"Sir Frank Whittle"

[EbbwJunction1]

The Midlands Air Museum outside Coventry has in it's Whittle Collection what looks like a locomotive nameplate bearing the name "Sir Frank Whittle".

I'd like to know which engine this came off, but I'm having no luck in finding out. I've asked the Museum, and they say that it came off a Battle of Britain Class Light Pacific, but there's no trace of such a locomotive in any of the lists of names that I have found.

It actually looks a lot more modern than the ones on the Bullied Pacifics as it is very similar to the ones that have been put on locos and HSTs in the last few years. I do have an image of it, but I'm afraid that I don't know how to include it here!

So, does anyone know where this is from, please? Thank you; if you have any questions, please let me know.

 

[randyrippley]

two of the withdrawn trams on the West Midlands Metro carried "Sir Frank Whittle" nameplates at different times
https://infogalactic.com/info/Midland_Metro_rolling_stock

this is the second tram to carry the name
http://www.rail.co.uk/images/6746/o...rhampton-4-August-2014-p-John-Whitehouse.jpeg

its hard to make out, but is that the nameplate under the leading side windows?

a better photo - I think this is the proof
https://www.flickr.com/photos/go_to_metrogogo/15819134800/

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I'm sure that you're right, so the search is over - thanks very much for your help.

 

[DarloRich]

worth noting that few people know that a lot of the ground breaking work undertaken by Whittle was at the British Thomson-Houston (BTH) factory in Rugby. In 1937 Frank Whittle‘s company built the first prototype jet engine there. I believe the site of the works is where the ROC is currently situated.

 

[matt]

worth noting that few people know that a lot of the ground breaking work undertaken by Whittle was at the British Thomson-Houston (BTH) factory in Rugby. In 1937 Frank Whittle‘s company built the first prototype jet engine there. I believe the site of the works is where the ROC is currently situated.

No the works still exist and is now part of General Electric.

 

[DarloRich]

No the works still exist and is now part of General Electric.

Oh. Thanks. Duff gen from the ROC people then.

(they have gone full circle then as BTH was a subsidiary of GE at one point )

 

[30907]

A little detail - all BB nameplates had "Battle of Britain Class" in small letters underneath the main name.

 

[70014IronDuke]

A little detail - all BB nameplates had "Battle of Britain Class" in small letters underneath the main name.

Well, yes, but the fact is that even anyone who has never seen a Can can, in the age of google, do a two-minute search and clearly learn that no Bulleid pacific was ever named Sir Frank Whittle.

Indeed, the good Sir Frank had nothing to do with the Battle of Britain (as far as I know), he was too busy working on his jet engine, I should think.

He should have been nominated for Britannia 70047, but perhaps they were only naming locos after deceased heroes and heroines of the land? (Lord Hurcombe excepted?)

But you have made me notice a certain supreme irony - the fact that no Bulleid pacific carried the names Sir Sidney Camm (chief designer of the Hurricane) nor R J Mitchell (ditto, Spitfire).

And in turn, I've only just realised poor Mitchell didn't even get a knighthood. I have to say, the honours system is a bloody disgrace! Britain certainly fails to honour its engineers.

 

[DarloRich]

Well, yes, but the fact is that even anyone who has never seen a Can can, in the age of google, do a two-minute search and clearly learn that no Bulleid pacific was ever named Sir Frank Whittle.

Indeed, the good Sir Frank had nothing to do with the Battle of Britain (as far as I know), he was too busy working on his jet engine, I should think.

He should have been nominated for Britannia 70047, but perhaps they were only naming locos after deceased heroes and heroines of the land? (Lord Hurcombe excepted?)

But you have made me notice a certain supreme irony - the fact that no Bulleid pacific carried the names Sir Sidney Camm (chief designer of the Hurricane) nor R J Mitchell (ditto, Spitfire).

And in turn, I've only just realised poor Mitchell didn't even get a knighthood. I have to say, the honours system is a bloody disgrace! Britain certainly fails to honour its engineers.

Mitchell died of cancer in 1937 at the age of 42 - could those in charge of the honours system see the future? He was awarded a CBE and I assume if he had lived a Knighthood would have followed.

 

[Western Lord]

Oh. Thanks. Duff gen from the ROC people then.

(they have gone full circle then as BTH was a subsidiary of GE at one point )

The current (American) General Electric is nothing to do with the former (British) General Electric which always styled itself "GEC" to avoid confusion with the entirely unrelated American company.

 

[DarloRich]

The current (American) General Electric is nothing to do with the former (British) General Electric which always styled itself "GEC" to avoid confusion with the entirely unrelated American company.

I thought BTH was a subsidiary of GE of Schenectady, New York and that was the company currently occupying the site - not doing very well here am I?

 

[Western Lord]

I thought BTH was a subsidiary of GE of Schenectady, New York and that was the company currently occupying the site - not doing very well here am I?

BTH was originally founded in 1894 as a British subsidiary of US General Electric, but was sold into British ownership in 1928 and became part of Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), which was bought by (British) GEC in 1967. The following year they swallowed up English Electric to become one of the biggest industrial conglomerates in the UK.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

A little detail - all BB nameplates had "Battle of Britain Class" in small letters underneath the main name.

Well, yes, but the fact is that even anyone who has never seen a Can can, in the age of google, do a two-minute search and clearly learn that no Bulleid pacific was ever named Sir Frank Whittle.

Indeed, the good Sir Frank had nothing to do with the Battle of Britain (as far as I know), he was too busy working on his jet engine, I should think.

Oh, yes, I knew straight away that this was incorrect when I was told by the museum that that was where the nameplate had come from.

This was for two reasons; firstly the nameplate was far too large and the wrong shape, and I knew that there hadn't been a BB loco with this name.