 0-6-4 tanks that so closely resembled a Brighton Sydenham of 1873. These engines carried the names Helensburgh. Gareloch, Dumbarton, Cardross, Craigendoran, and Roseneath. When they were moved to Fife in 1879 the Brighton tradition of changing engine names to suit their environment was followed and they became respectively, Kirkcaldy, Ladybank, Markinch, Dundee, Lochee, and Burntisland.

Drummond had first met Stroudley at Cowlairs in the days of the Edinburgh & Glasgow, when Stroudley was works manager and Drummond foreman. Drummond followed Stroudley to the Highland Railway and to the London Brighton & South Coast. Although the Stroudley influence dominated Drummond's early work at Cowlairs, the Drummond engines were bigger and heavier than their Stroudley counterparts. What did for the lush meadows and balmy climate of Sussex would not suffice for the stiff gradients and sterner climate of Scotland.

Drummond did not follow the Stroudley lead blindly. The Brighton engines had been fitted with feed pumps and used exhaust steam to heat tender water. The first Drummond North British engines used the same system, but the locomotive superintendent was not satisfied that it was effective. He conducted a series of experiments at Cowlairs and came to the conclusion that the feed-water equipment was not worth the expense of installation and the man hours necessary for its maintenance. It was only more machinery to break down.

Seven years later (Middlemass implies that the financial affairs at Cowlairs may have been about to be called into question) he went to a similar post on the rival Caledonian. John Thomas (North British Vol. 2) covers this episode in some depth (edited version):

When Drummond left the NBR after seven years of exceptional achievement his departure was recorded coldly in a nine-word sentence. 'The resignation of Mr Drummond locomotive superintendent is reported.' The customary appreciation of services rendered was omitted, and if Drummond received the customary gratuity no mention of it was made in the relevant NB papers.

Muir was chairman of the locomotive committee. He was an old man and he did not always see eye to eye with the ebullient young Drummond. It had been at Muir's instigation that Cowlairs works had been extended and improved and he was of the opinion, after the money was spent, that productivity there was unsatisfactory. There was a clash of personalities in 1881 when Drummond wanted twenty 17in goods locomotives built by Neilson & Co and Muir told him plainly that the engines must be built at Cowlairs. When Drummond remonstrated that Cowlairs was incapable of building them Muir led the locomotive committee on a tour of inspection of the works and forthwith announced the plant 'capable of producing all engines, carriages, etc required, Mr Drummond being instructed to complete the orders on hand with the utmost dispatch'. The board eventually compromised, ten new engines being built at Cowlairs.

Also in 1881 there was trouble over the failure of tender tyres. There were 29 such failures over a short period, and when five failures occurred in as many days there was consternation in Essen. Krupp was the main supplier of steel tyres not only to the NBR but to many of the great railways of the world. Anything that reflected on the great name of Krupp demanded investigation. On 28 January 1881 a 'practical representation from Germany' inspected Cowlairs works in the company of Drummond and the directors. The Krupp investigators concluded that the tyre fractures were due to faulty setting of the brake blocks, and Drummond was informed that the brake blocks were to be altered 'so as not to apply to flanges of tyres'.

One pinprick showed the way the wind was blowing. Drummond applied for a shopping pass for his wife, valid between Lenzie and Glasgow. Railwaymen and Cowlairs shopmen were supplied with similar passes between Cowlairs and Queen Street for their wives or housekeepers. Mrs Drummond was refused a pass.

Drummond irretrievably damaged his standing with the Board by his conduct during the Board of Trade inquiry into the Tay Bridge disaster. The company had based its case on the theory that part of the train had become derailed on the bridge and demolished a vital strut thereby producing a chain reaction that had brought down the bridge. Drummond contemptuously rejected this theory. No doubt he was right. But his haughty attitude in court and his relentless browbeating of the luckless Bouch, a Boardroom favourite, were not forgotten by the directors.

The locomotive superintendent was responsible for disposing of old timber, usually slab wood and wagon boards, from the carriage and wagon department, and this trade produced revenue of up to £600 per month. Early in June 1882 Drummond was asked to explain an apparent discrepancy in the timber accounts and he duly submitted a report. On 22 June Drummond resigned, ostensibly to take up an appointment with the Caledonian. But George Brittain, the locomotive superintendent of that company, did not resign until July and Drummond was not appointed in his place until 6 August. On the day that Drummond's resignation was reported to the NBR locomotive committee, Matthew Holmes was appointed as his 'suitable and economic successor'. Contrary to NBR practice the post was not advertised. Evidently Drummond's departure was not unexpected.

On 24 August the new locomotive superintendent and Robertson, the stores superintendent, 'were instructed to inquire into and report upon a statement which has been furnished by Mr Drummond showing a loss upon timber'. On 14 September 'con sideration of the reports by the locomotive superintendent and stores superintendent with regard to loss upon timber and the sale of old material lying at Cowlairs was delayed until the next meeting.

On 4 October the locomotive and stores committee met specially at Cowlairs to conduct an on the spot investigation and frame the final report on the disputed accounts. The relevant minute book page is headed, 'Minute of Special Meeting of Locomotive and Stores Committee held at Cowlairs on 4 October 1882' and those present were listed as Sir James Falshaw (chairman of the company), and Messrs Beaumont, Garnett and Grierson—all directors.

The page area below the heading where the report of the meeting normally would appear is blank except for a pencilled note, 'No minute written by chairman'. This is the only example of an un minuted meeting, board or committee, in the whole history of the company. The general manager's wet tissue copy letter book covering October 1882 is missing. Whether by accident or design the NB hierarchy effectively deprived posterity of learning the findings of that vital meeting.

On 5 October the 'secret' report was presented to the directors, who ordered that a deficit of £4,305 8s in the locomotive department accounts be made up by the transfer of £1,500 per half year from the general reserve.

Drummond was fortunate in being served by a first rate chief draughtsman—Robert Chalmers. The careers of the two men were curiously interlinked. Chalmers, then in his early twenties, was already at Cowlairs when Drummond went there the first time. When Drummond moved to Brighton as Stroudley's assistant he was joined by Chalmers who remained with him for five years. In February 1875 Drummond returned to Cowlairs as locomotive superintendent to be followed a month later by Robert Chalmers as chief draughtsman. Drummond stayed at Cowlairs for a mere seven years, but Chalmers ruled the drawing office for 30 years— from the Drummond 2-2-2 to the Atlantic. What a tale he could have told had he recorded his experiences on paper. But leading draughtsmen, whatever railway they served, were self-effacing men whose lot was to stand unobserved in the background leaving the titular head of the department to take the kudos for ideas which not infrequently had their origin in the drawing office.

Drummond was appointed to the CR on 20 June 1882 with the very considerable salaryof £1700 per annum, but in 1890 resigned initially to work in Australia (see article by Darryl Grant below) and on return to Glasgow in 1891 to found his own company which became the Glasgow Railway Engineering Co. But he did not stay long with his creation, which he left his son to carry on. In 1895 he was offered the post of Chief Mechanical Engineer to the London & South Western; this he accepted and with that line he remained until his death in harness in 1912. On the LSWR he developed the inside cyclinder 4-4-0 and 0-4-4T designs to a high standard, but failed to develop a satisfactory 4-6-0 or a 4-2-2-0. The 4-4-0s and 0-4-4Ts lasted virtually until the end of steam, but it is sobering to remember that the vast suburban electrification on the LSWR began but a few years after Drummond's death.

Darryl Grant. The Dugald Drummond 'Down Under' myth. Backtrack, 2015, 29, 70-3.
Dugald Drummond resigned from the Caledonian Railway and became involved with a syndicate which hoped to manufacture locomotives in New South Wales, Australia where E.M.G. Eddy was the Chief Commissioner of the NSWGR and had formerly been Assistant General Manager on the Caledonian Railway. The syndicate consisted of Drummond, Arthur Greenwood (of Greenwood & Batley), Henry Hudson and J.E. Pepper who formed the Australian Locomotive Engine Works. The latter two had no knowledge of locomotive engineering, but Hudson's financial faiure in 1898 sunk the project. Drummond never actually went to Australia. In 1907 Clyde Engineering started locomotive construction.

