Robert John "Bob" Essery (22 November 1930 – 23 November 2021)^[1] was a British railway modeller and historian with a particular interest in the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and one of its principal constituents, the Midland Railway (MR).

Essery was one of the founding members of the LMS Society in 1963, and particularly with David Jenkinson has authored many books. He worked in his early working years as a fireman on the LMS. Essery also established the historical journals Midland Record and LMS Journal. From 1999 in collaboration with the National Railway Museum, Essery with others have produced monographs on individual locomotive classes.