Brunel, the Engineer responsible for the Great Western Railway, appointed Daniel Gooch locomotive superintendent to the company; and it was his responsibility to provide the locomotives, the accommodation for them and the running and the repair shops. Gooch suggested a green field site, New Swindon, and this was to lead to the building of a railway works, a railway village and eventually the town of Swindon. Swindon was not the only example of railway town or community that was created in England: Crewe being another. Locomotive superintendent Initially, when a railway company chose to build its own rolling stock in house, the mechanical engineering aspect was regarded as a subsidiary function to that of the chief engineer and this was reflected in various job titles, such as chief of locomotive department, locomotive foreman and locomotive superintendent. Later, there was a desire to improve the prestige, and salary, of the locomotive superintendent and a means of achieving those aims was to seek to regrade the post as chief mechanical engineer (CME). John Aspinall of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was the first CME to be appointed to that post in 1886. A further six British railway companies created the post of CME between 1902 and 1914. Functions The chief mechanical engineer was responsible for all aspects of locomotives and that included their design, testing and modification of existing designs. The early mechanical engineer was concerned with mechanical moving parts and for many years this responsibility also included railway signalling, particularly points and semaphore signals, as these were entirely mechanically operated. With the introduction of low-power electricity to the railways, various new systems such as telegraphs, telephones and electrical signalling systems were introduced; and responsibilities of these systems were transferred to the signal and telegraph (S&T) department. Prominent examples R. J. Billinton London, Brighton and South Coast Railway 1890–1904 L. B. Billinton London, Brighton and South Coast Railway 1912–1922 Oliver Bulleid Southern Railway, 1937–1948 Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) (Ireland), 1950–1958 George Jackson Churchward Great Western Railway, 1902–1921 Charles Collett Great Western Railway 1921–1941 Dugald Drummond North British Railway 1875–1882 Caledonian Railway 1882–1890 London and South Western Railway 1895–1912 Peter Drummond Highland Railway 1896–1911 Glasgow and South Western Railway 1912–1918 Henry Fowler Midland Railway, 1909–1923 London, Midland and Scottish Railway, 1925–1931 Daniel Gooch Great Western Railway, 1837–1864 John Viret Gooch London and South Western Railway, 1841–1850 Nigel Gresley Great Northern Railway, 1911–1922 London