Odd Names For Locos (compared to rest of the class)

[tbtc]

Growing up in Scotland in the 1980s, the Class 50s seemed exotic, being confined to seemingly exotic parts of the country at the time...

...and they had such glorious names to inspire a schoolboy...

...Fearless...
...Thunderer...
...Conqueror...
...Monarch...
...Revenge...
...Dauntless...
...Defiance...
...Indomitable...
...Courageous...
...Glorious...
...Formidable...
...Triumph...

...and Rodney. Rodney Yes, there was a battleship with that name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rodney_(29)), but surely there were more "macho" names that British Rail could have used, I used to think. Rodney (in the 1980s) was the name of that plonker from Nelson Mandela House, Peckham.

So, going for the days of "themed" namings, are there any named locos that you ever felt were the "black sheep" of their class?

Another example was 47712 - Lady Diana Spencer - not sure why the "Princess Of Wales" had her name amongst the "Scottish" themed names of the other 47/7s (with names like Scotland's own Saints Cuthbert and Mungo, Dunedin, Sir Walter Scott and Greyfriars Bobby) - she always felt like the odd one out.

 

[bigdelboy]

Class 42: D812 : The Royal Naval Reserve 1859–1959

Wikipedia also indicated D800: Sir Brian Robertson

.....

Deltics were mostly racehorses ... except some where regiments

 

[Bodiddly]

37424 Glendarroch
I always thought it was a bit strange to have named a loco after the fictional tv village in 'Take the high road'.

 

[Taunton]

Deltics were mostly racehorses ... except some where regiments

Other way round. The Deltics were originally un-named, and allocated in batches of three to the depots at Finsbury Park, Gateshead and Haymarket. Finsbury Park soon named theirs after racehorses in the LNER tradition, whereupon the other two depots named theirs after army regiments from their own local area. A numerical list therefore has the names as Horse, Geordie regiment, Scottish regiment, Horse, Geordie regiment, Scottish regiment, etc.

 

[Oswyntail]

....and Rodney. Rodney Yes, there was a battleship with that name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rodney_(29)), but surely there were more "macho" names that British Rail could have used, I used to think. Rodney (in the 1980s) was the name of that plonker from Nelson Mandela House, Peckham....

Of the ones listed, I would suggest that Rodney was the most distinguished warship, notably for blasting Bismark to the sea floor and for her part in the Malta story. Ended up as fleet flagship as well.

 

[bigdelboy]

Looking at http://www.class47.co.uk/c47_data_430_8c.php?opt=8c

to revive my memory of the very small number of class 47's named the mid-60's we have.

12-03-1965 D1666 ODIN
20-03-1965 D1661 NORTH STAR
20-03-1965 D1662 ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL
08-05-1965 D1663 SIR DANIEL GOOCH
08-05-1965 D1664 GEORGE JACKSON CHURCHWARD
08-06-1965 D1660 CITY OF TRURO
00-08-1965 D1670 MAMMOTH
00-08-1965 D1672 COLOSSUS
00-09-1965 D1671 THOR
00-09-1965 D1674 SAMSON & Samson
00-10-1965 D1668 ORION
00-10-1965 D1676 VULCAN
00-11-1965 D1675 Amazon
00-03-1966 D1665 TITAN
31-03-1966 D1669 PYTHON
00-06-1966 D1667 ATLAS
00-06-1966 D1673 CYCLOPS
29-08-1966 D1677 THOR

D1660 is named (I assume) after another loco, 3 after people, most of the others after mythological Gods/etc (or I suppose star systems); thought I suppose NORTH STAR might be an oddity though it is locomotive name also. SAMSON is also possibly out of place.

These loco's I believe were on the Western Region. It was only 1978+ further loco's began to get names.

 

[HSTEd]

...Fearless...
...Thunderer...
...Conqueror...
...Monarch...
...Revenge...
...Dauntless...
...Defiance...
...Indomitable...
...Courageous...
...Glorious...
...Formidable...
...Triumph...

...and Rodney.

Those are all RN capital ship names.

 

[Topgun333]

Rodney was indeed a famous WWII capital ship of the RN. Named after Admiral George Rodney who led the fleet to victory against the French at the Battle of the Saintes off the east coast of America in 1782.

The forename Rodney also originates with Admiral George Rodney as it became a popular boy's name following the Saintes victory.

So it all ties in including that plonker from Peckham.

 

[DarloRich]

Rodney....

