Close up of image 'lnwrrm959' showing ex-LNWR 4-6-0 Claughton No 5964's 'Patriot' nameplate with the sub-text remembering the LNWR employees who died in the 'Great War'. C1923 David Newton, of replica nameplate fame, described the naming of locomotives post-1918 at a meeting of the Keyworth & District Local History Society held on 5 July 2002. "After the war many railway companies named some of their engines to commemorate various aspects of the conflict. Thus engines with such names as "Patriot" Remembrance or Valour appeared to commemorate those railway employees who had died in the conflict. An interesting side-note on the Valour nameplates was that they eventually finished up in the parish church at Gorton, Manchester, from where they were stolen less than two weeks after arriving there. They have never been seen again to this day. Other names such as British Legion, Ypres, Mons, Haig, Somme and Verdun appeared. Other engines carried the names of individuals who had been honoured for bravery. Thus engines could be seen carrying such names as Private E. Sykes, V.C., Private W. Wood, V.C. and Lance Corporal J.A. Christie, V.C. This led to the strange situation of engineman Woods actually driving the locomotive with his own name carried on it whilst the guard on the train was none other than E. Sykes himself, surely a unique situation! |