David C. Curwen (30 November 1913 – 26 May 2011) was an English miniature railway steam locomotive mechanical engineer.
Born in Sydenham, South London, and educated at King's School, Canterbury,[1] Curwen worked from 1935 to 1945 for Short Brothers in Rochester as an aircraft engineer.
In 1946, he established his own engineering firm, Baydon. In 1950 he married Barbara Willans, an actress. In 1951 he became Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for its first year of preservation.[2]
At the end of the 1951 season, he returned to Devizes, Wiltshire where he went into partnership with A.E. Newbery to create Curwen and Newbery. He left the partnership in 1966 and established his own workshop at All Cannings, Wiltshire.[1]
He published his autobiography titled Rule of Thumb in 2006, and a review of his work was published as The Miniature Locomotives of David Curwen in 2008, by Dave Holdroyd.[citation needed]