[1] He was raised at his father's house at Fleuchar Craig but then lived independently at Cherryfield Cottage in Dundee.
[2] As a mechanical engineer, he was linked to his father's firm of James Carmichael & Co (later renamed Ward Foundry), builders of one of the first railway locomotives in Scotland in 1833.
This is a most unusual wheel arrangement, with the only known examples being three locomotives, all supplied to the Dundee and Newtyle Railway by J. Carmichael in 1833.
He returned to Dundee in 1849 to join his cousin George Carmichael at Ward Foundry.
The Railwayman's Club at Guthrie Street, Dundee, is on the site of the former Ward Foundry offices and is now a listed building.