SVR Loco Newsy News / discussions

The West Countries were all named after West Country locations. The initial plan had been for the West Countries to work on the Western Section and the BoBs to work on the Eastern Section (primarily Kent and bits of Sussex) but inevitably they got far more mixed up in practice.

The BoB names were more varied, with examples named after People (such as Sir Keith Park, Sir Archibald Sinclair); aeroplanes (Spitfire, Hurricane); Squadrons (92 Squadron, 257 Squadron); military groupings (Royal Observer Command, Anti Aircraft Command) or airfields (Tangmere, Manston) that had explicit connections to the Battle of Britain. The Southern Railway itself as a company had been very much in the frontline of the battle, suffering more damage during the war than any of the other railway companies, so I suspect naming a BoB after the then General Manager was a tacit recognition of the efforts made by all SR staff during the war, and 1940 in particular. I think the slightly convoluted name of that loco in particular (including the title "Southern Railway", not just Sir Eustace's own name) is suggestive that it was named after him on behalf of the staff, not for him specifically. I rather suspect there was a certain amount of politics involved as well!

For the record, those named after individuals, and their role in the Battle of Britian, were:

21C151 - Winston Churchill - Prime Minister
21C152 - Lord Dowding - Commanding Officer, Fighter Command
21C153 - Sir Keith Park - Air Officer Commanding, 11 Group (which was the fighter group in the front line during the Battle of Britain)
21C154 - Lord Beaverbrook - Minister of Aircraft Production
21C158 - Sir Frederick Pile - Commander in Chief, Anti Aircraft Command
21C159 - Sir Archibald Sinclair - Secretary of State for Air
34090 - Sir Eustace Missenden, Southern Railway - General Manager, Southern Railway
34109 - Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory - Air Officer Commanding, 12 Group.

Probably not the place for a bun fight about the inclusion of 34109 on that list!

Tom

 

Classification as "WC" or "BoB" followed the names: 34001 "Exeter" to 34048 "Crediton" were WC, then 34049 "Anti-Aircraft Command" to 34090 "Sir Eustace Missenden" were BoB. next 34091 "Weymouth" to 34108 "Wincanton" were WC, finally 34109 Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory" and 34110 " 66 Squadron"were BoB.
**Presumably the inclusion of Sir Eustace Missenden under the Battle of Britain class was a recognition of Missenden as General Manager of the Southern from 1941, so through the War years.

(Edit:** Sorry, as indeed mentioned in Tom's post above.)

 

There are still some tickets for the 4150 Fund's evening trip this Saturday 23rd May. A steam locomotive will haul three vintage GWR 'toplight' coaches, leaving Kidderminster 6.30pm and returning in plenty of time for connections to Stourbridge and Birmingham. All details onwww.4150.org.uk in the news section, with funds raised going to restore this steam locomotive

 

Just a heads up from the traffic notice http://www.svrlive.com/Pages/TrafficNotices.aspx. It's Timetable C all 3 days this weekend (3 steam plus Class 20 diesel) plus on Saturday 23rd are a private charter, the evening Fish and Chip DMU and the evening 4150 Fund 'toplight' train. And the weather forecast is good that day as well.

Patrick

 

And Bulleid fans will like monday 25th where both 34027 and 34053 are on service trains (34027 is doing a charter on saturday and the limited diner on sunday, while 34053 is out off the south end)

 

What is the chance that they will both be out again this weekend guess I will know on Friday as make a nice day out and the 20 is out to so all good

 

A lot depends on if either suffer a failure as SKP did SAT / SUN. leaking washout plug

 

A change to the rostered steam engines for Friday, ex-SR Bulleid Pacifics 'Sir Keith Park' and 'Taw Valley' share the duties, plus heritage diesel 'Western Courier'. On Footplate Experience duty is 'Erlestoke Manor' http://www.svr.co.uk/MeetTheLoco.aspx?id=105

 

Five engines out on Monday http://www.svr.co.uk/MeetTheLoco.aspx?id=102

Reported elsewhere but mentioned here for those that haven't seen it, 7820 Dinmore Manor is planned to attend the Manor - 50 event in November

The Stanier Mogul Fund have issued a news update http://www.staniermogulfund.org.uk/pages/index.php

2857 broke a spring last week. 1501 and diesel D8059 deputised on a heavy train. Nice pictures from the Barry Railway Carriage Trust FB page

One space has just become available on our morning Introductory Footplate Experience on July 10th http://www.svr.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?a=480

Patrick

 

Any gen on gala visitors? The lack of any info is troubling me!

 

Nothing of late unfortunately, one would hope an announcement or two would be in the pipeline with it a little over 2 months to go and that won't take long.

 

When you think this time last year we knew what was visiting it does seem rather strange we still dont know! I have my own little wishlist, but it would be nice to know for sure!

 

I think so so I'd be guessing somthing from 45690,3205,46521,6960. Although if a certain Crab's going south it'd be nice to break its journey.

 

It is weird that we have 2 guests announced for Manor 50 which is 2 months after the Autumn gala.

 

July editions of our Express Points & Web Round Up Supplement are available to download at http://www.svrlive.com/Pages/ExpressPoints.aspx, and are full of Severn Valley Railway news.

 

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