Going loco for a diesel
QUESTION
Why were certain diesel locomotives known as warships?
THESE 76 locomotives built between 1957 and 1962 were the warship class, with all but two named after Royal Navy ships. They were diesel-powered using a hydraulic transmission system.
All were allocated from new to the Western Region of British Railways as replacements for the King and Castle classes of steam locomotives on frontline express passenger services.
They were built in three batches and were later given the BR power classifications of types 41, 42 and 43.
The five type 41s were built in 1957 and 1958 by the North British Locomotive Company (NBLC) in Glasgow and were numbered D600 to D604.
The second batch of 38 type 42 locos were built in house at BR Western Region’s Swindon works between 1958 and 1961. These were numbered D800 to D832 and D866 to D870.
The final 33 type 43 locos were built by NBLC between 1960 and 1962, and were numbered D833 to D865.
There were mechanical differences and modifications: the curvy class 42s and 43s were externally virtually identical while the type 41s had a squarer front end design forward of the driving cab.
These locomotives were in service for only around 15 years, with the last one, a type 42, being withdrawn at the end of 1972. In comparison, the Kings and Castles they replaced were built with an expected lifetime of at least 30 years.
They were not reliable, suffering from problems with the hydraulic transmission system, especially the type 43s.
British Rail politics played a part as the Western Region found itself under pressure from central management to abandon diesel hydraulics in favour of diesel-electric propulsion in order to fall into line with other regions.
Unfortunately, no class 41s or 43s have been preserved. However, two type 42s have escaped the scrapman. D821 Greyhound at the Severn Valley Railway and D832 Onslaught at the East Lancashire Railway are in working order.
Keith Faulkner, Tamworth, Staffs.
QUESTION When did the name Karen become an insult?
THE Karen meme — an idea, behaviour or trend that spreads through imitation into popular culture — burst on to the scene a couple of years ago to describe middle-aged, white women who are perceived to be acting inappropriately, rudely or in an entitled manner.
It is descended from an older meme known as the ‘Can I speak to the manager’ haircut: long and flat across the forehead, angled up to the crown and streaked with highlights. This style was popularised by TV personality Sharon Osbourne.
The use of Karen as a pejorative term has been traced to the 2004 film Mean Girls, which featured the line: ‘Oh, my God, Karen — you can’t just ask people why they’re white.’
Its explosion in recent times has closer links to a 2017 contributor to the internet forum Reddit, whose diatribes against his former wife Karen went viral.
It coincided with social media shaming of white women who called the police on black people. In May 2018, a California woman earned the nickname Barbecue Becky for reporting black men using a charcoal BBQ in a park to the police.
Fast forward to the Black Lives Matter protests when insults coalesced around the name Karen. It is used by the virtue- signalling, millennial middle classes who look down on such middleaged women.
When the feminist Julie Bindel asked the question: ‘Does anyone else think the Karen slur is woman-hating and based on class prejudice?’ it caused an outpouring of invective against Bindel and Karens in general, rather proving her point.
Mrs Mary Kynaston, Brockham, Surrey. THE name Karen is the Danish diminutive of Katherine and has been used as a Christian name since the 12th century.
Katherine comes from the Greek Aikaterina, which is of uncertain etymology. One theory is that it was derived from Hecate, the name of the Greek goddess of magic.
In the early Christian era, it was associated with the Greek adjective katharos, meaning pure.
Karen became a popular girl’s name in the Sixties, which is why it has been used to define women of a certain age.
T. M. Taylor, Holkham, Norfolk.
QUESTION Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver for identifying Christ to the authorities. What was its value then and what would the value be today?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, which calculated that 30 pieces of silver was equivalent to a third of a year’s wages at the time, it is interesting that one-time tax collector, Matthew — the only Gospel writer to mention the amount for which Jesus was betrayed — goes on to record what happened to this blood money.
Matthew 27:3-8 records how Judas attempted to return the money to the chief priest and elders, but ‘cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, departed and hanged himself’.
The chief priests saw the coins as ‘the price of blood’ and ‘bought with them the Potter’s Field to bury strangers in . . . called Field of Blood unto this day’.
A potter’s field was land considered as worn out and of little value.
Verses 9 and 10 paraphrases a 500-yearold prophecy and applies it to these events: ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the Potter’s Field, as the Lord appointed me.’
Matthew states that the prophecy was spoken through Jeremiah, though his quotation appears to be drawn mainly from the prophet Zechariah.
T. V. Hiscock, Barnstaple, Devon.
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