Sad sight of the final journey of 46257 City of Salford

City of Lancaster, the last one with the streamlining, and the only one to carry its BR number with the casing still on

 

8 colour photos by Tony Gillett of 46243 at Ince
https://tinyurl.com/y48bolpr

Neil

 

I believe enquiries were made about buying 46256 and a price of £2,400 given - cheaper than 60103 but what could anyone do with a Duchess back then?

Dave

 

It's strange how you can get attached to things like steam locomotives. I remember clearly going to Doncaster to do some spotting, and there, behind the station alongside the plant, were V2's A3's et al waiting scrapping....I had to leave..

 

Similarly I went to Doncaster on 18 July 1964 and A1s 60119, 60125, 60139, and 60149 were all lined up seemingly out of use at the MPD with nameplates removed, although all had tenders full of coal. Thankfully 60157 and 60158 were in steam.

Dave

 

I have it in my mind, read it somewhere, that someone wanted to buy 46243 but was blocked from doing so, I think it was something to do with already being sold to a scrap merchant and this was the block? Speaking from memory, at work today (getting ready for the annual ISO9001 inspection!!) so can't check.

 

Yes, it was Peter Beet, I think.

 

This thread led me to think about the fate of other Duchesses, including 46225, Duchess of Gloucester. A quick hunt of Wiki told me that the lady in question was born Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott and married the duke in 1935, so 46225 was named after her, and in turn 71000 was named after (and by) her husband in 1954. Are there any other instances of a husband and wife each having a loco named after them? 30453 King Arthur and 30454 Queen Guinevere, and 46222 Queen Mary and 6000 King George V spring to mind.

 

6028 and 46221.

Ellen Douglas (62688), 62685/7/93 are all in the story of the Lady of the Lake (62690) which includes an episode involving 62686. And that's probably not the half of it.

There's some other ones in the King Arthur class, Tristan (Tristram) and Iseult being one.

 

Wikipedia says there was a GWR 3031 class named Duke of Edinburgh, after Prince Albert, and there was GWR Victoria class. I'd imagine most monarch + spouse couples do, although is there a loco named after Big Phil?

See if you can convince the A1 bods to name the V4 "Camilla Parker-Bowles".

 

I'd imagine most monarch + spouse couples do, although is there a loco named after Big Phil?

Yes... Earl of Merioneth (ex Taliesin & Livingston Thompson) then transferred to a new build Fairlie at the Ffestiniog Railway.

 

It was Peter Beet. He was very disappointed...so much so he bought the Ivatt and painted it red! There was a tenuous link to 46243, as 6441 was a Lancaster loco for most of it's BR life.

 

I think I have mentioned before, but the SVR's David Williams wrote an article in Steam Railway a few years ago which referred to the fate of 46256 Sir William Stanier at Cashmores Great Bridge. In David's words:

"By then I was on quite good terms with Mr Beckett (the yard foreman), and he related a few tales, one of which stuck in my mind. In all the years that the firm had been cutting up locomotives - eventually nearly 1,000 in total - only once was a scrapping queried.

In December 1964, one of his cutting-up gang entered his bothy, and said "Boss, are you sure about this one?" It was 'Duchess' No. 46256, still respectable in its clean maroon livery after working its last train, the RCTS special from Crewe to Carlisle that brought the curtain down on the class three months previously. Mr Beckett checked his cutting list; indeed it was to be broken up.

A few years later, my colleague David Johnson told me that he had a distant connection with the Cashmore family, and found that he could have purchased this most eligible of locomotives, the ultimate in LMSR express passenger design, by bettering the £2,500 that the firm paid for it. But, even if the money had been raised and paid, where would any purchaser take it?"

 

Values are relative, £2,500 in 1964 would have put a roof over your head.

 

About £35.5k today, according to my inflation calculator. Still a bargain!

 

£50k according to mine.

 

Still a bargain!

 

Afraid it still comes back to relativity, Homes are definitely overpriced due to irresponsible lending at the tail end of the last century. You should see the house that My Dad built for £2,500 in 1964, and paying back the mortgage was hard work.