Charles Edward Fairburn (5 September 1887 – 12 October 1945) was an English electrical engineer whose work mainly concerned rail transport.
Born in Bradford in 1887, and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, his career included railway electrification work undertaken in the 1910s at the Siemens Brothers Dynamo Works Ltd., then similar work at English Electric in the 1920s where he also was involved in electric traction development work. In 1934 he joined the London, Midland and Scottish Railway where he was responsible for the introduction of new classes of diesel-electric shunting locomotives - he became Chief Mechanical Engineer of the company in the 1940s, but died in 1945 aged 58.
Biography
Charles Edward Fairburn was born on 5 September 1887 in Bradford. After an education at Bradford Grammar School he won a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford University where he studied mathematics and engineering,[1] and obtained a first class degree.[2] After college he served two years under the tutelage of Henry Fowler at the Derby Works of the Midland Railway. He studied technical drawing at Derby, and metallurgy at Sheffield, obtaining an MA in 1912.
Fairburn was made Acting CME of the LMS when Stanier was called away on war work in 1942 at the Ministry of Production and became CME in 1944,[10] on Stanier's retirement.
In 1945 he introduced the LMS Fairburn 2-6-4T, a modified version of the LMS Stanier 2-6-4T with a shortened wheelbase,[11] and made proposals for the first mainline diesel locomotives which were carried out under his successor H.G. Ivatt.[9] (see also LMS 10000)
Fairburn died of a heart attack aged 58 on 12 October 1945. He was survived by his wife, Eleanor, with whom he had had two children.[12]
Works
Fairburn, C.E. (1938), "The trend of design of electric locomotives", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, 83 (503): 581–617, doi:10.1049/jiee-1.1938.0174
Fairburn, C. E. (1941). "Diesel shunting locomotives". Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers. 31 (161): 175–225. doi:10.1243/JILE_PROC_1941_031_028_02.
Fairburn, C. E. (1944). "The maintenance of diesel electric shunting locomotives on the L.M.S. Railway". Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers. 34 (179): 212–226. doi:10.1243/JILE_PROC_1944_034_020_02.
Fairburn, C. E. (1944). "The Electrification of the Wirral Lines of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Railway Engineering Division". The Institution of Civil Engineers Engineering Division Papers. 2 (5): 1–34. doi:10.1680/idivp.1944.13219.