Dugald Drummond

Career

Drummond was born in Ardrossan, Ayrshire on 1 January 1840. His father was permanent way inspector for the Bowling Railway. Drummond was apprenticed to Forest & Barr of Glasgow gaining further experience on the Dumbartonshire and Caledonian Railways. He was in charge of the boiler shop at the Canada Works, Birkenhead of Thomas Brassey before moving to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway's Cowlairs railway works in 1864 under Samuel W. Johnson.

He became foreman erector at the Lochgorm Works, Inverness, of the Highland Railway under William Stroudley and followed Stroudley to the London Brighton and South Coast Railway's Brighton Works in 1870. In 1875, he was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the North British Railway.

Tay bridge disaster

Drummond was involved as an expert witness in the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, being called to give evidence about the state of the track after the disaster. Although Ladybank, a 0-4-2 locomotive of Drummond's design, had been booked to work the train it had broken down and was replaced by no. 224, a 4-4-0 to the design of Thomas Wheatley, thus freeing Drummond to act as an independent witness. He said that the entire train had fallen vertically down when the High Girders collapsed, from the impact marks the wheels had made on the lines. All the axles of the train were bent in one direction. The evidence helped disprove Thomas Bouch's theory that the train had been blown off the rails by the storm that night.

Further career

In 1882 he moved to the Caledonian Railway. In April 1890 he tendered his resignation to enter business, establishing the Australasian Locomotive Engine Works at Sydney, Australia. The scheme failed rapidly and he returned to Scotland, founding the Glasgow Railway Engineering Company. Although the business was moderately successful, Drummond accepted the post as locomotive engineer of the London and South Western Railway in 1895, at a salary considerably less than that he had received on the Caledonian Railway. The title of his post was changed to Chief Mechanical Engineer in January 1905, although his duties hardly changed. He remained with the LSWR until his death.

Drummond died on 8 November 1912 aged 72 at his home at Surbiton. A myth has developed that he died as a result of scalding received on the footplate. However C. Hamilton Ellis states that he had got cold and wet and demanded a hot mustard bath for his numb feet. He was scalded by the boiling water. He neglected the burns, gangrene set in and amputation became necessary. He refused an anaesthetic and died of the shock. He is buried at Brookwood Cemetery, which is adjacent to the LSWR mainline, in a family grave just a stone's throw from the former terminus of the London Necropolis Railway.

Family

Drummond's daughter, Christine Sarah Louise was born in Brighton in 1871, soon after the family's arrival there from Scotland. She married James Johnson, son of Samuel Waite Johnson CME of the Midland Railway 1873–1904. Her third child, born in 1905 was named Dugald Samuel Waite Johnson after both of his grandfathers.

Locomotive designs

Drummond designed the following classes of locomotives:

North British Railway

Caledonian Railway

London and South Western Railway

Patents