Steam Days Magazine - March preview

THE ‘ROYAL SCOT’ NAMEPLATES AND THEIR CRESTS

March 2021 | £4.80

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GREAT WESTERN AND IN FULL BR(wR) ‘CASTLES’ COLOUR

MARCH 2021 £4.80

PLUS ‘MAD AS A MARCH HARE’ – 5,305 STEAM-HAULED MILES IN A MONTH!

TRAINS THAT WENT BACKWARDS

CHANGING TIMES AT MIDDLETON 1958-1970

No 379

Cover: Having passed beneath the overbridge used by empty coaching stock trains between Old Oak Common sidings and Paddington, Great Western ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0 No 4080 Powderham Castle heads for Cardiff (General) on Saturday, 13 August 1960 with the down 1F46 3.55pm ‘Capitals United Express’. Four months previously this ‘Castle’ class engine was released from Swindon Works after a heavy intermediate repair. R C Riley

March 2021

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Trains of thought

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The ‘Royal Scot’ nameplates and crests John Magnall looks at the LMS naming policy for the ‘Royal Scot’ class, and the company’s negotiations with the various regiments as the military theme expanded through much of the fleet.

14 Trains that went backwards – and other odd manoeuvres Eric Stuart offers a detailed account of the various fascinating station movements performed in the days of steam by arriving and departing trains in the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe.

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Uniquely linked with the industries it served, the Middleton Railway used siding space at Clayton, Son & Co, Sentinel No 54 leading this line up, circa 1968.

J Fairman/Kidderminster Railway Museum

EDITORIAL & DESIGN Rex Kennedy, Andrew Kennedy, Andrew Wilson, Roger Smith and Ian Kennedy 64 Littledown Drive, Bournemouth BH7 7AH 01202 304849 red.gauntlett@gmail.com ADVERTISING Craig Amess 01507 529537 camess@mortons.co.uk Fiona Leak 01507 529573 fleak@mortons.co.uk Group advertising manager: Sue Keily skeily@mortons.co.uk Publisher: Tim Hartley Publishing director: Dan Savage

MORTONS MEDIA GROUP LTD Sales and distribution manager: Carl Smith Marketing manager: Charlotte Park Commercial director: Nigel Hole

29 STEAM DAYS in Colour 195: The Collett ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0s The Great Western ‘Castle’ class came on to the scene in 1923 and was known to be the most powerful express passenger type in the country. We pay tribute to the class through the 1950s and 1960s work of the late Dick Riley.

ARCHIVE Enquiries: Jane Skayman 01507 529423 jskayman@mortons.co.uk

36 Steam Days subscriptions

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MARCH 2021

38 Changing times at the Middleton Railway 1958-1970 Vice President of the Middleton Railway Trust, Ian B Smith records the evolution of an industrial railway into a pioneer of standard gauge preservation.

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‘Mad as a March Hare’ Having achieved his life-long ambition of 100,000 steam-hauled miles, Keith Widdowson details one particular month in 1967 during which over 5,000 miles were covered.

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Reviews

66

Tail Lamp – readers’ letters www.steamdaysmag.co.uk

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TRAINS of thought

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Next month...

The GWR De Glehn Compounds Lcomotives of Carlisle (Canal) engine shed The RCTS London River Rail Tour of 29 March 1958 Coal from Arigna LMS Stanier and Fairburn 2-6-4Ts in full colour On sale Thursday, 18 March 2021

n this issue of Steam Days we look at the naming policy of the LMS ‘Royal Scots’ and the negotiations between the LMS and the regiments whose names and crests were affixed to engines of the class. We are fortunate that we can show correspondence that took place between the LMS and the regiments concerning ‘Royal Scot’ namings.

From my early days of trainspotting in 1942, I always found it interesting how locomotive names were selected, and how classes followed a theme. When I took up the hobby at the age of eight I only recorded named locomotives in my notebook until I acquired my first Ian Allan abc, which originally was just the GWR version. Living in Worcester at the time I had favourite named locomotives such as ‘Bulldog’ 4-4-0 Pershore Plum, and 4-6-0s Bride of Lammermoor, Swallowfield Park, Princess Helena, Ivanhoe, Builth Castle, St Donats Castle and Tresco Abbey.

When I formed my publishing company in 1993 I named it after one of the first named locomotives that I saw, Redgauntlet, GWR ‘Saint’ class 4-6-0 No 2983, an engine that was withdrawn in March 1946. I was fascinated when one day I saw Great Western ‘Castle’ A1 Lloyd’s at Worcester shed, with the name Lloyd’s mounted above the centre driving wheel, but the plate A1 sat below the locomotive’s number – 100 – on the cabside.

I was fortunate to witness the railway scene prior to the nationalisation in 1948, visiting places like Manchester (London Road) station, spending time at my aunt’s in the holidays, and at Birmingham’s New Street and Snow Hill stations, and lineside at Tamworth, Gloucester, Reading, and on holidays to Bournemouth, North Wales and the West Country. On the Southern, I was fascinated with the names and crests on the ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacifics and the ‘West Country’ class with their town crests on these engines with their air-smoothed casing.

On the LMS, I would regularly cycle out the three miles to Abbotswood Junction near to where the main Birmingham to Bristol main line passed beneath the GWR line to and from Paddington, where we would see LMS ‘Jubilees’ carrying nameplates depicting British Empire states and countries, ships and admirals. As some of these states changed identities, a few ‘Jubilees’ were fitted with updated nameplates, and I recall seeing No 45610 carrying the name Gold Coast before being renamed Ghana in 1958.

During my early spotting days, Manchester (London Road) station was the only place that I would see any named LNER locomotives, and then it was only the ‘Footballers’ in the station’s far platform, from where I would stand as these LNER engines worked over the former Great Central line to Sheffield. Many of the nameplates of the ‘Footballers’, complete with a ‘football’ beneath the curved nameplate, are held and displayed by the club that the name represents. In the same vain, from 1968 to 1970, when working at Holkham Hall in Norfolk, the nameplate, Holkham, off ‘Sandringham’ No 60601 was displayed in the hall there. I am sure that others find the naming of locomotives interesting too. Enjoy your read, and your own memories.

Steam Days Magazine ‘B17/6’ ‘Footballer’ class 4-6-0 No. 61662 Manchester United at Liverpool Street station on 9 April 1957. Clearly seen is the brass football in the red panel beneath the curve of the nameplate. R C Riley

MARCH 2021

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