Robert Francis Fairlie (either March 1831 or 5 April 1830[1] – 31 July 1885) was a Scottish-born railway engineer.

[2] On 11 February 1870, a formal demonstration was held, for invited guests from around the world, including: The Duke of Sutherland; Mr W. T. Mulvany, from Prussia; M. Tolme, engineer; M. Phillippe Kremer from Paris, engaged on the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod Railway; Mr Christer P. Sandberg, Swedish Consulate, London; Count Czheni, Russia; Count Alexander Berg, son of the generalissimo of the Russian army, and Viceroy of Poland; Count Bobrinski, Russia; Count Tamoyski, Hungary; Basiley Saloff, Professor of the Imperial Institute of Engineers, St. Petersburg; Charles de Schouberszki, director of the Kursk and Kharkov Railway in Russia; Count Ivan Tlabroburr, Moscow; Count von Desen, St. Petersburg; L. de Kislankske, of the Imperial Institute, St. Petersburg; Mr Preston, solicitor to the London and North Western Railway Company; Capt.

[5] But none of this stopped George England building Robert Fairlie's remarkable double-engine for the Ffestiniog Railway seven years later.

Fraser to take over the Hatcham Works and to form the Fairlie Engine & Steam Carriage Co. but George England junior died within a few months.

George England died in 1878, and by 1881 Fairlie and his wife Eliza were living at 13 Church Buildings, Clapham with their[6] children, Robert, John, Lily and Jessie (their other son, Frank, was at Charterhouse School as a boarder at the time of the 1881 Census)[7] and Robert's mother in law, Sarah England.

[8] Robert Francis Fairlie died in London on 31 July 1885 and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery.