He became Locomotive Superintendent of the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR)[1] at the age of 22 and later took on the additional role of Civil Engineer.
Malcolm joined the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway at the age of 16 in 1870 as a pupil in the Locomotive Engineer's office.
That he made tremendous headway with his employers is demonstrated by the fact that when the Locomotive Superintendent, Robert Findlay, resigned due to ill health in 1876, Malcolm was appointed to succeed him in this responsible position aged only 22 years.
[2] The continuing confidence that the Directors had in Malcolm's ability was shown when he was additionally appointed Chief Civil Engineer to the Northern Counties Committee (NCC) of the Midland Railway (which the BNCR had become) in 1906.
On the civil engineering side, Bowman Malcolm's greatest achievement must be the railway bridge over the River Bann at Coleraine which opened in March 1924.
It included an opening span on the Strauss underhung bascule principle that was to be the first application of its type in the United Kingdom.