A1/A3 horse names

[Bullhead]

Wonder what the benefit was in changing the handrails. Almost seems like a make-work project to me.

The split handrail arrangement was to accommodate the top lamp bracket, which had to be lowered to provide safe clearance for operating under overhead line electrification equipment.

[Bill Bedford]

Wonder what the benefit was in changing the handrails. Almost seems like a make-work project to me.

It was done to locos that were likely to work uder the wires on the WCML

[stembok]

I'm not too sure that the introduction of the split handle arrangement on the smoke box doors on the A1s,A2s,A3s and a few V2s shopped after December 1961 had much to do with proximity to overhead wires. Though adopted at Doncaster it was not replicated when A1s 60124/129/145 and 155 were later given heavy repairs at Darlington after the closure of Doncaster to steam repairs in 1963. The reason given in the 'green book' for the change was that there were problems with the original arrangement when carrying train headboards over exhaust eddying, as the head board was above the level of the top of the smoke box . Also it could be quite a stretch for an engineman to place a lamp on the top bracket and so was probably slightly safer in the lowered position. By the time the modification was introduced,however, -early 1962- very few Pacifics would ever have the opportunity of carrying train headboards and of course there was always the alternative of placing them on the lower middle lamp iron. Many Pacifics did not receive this revised arrangement as withdrawals were already taking place at the time it was introduced.

[giner]

Also it could be quite a stretch for an engineman to place a lamp on the top bracket and so was probably slightly safer in the lowered position.

Almost sounds like 'elf and safety' were in their rehearsal stages even then.

[Sir Nigel Gresley]

The E R got in early and had their 8 Deltics named as they entered service,

I remember seeing D9003, D9007 and D9012, amongst others, at York, when new into service, without nameplates!

[stembok]

Sir Nigel Gresley: I said that the ER had their Deltics named as they entered service. For the record D9001 (2/61) & D9003 (3/61) had nameplates fitted in July 1961. All of the other Finsbury Park Deltics D9007/9/12/15/18 & 20, however, entered service with nameplates fitted, without ceremony, at Doncaster before entering service. I myself saw D9007 so fitted in early July 1961 and the naming date is given as 22/6/61, which is also given as her date of acceptance by BR. Other actual fitting dates can be found on the Napier Chronicles web site. The Gateshead and Haymarket Deltics -regimental names - were mostly named 1962- 64, but Haymarket's D9010 was not named until May 1965 almost four years after entering service.

[Sir Nigel Gresley]

@Stembok: You are correct - now that I have been able to access my notes (ie not being at work) it was only D9003 that I saw "undressed". The rest was a trick of the memory (old age)!

[Jingling Geordie]

Watto All,

I was really enjoying this until I read the blasphemy penned by BJamieson, ""Jingling Geordie" .......... perhaps the opposite," I.E. (Unsuitable for the name of an A1). A Geordie is a North-Easterner as is the new A1 and jingling suggest bright and sparkly much better suited to the Engine than a strong puff of wind that twists round and round and destroys everything it comes across. Much more suitable for a Bullied Leader Class Engine.

421

[Flamingo]

Not so sure he was a North Easterner. According to Appendix 1 of Yeadons Register, Jingling Geordie was an individual called George Heriot who was goldsmith and jeweller to King James VI of Scotland (who became James I of England). The King used JG to get loans from the City. He sounds like a decidedly dodgy person to me. Still a fine name for the NBR's engine though.

[Jingling Geordie]

Watto Flamingo,

Geordies was a term of abuse initially used by Highlanders aimed at lowland Scots who had sided with the Hanoverian King Georges so it postdates JamesV1/1st. It was latterly used for North Easterners.

I quote a Scots Air ...... "see ye Geordie whelps and their bonny women".

Scott made it up as he went along perhaps his nickname should have been "Wandering Willy"?

421

[giner]

Or "Wandering Wally"

[manna]

G'Day Gents
I married a ' bonny women' certainly nicer than ' ye Geordie whelp' Her uncle rang us one night, I passed the phone over to her as I could not understand a word he said, and even though she has lived in Australia for 47 years when she gets angry, the old Geordie accent still comes through very strong. She came from Spennymoor, Co Durham.
manna

[third-rail]

G'Day Gents
I married a ' bonny women' certainly nicer than ' ye Geordie whelp' Her uncle rang us one night, I passed the phone over to her as I could not understand a word he said, and even though she has lived in Australia for 47 years when she gets angry, the old Geordie accent still comes through very strong. She came from Spennymoor, Co Durham.
manna

was she not a mackam ????? dont know what you call someone from durham area ????

[KX6465]

At one point in my life I was married to a "Monkey Hanger" but she traded me in for a newer model!

[strang steel]

This thread seems to have been resurrected after almost four years, and the link to the A1 website shows that the initial history of 60163 has been 'airbrushed out'.

If my memory is correct (and that is by no means a regular occurrence these days), when I first agreed to be a covenanter, the loco had a name which for the life of me I cannot remember, but was something to do with the then sponsors, who I think were a Dutch engineering company. It was a two word name, but that is as far as my brain will take me.

Then the engineering company withdrew from the sponsorship agreement, and the whole project went very quiet for months. Suddenly, one evening, out of the blue I had a phone call from someone associated with the project who told me that it had been revived with a new name of Tornado and financing by covenants as far as possible.

I'm sure that someone must remember the original name.