Born on 25 October 1834 into the Mancunian middle class, David Jones spent part of his apprenticeship under Ramsbottom. At the age of twenty-one he joined what would soon become the Highland Railway, where he worked under Stroudley and with Dugald Drummond. In 1870 he became locomotive superintendent and, like most such occupants of that position, spent much of his time rebuilding old engines in order to extract a few more years from them. He was responsible for the Jones Goods 4-6-0 of the HR, the first 4-6-0 in Britain (1894). His other new designs tended to break away from the Allan tradition which had lasted so long in Scotland, although he continued to use the Allan link valve gear. His Loch class 4-4-0 had a very high power/weight ratio and was among the several classes carrying his special louvred chimney. This invention involved the division of the chimney into a central exhaust tube and an outer concentric ring into which air was projected through the louvre slits down the front of the chimney casing. By this means, allegedly, a draught was supplied when the engine was running with its steam cut off, as happened for long stretches on the hilly Highland line. Jones retired in 1896, after a scalding (experienced during tests of the large goods 4-6-0) had robbed him of the use of his left leg, and died in London on 2 December 1906, after a motor car accident had deprived him of the use of his other. Jones had a son, Hugh who was apprenticed at Lochgorm and left to work on the Sourh African Railways..
Atkins makes the following observations about the 4-6-0: Over the years there has been some debate as to the precise origins of the design of this, the first British 4-6-0, and as to its supposed derivation from a certain prolific Indian locomotive class. Suffice it to say that the credit for its adoption and success should fall squarely on the shoulders of David Jones, the HR Locomotive Superintendent. It says much for his original concept that, disregarding inevitable and purely superficial modifications, the engines remained basically unaltered throughout their long and useful lives. These extended well into a regime pursuing a policy of ruthless locomotive standardisation, which brought about the early demise of many more recent and more numerous examples of the same wheel arrangement from other lines.
The Highland had thus, for the moment, obviated the 0-6-0 employed by practically every other British railway except the HR's neighbour and bitter enemy, the Great North of Scotland. A 0-6-0, however, would have meant a crank axle, and crank axles did not have a place in Jones' book. Jones was a fervent disciple of Alexander Allan, but one Allan feature Jones did not perpetuate in his 4-6-0s was double framing around the outside cylinders. Allan's straight link valve gear was retained; this was basically similar to the corresponding Stephenson gear, but the link was easier and therefore cheaper to make and imparted a constant lead irrespective of cut-off. Atkins also makes it abundantly clear that the "Drummond" Castle class was: mechanically... pure Jones, although 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.
As well as discussing Jones' 4-4-0 designs, notably the Loch class, Middlemass (Scottish 4-4-0) notes that in 1890 Jones had been offered Stroudley's former position on the LBSCR following his death in Paris, and consders this to have been a highly interesting "might have been"..
Louvres for chimneys
F.C. Johansen made a written contribution (507-9) which considered Jones' louvred chimneys on the HR and the increase in air resistance induced by deflector plates..
See: H. Ellis,
Twenty locomotive men (1958).
Rutherford, Michael. David Jones of the Highland Railway and the writers: the forerunners of the 'Big Goods' 4-6-0. (Railway Reflections No.128). Backtrack, 2007, 21, 99-108.
Cormack, J.R.H. and Stevenson, J.L..Highland Railway locomotives. Book 1. Early days to the 'Lochs'. Lincoln: RCTS, 1988. 160pp. 115 illus.
Nature of Jones household in Inverness from 1881 Census: Backtrack 14, 637.
Obituary article: Locomotive Mag., 1907, 13, 26-8.
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's encyclopedia