Editing Chief mechanical engineer (section)

==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''.<ref>{{Simmons-Biddle |pages=317–318}}</ref>

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).<ref name=Simmons-112-114/> [[John Aspinall (engineer)|John Aspinall]] of the [[Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway]] was the first CME to be appointed to that post in 1886.<ref name=Simmons-112-114/> A further six British railway companies created the post of CME between 1902 and 1914.<ref name=Simmons-112-114/>