Often blunt and outspoken to an alarming degree, Drummond was nevertheless a born leader of men. Although he designed no Super-Pacffic, his engines were extremely efficient, the majority of them being most attractive-looking machines, with their safety-valves mounted on their domes. Only on his engines with the most highly-pitched boilers did Drummond place the safety valves in their usual position. One of his best-known designs was his handsome 0-4-4 tank for suburban working on the South Western, over 100 of which were still at work on Southern lines at the end of 1947.

Drummond will be remembered for his successful experiments with cross tubes in fireboxes, feed water-heaters and spark-arresters, and as the initiator of the steam hooter, which found its way from the Caledonian to the LMS. A greater claim to fame, however, rests on the fact that for thirty-two years, between 1875 and 1912, his influence on locomotive design was felt by three important British railways and, as a result, when the grouping took place in 1923 his engines were to be found on the LMS, LNER, and Southern.

Westwood adds that Dugald Drummond introduced on each line locomotives that were distinctly his own, deriving little from the traditions of his current employer. His designs were characterized by simplicity and sturdiness, coupled with a certain beauty of proportion which he may have derived from his friend Stroudley, with whom he worked at Cowlairs, Inverness, and Brighton. He was only thirty-five when he became locomotive superintendent of the NBR in 1875, and his first designs were based on Stroudley practice. But he soon brought out his first inside cylinder 4-4-0, a type that he developed until many years later he built the T9 and D15 classes for the LSWR. His 4-4-0 machines usually had 6ft 6in. driving wheels, cylinders about 18in. x 26in., and safety valves inset in the top of the dome. As time passed, they became larger, and the later varieties had piston valves and Walschaert valve gear. They were imitated by several subsequent designers, especially in Scotland. Another type that Drummond popularized on his three railways was the 0-4-4 tank, some of which, like his 0-6-0 goods, lasted almost to the last days of steam on British Railways. As a young man, he never showed much enthusiasm for experiment, but on the LSWR. he succeeded in introducing good water-tube fireboxes and a satisfactory feedwater heater.

He was unable to repeat his success with the 4-4-0 when he essayed a 4-6-0 type for the LSWR (most commentators agree that thses locomotives were especially unsuccessful) and he opposed superheating. He was responsible for the transfer of the LSWR locomotive works to Eastleigh. A rough man, he offended many people, which is perhaps why his ventures (between leaving the Caledonian in 1890 and joining the LSWR in 1895) as an independent businessman in engineering enterprises in Australia and Scotland (D. Drummond & Son of Govan, later the Glasgow Railway Engineering Co.) were short-lived. He died in 1912, after accidentally scalding his feet in locomotive steam.

H. Ellis ( Twenty locomotive men (1958). notes that "Drummond acquired Stroudley's flair for designing a beautiful locomotive, and, in line rather than detail surpassed it". It is amazing that the Drummond 4-4-0 and 0-4-4T classes should still be doing useful work in Cornwall not only until the end of steam, but in many cases until the end of railways in the areas served. George W. Carpenter has written biography of Dugald in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Nature of Drummond household from 1881 Census: Backtrack 14, 637. (includes a portrait)

Rutherford's mini-series in Backtrack is a useful introduction to both Dugald and to his brother Peter.

