Samuel Waite Johnson


Samuel Waite Johnson was an English railway engineer, and was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Midland Railway from 1873 to 1903. He was born in Bramley, Yorkshire and educated at Leeds Grammar School.

Career

Johnson learned to become an engineer at the locomotive builders E.B.Wilson and Company.
In 1859 Johnson became Acting Locomotive Superintendent at the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. In 1864 he was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. In 1866, after only two years in Scotland he replaced Robert Sinclair of the Great Eastern Railway at Stratford Works. There he stayed for seven years until moving to the Midland Railway at Derby, where he stayed until his retirement in 1904. At the time of appointment to the Midland Railway on 1 July 1873, he was paid a salary of £2,000 per year, rising to £3,500 in 1896 where it remained until his retirement on 31 December 1903.

Locomotive designs

Great Eastern Railway

See: Locomotives of the Great Eastern Railway

Midland Railway

See: Locomotives of the Midland Railway
S. W. Johnson's father, James Johnson, worked for the Great Northern Railway for sixteen years before becoming engineer of the North Staffordshire Railway. S. W. Johnson's son, also James Johnson, was locomotive superintendent of the Great North of Scotland Railway from 1890-1894.