HMS Rodney was a Nelson class battleship of the 2nd World War, built by Cammel Laird in Birkenhead and launched in 1925. She was involved in the sinking of the Bismark and provided naval gunfire support to the Torch landings in North Africa, the landings at Salerno and Scilly landings in Italy, and also the D-Day landings before being scrapped in 1938.

HMS Rodney was named after Admiral George Brydges Rodney who is most famous his victory over the French at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782 and victory over the Spanish at Cape St Vincent in 1780. It is often claimed that he was the commander to have pioneered the tactic of "breaking the line" as used by Nelson at Trafalgar to deal with our French and Spanish friends.

So I think the name is “macho” enough!

As an aside Rodney was first used as a given name in honour of Lord Rodney – So while it might be a bit plonkerish now is does have some “macho” connotations!

Saint Cuthbert

Not sure he was a Scottish saint - there may be a challenge from both Northumberland and Durham over that one!

(Although I will concede he did wander over the borders and is associated with Melrose)

 

[BlythPower]

Another example was 47712 - Lady Diana Spencer - not sure why the "Princess Of Wales" had her name amongst the "Scottish" themed names of the other 47/7s (with names like Scotland's own Saints Cuthbert and Mungo, Dunedin, Sir Walter Scott and Greyfriars Bobby) - she always felt like the odd one out.

hock:

 

[D6975]

Other way round. The Deltics were originally un-named, and allocated in batches of three to the depots at Finsbury Park, Gateshead and Haymarket. Finsbury Park soon named theirs after racehorses in the LNER tradition, whereupon the other two depots named theirs after army regiments from their own local area. A numerical list therefore has the names as Horse, Geordie regiment, Scottish regiment, Horse, Geordie regiment, Scottish regiment, etc.

They weren't as uniform as that.
001 St Paddy
003 Meld
2 racehorses only 2 apart.

007 Pinza
009 Alycidon
ditto

similarly
019 Royal Highland Fusilier
021 Argyll and Sutherland Highlander

 

[Topgun333]

50007 was named Hercules originally but renamed Sir Edward Elgar in 1984. That definitely put it out of synch with the rest of the class bearing naval names.

 

[plastictaffy]

Class 60's were all named after famous people, mountains, industrialists, inventors etc. Except 60001. This was given the very catchy moniker of Steadfast. Why??

 

[TheEdge]

Got to love one particular Jubilee. Most of them named after ships of the Royal Navy, British colonies and great historical figures.

Then, 5655/45655 Keith. Always makes me giggle, I know its named after a famous figure, but still.

 

[Taunton]

The original WR Warships had the names of naval ships allocated for the main series up to D865 in alphabetical order, ending with Zealous. When the build programme was extended by another five locos, to D870, some keen naval historian at Swindon managed to find a further five ship names in alphabetical order after that to keep the sequence, which is why so many Warships had names starting with Z.

D1660 is named (I assume) after another loco, 3 after people, most of the others after mythological Gods/etc (or I suppose star systems); thought I suppose NORTH STAR might be an oddity though it is locomotive name also. SAMSON is also possibly out of place.

These loco's I believe were on the Western Region. It was only 1978+ further loco's began to get names.

Those Greek etc names on the early WR Class 47s were actually taken from the names of the earliest GWR Broad Gauge locos. North Star was the first loco ever built at Swindon. Unusually, the main passenger locos on the Broad Gauge had only names, no numbers.

Speaking of numbers, the GWR Castle which had the straightforward number 4009 was renumbered 100A1, and renamed Lloyds, after an insurance expression used at Lloyds. It is reasonably common to give names of various prominent contacts the railway has, but to do an oddball renumbering like this is, I believe, unique. Apparently all the engineering records and even stampings on parts were solemnly done as 100A1.

 

[Oswyntail]

Class 60's were all named after famous people, mountains, industrialists, inventors etc. Except 60001. This was given the very catchy moniker of Steadfast. Why??

IIRC, this was the name by which the class was referred to in the design phase. It was supposed to convey reliability(!) strength and speed - which, tbh, it does quite well. It was only as the locos were about to be rolled out that the Mountains/Scientists/Inventors theme was chosen.
Similarly, Class 91 was known as the "Electra" Class, though I don't think any member actually carried that name. Sadly, there was no subsequent theme other than a general East Coast and connections, so the ever changing list of names is a real hotchpotch.
I would like to put in a word for the proper Class 92 names (We shall ignore Bart and his ilk). Generally named after top rank, well known figures of high culture from Britain and Europe, "Sweelinck" comes as a surprise (a somewhat minor composer). And then there is "Louis Armand" - not a cultural figure but a leader of teh French Resistance.