Rutherford, Michael. The Drummond Age. Part One. (Railway Reflections No. 106). Backtrack, 2004, 18, 688-94.
This part begins by setting the scene having dismissed some of the myths associated with the Scots and especially those which may attach themselves to Drummond and his associates including the possibly over-rated William Stroudley. In his broad stroke manner Rutherford argues that locomotive construction was influenced by Hawthorns and Stephenson on Tyneside, Beyer Peacock in Manchester and by the development of a locomotive works at Cowlairs on the magnificently engineered Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway. Rutherford detects clusters of engineers and names the Drummonds (father and brother plus Dugald), Stroudley, the Stirlings, Sturrock as well as Walter Montgomerie Neilson and their draughtsmen.
The Drummond Age. Part Two. (Railway Reflections No. 107). Backtrack, 2004, 18, 754-60.
This part contains an extensive bibliography and notes, includes an assessment not only of Dugald Drummond's early work, but assessments of those with whom he can be associated, notably Stroudley. It begins with noting the influence of Robert Hawthorn, who Rutherford considers has received too little attention. He also notes the significance of William Symington with his steam powered Charlotte Dundas on the Forth & Clyde Canal in March 1803, and of Henry Bell with his Comet on routine sailings on the Clyde. Illus.: Drummond NBR 2-2-2 No, 475 Berwick as built in 1876; 2-2-2 No. 474 as modified by Holmes; Drummond NBR 0-6-0 No. 513; CR 294 class 0-6-0 No. 686 (Neilson 1884), subsequently 57265;
The Drummond age - Part Three. (Railway reflections No.108). Backtrack, 2005, 19, 46-53.
Some of this part is given over to the development of Glasgow as an industrial centre (the Author claims that he was not able to trace a major study on this topic). This precedes an account of Drummond's contribution to locomotive development on the Caledonian Railway and his very considerable financial rewards for this. Rutherford rightly considers this period to have been the zenith of Drummond's career. Drummond's failed Australian venture and his unrewarding experience as an independent locomotive manufacturer in Glasgow are but lightly sketched
The Drummond age. Part Four. (Railway reflections No.109). Backtrack, 2005, 19, 102-10.
Dugald Drummond on the LSWR and Peter Drummond's work for the HR and GSWR. Includes an extensive section on Dugald's extremely light weight steam railcars, and the influence of these on the motive power on other railways, notably the GWR (which developed far more powerful vehicles) and the TVR, and the subsequent development of the C14 2-2-0T and later 0-4-0T (S14) for push & pull working. The delay in the opening of the Locomotive Works at Eastleigh is noted and there were problems in that old machine tools were transferred from Nine Elms. There was a shortage of accommodation at Eastleigh and many of the staff employed there were Scots .Rutherford indicates that Dugald Drummond's stay of seventeen years with the LSWR was the longest of any of his periods of employment and that his salary of £1500 per annum was considerably less than that of the £2400 paid to him by the CR. Rutherford states that John Reid was responsible for the design of the T9, 700 and M7 classes, but eventaully appears to have left under a cloud. Subsequent Drummond designs are more controversial: the 4-2-2-0 design is linked to James Tolman. Whilst the D15 class 4-4-0 once superheated was one of the very best of that type the 4-6-0s (which are but lightly sketched presumably due to the major contribution made by Swift below) are considered to have been very poor and are compared with Robinson's similar lack of success with multi-cylinder 4-6-0 designs. The author does note that Drummond's designs were greatly admired by the enginemen and that some of the LSWR types lasted almost to the end of steam. Rutherford records that Drummond's death was due from a scald, but not from locomotive, but from putting his feet into excessively hot water to warm his tootsies.
Peter Drummond's designs for the HR are given some attention: the Castle class was developed from the Jones goods but did introduce the passenger type 4-6-0 to Scotland. Furthermore, fifty of this type were supplied by NBL to the Chemin de fer de l'Ouest. Several of his designs, notably an 0-8-0 failed to materialize because of HR frugality. His period on the GSWR was marked by a large 4-4-0 and a 2-6-0, but Rutherford fails to enthuse to any extent on these designs. Rutherford claims that William Paton Reid's and John McIntosh's designs were essentially part of the Drummond philosophy and as a very large order for McIntosh types was supplied by Neilson's to the Belgian Railways thus extending the Drummond influence still further.
The Drummond 4-6-0s of the London & South Western Railway. Peter W. Swift. Railway Archive, Number 6, 3-24.
A very detailed account of the Drummond four-cylinder 4-6-0s from the highly unsuccessful F13 and E14 designs which had been intended to operate expresses between Salisbury and Exeter, but which ended up hauling coal trains between Salisbury and Southampton, through the less unsuccessful G14 and P14 designs to the T14 class which was moderately successful. Some of the less successful types formed the basis for Urie rebuilds as 2-cylinder locomotives. The F13 class was unusual in combining Stephenson valve gear for the inside cylinders and Walschaerts for the outside. The illustrative material includes five broadside views of the varieties taken outside Exmouth Junction mpd. General arrangement drawings of the F13, T14 and G14 are also included with a warning on their dimensional accuracy (although it would seem improbable that Lottery funding could be achieved to build an F13). There are also views of the class in service.

