Strange name

This forum is for the discussion of the locomotives, motive power, and rolling stock of the LNER and its constituent companies.

Moderators: 52D, Tom F, Rlangham, Atlantic 3279, Blink Bonny, Saint Johnstoun, richard

neilgow
H&BR Q10 0-8-0
Posts: 187
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 8:43 pm

Strange name

Post by neilgow »

Today, I came across a 1971 copy of Loco Profiles featuring the LNER A4. Quite interesting, however one photograph showed an A4 named "BRYAN" in LNER colours. Bearing in mind this was well before Photoshop and the Magic Roundabout, do you suppose it was a wind up by someone at shed/works level or it genuinely occured. I know the LNER renamed some A4's after the war to commerate LNER directors, war heros and countries of the Empire.

Thanks.

NG
mick b
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 3727
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 4:43 pm

Re: Strange name

Post by mick b »

One of three A4's named on the whim of Sir Charles Newton after his children and then back to correct names . He even got one named after himself as well.
User avatar
richard
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 3385
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:11 pm
Location: Wichita Falls, Texas
Contact:

Re: Strange name

Post by richard »

The plates were temporary wooden ones, just for the photo shoot.

And this was all in wartime...
Richard Marsden
LNER Encyclopedia
User avatar
2392
GNSR D40 4-4-0
Posts: 233
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:29 pm
Location: South of the Tyne.

Re: Strange name

Post by 2392 »

Bridget I think was one of the other Newton children, what's more the "loco numbers" were I believe the birth year of each of the 3 children too.
User avatar
52D
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 3968
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:50 pm
Location: Reallocated now between the Lickey and GWR
Contact:

Re: Strange name

Post by 52D »

Correct in all aspects 2392.
Hi interested in the area served by 52D. also researching colliery wagonways from same area.
Muzza
LNER N2 0-6-2T
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:22 am
Location: Mareeba, Australia

Re: Strange name

Post by Muzza »

I believe the loco involved was 4486 - Merlin.

I'm sure I've seen photos of all three names, but a photo of "Bryan" can be found on the link below.

http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection/pho ... DON_44_155
Last edited by Muzza on Sat May 02, 2015 7:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
swhite01
NER J27 0-6-0
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:11 pm
Location: Hertfordshire

Re: Strange name

Post by swhite01 »

There are photos of all 3, from memory, in the OPC book "Power of the A4s"
Steve


Www.gnrsociety.com
User avatar
sawdust
GCR D11 4-4-0 'Improved Director'
Posts: 423
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 7:27 pm
Location: North Yorkshire

Re: Strange name

Post by sawdust »

richard wrote:The plates were temporary wooden ones, just for the photo shoot.

And this was all in wartime...
Nice to know people still maintained a sense of fun!

Sawdust.
jwealleans
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 4208
Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:46 am

Re: Strange name

Post by jwealleans »

A very generous way of describing it, IMHO.
Bryan
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 2224
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:48 pm
Location: York

Re: Strange name

Post by Bryan »

Nice to see that they have spelt my name correctly.
v3man
LNER J39 0-6-0
Posts: 172
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 10:54 pm
Location: by the West Somerset Railway

Re: Strange name

Post by v3man »

According to the RCTS Green Book 2A it was the three children of a newly appointed director of the LNER, Fitzherbert Wright, whose names were used. The locomotive was indeed Merlin and the names were Brigid 1928, Davina 1931 and Bryan 1934, the numbers being their year of birth. The locomotive was in black livery and only treated to the three names and numbers, presumably for photographic reasons, on the left-hand side. The fact that this was carried out on 10th August 1944 with the war still raging was rather surprising!
Muzza
LNER N2 0-6-2T
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:22 am
Location: Mareeba, Australia

Re: Strange name

Post by Muzza »

I wish my dad was an LNER director...... :)
Hatfield Shed
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 1664
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:34 pm

Re: Strange name

Post by Hatfield Shed »

v3man wrote:...The fact that this was carried out on 10th August 1944 with the war still raging was rather surprising!
A little fun as light relief is necessary and healthy, and this pales into insignificance beside what some got up to.

RAF crew using their combat aircraft to 'beat up' another squadron's airfield with toilet rolls for example. That was late 1940, with the U boat campaign leaving the UK with about three weeks food reserves on the ration then in force and aviation fuel shortages.
giner
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 1548
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:17 am
Location: Alberta - ex. Stevenage

Re: Strange name

Post by giner »

:D Love it! Got any more 'war stories' like that, HS?
Hatfield Shed
LNER A4 4-6-2 'Streak'
Posts: 1664
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:34 pm

Re: Strange name

Post by Hatfield Shed »

I'd start you off on Guy Gibson's 'Enemy Coast Ahead' from which that event came; the story it has to tell is one everyone should know, and did they get up to tricks in between missions.

My favourite 'from the horse's mouth' was a fellow called 'Savage' whom I had the joy of managing for a short while very early in my working life. An extremely capable man, who with better education could have gone far, but the pre-war East end didn't provide that. Came the war and conscription, his occupation of stevedore saw him trained to drive a truck in Army Transport, in which role he embarked on a life of undetected crime. He came to work in battledress trousers - this was 1971 - which I noticed and asked about; these were from a 'stash' he had built up during WWII. He had gone into motor transport post war (and would still have been doing it but an injury had ended that) on the basis of a truck which he 'acquired' from the army transport pool - and I do believe he was capable of it. (Among other things, you never saw a man more gifted at getting into locked cars for those colleagues who had left the keys inside and the like, ten seconds and no apparent effort, all very casual looking.)
Post Reply