“Drummond was born in Ardrossan, Ayrshire on 1st 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 Waite Johnson.” [3]

“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.” [3]

In 1882 he moved to the Caledonian Railway. In April 1890, he emigrated to Australia, establishing the Australasian Locomotive Engine Works at Sydney, Australia. After only a short time he returned to the UK, founding the Glasgow Railway Engineering Company which was moderately successful, Drummond, “accepted the post as locomotive engineer of the London and South Western Railway [LSWR] 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, [4] although his duties hardly changed. [5] He remained with the LSWR until his death” in 1912. [3]

“He was a major locomotive designer and builder and many of his London and South Western Railway engines continued in main line service with the Southern Railway to enter British Railways service in 1947.” [3]

Harry Smith Wainwright was the “Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1899 to 1913. He is best known for a series of simple but competent locomotives produced under his direction at the company’s Ashford railway works in the early years of the twentieth century. Many of these survived in service until the end of steam traction in Britain in 1968, and are regarded as some of the most elegant designs of the period.” [13]

Drummond and Wainwright experimented with steam railmotors/railcars in the early years of the 20th century.

In 1902, Dugald Drummond had two built for a branch line near Portsmouth. [6][7: p7] Intended to provide “an economic service on the LSWR and London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) joint branch from Fratton to Southsea two steam railmotors were built by the LSWR in 1902, entering service in April 1903, and designated as K11 Class.” [6][8: p118, 123]

The 43-foot (13 m) long carriage-element seated thirty in third class and twelve in first class. The total length of the unit was 53 ft 5 in (16.28 m). The first of these railcars/railmotors to be built was lent to the Great Western Railway, returning with favourable reports. [8: p118] “However, when introduced in summer 1903 the units struggled with passengers on the gradients on the line and it was discovered that the GWR had trialed the unit on level track and without passengers. The units were rebuilt with a bigger firebox and boiler.” [6][8: p118-119][9: p22-25]

Wainwright  introduced similar steam railmotors on the SECR in 1904/5. He ordered 8 in total from Kitson of Leeds. The first two for use on the Sheppey Light Railway. Numbered 1 and 2 (WN 4292 and 4293, date 1904), “the engines were ordinary four-wheeled locomotives and could be detached from the car proper if necessary. They were fitted with the first Belpaire fireboxes on the [SECR]. Both engines and cars, were painted lake, the standard colour for the coaching stock on this line. There was accommodation for 56 passengers. all of one, class. ‘One of the cars had been running experimentally on the Deal branch.” [14] Wainwright’s railmotors, while superficially similar to the early Drummond Railmotors were actually articulated vehicles.

No. 3 is shown below on a public domain image found on the Westerham Heritage website. The same image appears on the dedicated webpage for Westerham Station on the Disused Stations website. [15] Disused Stations website tells us that the apparent side tanks on the locomotive portion of the unit “were actually coal bunkers, … with water carried in well tanks. The rail-motors were of the articulated type and the fairly conventional engine portions were built by Messrs Kitson. … Following eventual withdrawal the carriage portions were converted into four two-car hauled sets circa 1923, two of which were articulated twins while the other two were non-articulated push-and-pull sets.” [15]

“The coach portion of  [SECR] No. 3 was paired with that of No. 8 to form an articulated twin set No.514. The other articulated twin became set No.513, formed from railmotors 1 and 2. Both articulated pairs, which were unique to the Southern Railway, are known to have survived until at least 1959.” [15]

After his experience with the LSWR Railmotors and after modifications had been made, Drummond ordered a further fifteen steam railmotors for the LSWR. These new railcars/railmotors were numbered 1 to 15. The earliest ‘experimental’ Railmotors were ignored in this new numbering system.

The first two were built in 1904 in two parts, “the engines at Nine Elms and the carriages at Eastleigh, and were designated H12 class. These were two feet (600 mm) shorter than the earlier cars, seated eight in first class and thirty-two in third.” [8: p119-120] Nos 1 & 2 “displayed a fully enclosed engine part, encased in a rather severe ‘tin tabernacle’.” [1: p14]

Thirteen more were built in 1905–6 to slightly different design, as class H13. [8: p120-122] These had the boiler pressure increased from 150 psi (1.0 MPa) to 175 psi (1.21 MPa). Engines and carriages were not detachable and these units were capable of towing an additional carriage. [9: p26,28] After the outbreak of World War I limited the work available for railmotors, the joint stock was taken out of service in 1914 and by 1916 only three units remained in service, to be withdrawn in 1919.” [6][9: p24,28] These units had “a very neatly enclosed locomotive portion embodying ‘coachbuilt’ styling.” [1: p14]

References

1. David Jenkinson & Barry C. Lane; British Railcars: 1900-1950; Pendragon Partnership and Atlantic Transport Publishers, Penryn, Cornwall, 1996.
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_steam_railcars, accessed on 11th June 2024.
3. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Dugald_Drummond, accessed on 11th June 2024.
4. D. L. Bradley; Locomotives of the L.S.W.R. Part 2; Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, 1967, p2.
5. J.E. Chacksfield; The Drummond Brothers: A Scottish Duo; Oakwood Press, Usk, 2005, p89.
6. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_steam_railcars, accessed on 14th June 2024.
7. R.M. Tufnell; The British Railcar: AEC to HST; David and Charles, 1984.
8. D.L. Bradley; Locomotives of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway. Part 3; Railway Correspondence and Travel Society Press, London, 1974.
9. R.W. Rush; British Steam Railcars; Oakwood Press, 1970.
10. https://victorianweb.org/victorian/technology/railways/locomotives/27.html, accessed on 16th June 2024.
11. https://www.flickr.com/photos/29903115@N06/48434232291, accessed on 15th June 2024.
12. https://www.westerhamheritage.org.uk/condtent/catalogue_item/steam-railmotor-number-3, accessed on 15th June 2024.
13. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Wainwright, accessed on 15th June 2024.
14. The Locomotive Magazine Volume 11 No. 150, February 1905, p20.
15. Nick Catford; Westerham Station; http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/westerham/index1.shtml, accessed on 15th June 2024.
16. The Locomotive Magazine Volume 12 No. 162, February 1906, p18; sourced as a .pdf file via:  https://www.oldminer.co.uk/pdf, accessed on 15th June 2024.