Lake, C.S. Some C.M.Es I have known: V : Dugald Drummond. Rly Mag., 1943, 89, 213-19. 15 illus. (incl. 4 ports.)

Biography by Phillip Cottrell Dictionary of Business Biography.

Chacksfield, J.E. Drummond brothers: a Scottish duo. Oakwood Press, 2005. 168pp.
PART ONE – Dugald and Peter, The Joint Careers 1840-1890: Chapter 1 – Early Days; Chapter 2 – Brighton Days; Chapter 3 – The Return to Scotland; Chapter 4 – Caley Days: PART TWO – Dugald Drummond 1890-1912; Chapter 5 – Disaster Down Under; Chapter 6 – The Early Days at Nine Elms; Chapter 7 – Personal Transport and Further 4-4-0 Developments; Chapter 8 – Carriages, Railcars and Eastleigh; Chapter 9 – The 4-6-0s, a final 4-4-0 and an Untimely End: PART THREE – Peter Drummond 1890-1918; Chapter 10 – To the Highland Railway; Chapter 11 – Peter at Lochgorm; Chapter 13 – Peter on the G&SWR; Appendix 1 – Dugald Drummond Locomotives – Scottish Railways; Appendix 2 – Dugald Drummond Locomotives – LSWR; Appendix 3 – Peter Drummond Locomotives; Appendix 4 – Drummond Preserved Locomotives; Appendix 5 – The Drummond ‘Gadgets’; Appendix 6 – Superheating Technology and Duglad Drummond; Appendix 7 – The ‘Double-Singles’ [Publisher's blurb]
Essery, Bob and Jenkinson, David. An illustrated history of LMS locomotives. Volume 3. Absorbed pre-group classes Northern Division. 1986. 420 illus.
Chapter 8: The 'rummond' factor o the LMS in Scotland. Short chapter which shows the influence of Stroudley, and how Peter tended to work under the shadow of Dugald. "Peter Drummond was, of course, one of the more enigmatic figures of railway history"..
Langridge, E.A. Under ten CMEs. Oakwood Press, 2011.
If Langridge's apprenticeship had started a few weeks later there would have "only" been nine. Neverthelss, there is room to include some of Drummond's pet hates, such as American locomotives and the Atlantic wheel arrangement: these are included in extracts from an Address to the LSWR Engineering Society given on 27 July 1911.

Paterson. Alan A.S. Dugald Drummond at St. Rollox, 1882-85. Rly Wld, 1961, 22, 21

D.W. Winkworth. Sixty years of the Southern Railwaymen's Home for Children, Woking. Rly Wld, 1969, 30, 291.
The railway servants of the LSWR openred an orphanage on 11 March 1886. In due course Dugald Drummond became one of its Trustees and Winkworth records both some of his obdurateness (on the location of the Home) and generosity in funding trips for the orphans.

Contemporary obituary
Locomotive Mag., 1912, 18, 230

Portraits

Pencil drawing from The Bailie, 1884 (June): page 12: Nock, O.S. The Caledonian Dunalastairs and associated classes. 1968.

Drummond, Peter

Born in Polmont on 13 August 1850 (Marshall). Apprenticed to Messrs Forrest and Moor of Glasgow. Joined LBSCR under Stroudley from 1870-5. This was followed by a brief spell with the NBR in 1882 until he was appointed Assistant Locomotive Engineer and Works Manager of St Rollox Works by the Caledonian Railway. In 1896 he was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the Highland Railway, and following this of the GSWR from 1911 until his death from cancer in 1918. David L. Smith calls this final period: The Drummond Upheaval and states that his appointment was "a logical, but not a particularly happy choice.". Middlemass (Scottish 4-4-0) notes that Peter Drummond had intended to follow his bother's example with a large 4-cylinder 4-6-0 for the GSWR but adds that "mercifuuly, perhaps, the project never gor further than the drawing board".

The period at Inverness is described in the "Illustrated Interview" (No. 45) when the facilities at Inverness Lochgorm Works were described at some length. There are several illustrations of the very cramped workshops with one where the belting to drive the machine tools is a health & safety nightmare. There is a posed photograph of No. 144 Blair Castle hauling the Company's best rolling stock. The text describes a colour plate (which is missing in the copy supplied by the British Library from Boston Spa).

Atkins discusses the Drummond Castle class used on the Highland Railway and Middlemass describes the 'Wee Bens'. The former notes that:

Whereas the Jones 4-6-0s — generally referred to as the 'Big Goods' — had been designed, built and put into traffic all within a single year, the 'Castles', as they came to be known, were in gestation for nearly four years. By the time they did appear the North Eastern Railway had built the first British passenger 4-6-0 a year earlier. On to the stylish lines of David Jones was grafted the heavy finish of Peter Drummond. Although mechanically the new engines were pure Jones, their Drummond stamp of chimney, cab and ugly 'water-cart' bogie tender was unmistakeable. A dubious asset, without which none of the younger Drummond's locomotives was complete, was the provision of steam reverse, a troublesome mechanism if it were not well maintained.

Ronald M. Birse (revised Jim Smellie) includes a biography of Peter Drummond in their ODNB contriution. The eccentricity of this inclusion should be used to persuade the ODNB Editorial Board of far more noteworthy locomotive engineers who are still excuded.

Illustrated interview No. 45. Rly Mag., 1902, 10, 97.

Haresnape, B. and Rowledge, P.
Drummond locomotives: a pictorial history. London: Ian Allan, 1982. 128pp.
Both Drummonds. Ottley 15763.
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia

Dugald Drummond's sons

Drummond, Walter
Born on 24 May 1869; died near Surbiton of pancreatic cancer on 8 July 1905: Chacksfield biography

Drummond, Geoge William
Born in 1872: Chacksfield biography

Patents

GB 11691/1906 Improvements in axle boxes of railway vehicles. Applied 19 May 1906. Published 17 January 1907 GW ONLY
GB 9918/1905 Improvements in spark arresters for locomotives. Applied 11 May 1905. Published 10 May 1906. GW ONLY
GB14296/1904 Improvements in and relating to gauge glass cock connections. Applied 25 June 1904 Published 27 April 1905 GW ONLY
GB 13721/1904 Improvements in steam pumps. Applied 17 June 1904. Published 20 April 1905 BOTH
GB 13163/1903 Improvements in crank axles for locomotives Applied .12 June 1903. Published 5 May 1904. BOTH
GB 6890/1903 Improvements in automatic relief valves for locomotive and other cylinders and steam chests. Applied 25 March 1903. Published 17 December 1903. BOTH
GB 13163/1903 Improvements in crank axles for locomotives. Applied 12 June 1903. Published 5 May 1904 BOTH
GB 11202/1901 Apparatus for use in softening water. Applied 31 May 1901 Published 17 April 1902 BOTH
GB 10665/1901 An automatic tablet or staff exchanging apparatus for single line railways. Applied 23 May 1901 Published 8 May 1902 BOTH
GB 26593/1898 Improvements in metallic coil springs. Applied 16 December 1898. Published 21 October 1899. W ONLY

Updated: 2015-01-24

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