The mystery of a girl from Crewe, top-link nameplates, and a back room setting
A MYSTERY photograph of a young lady surrounded by nameplates from top link express locomotives has baffled railwayana auction house principal Simon Turner, who found it in a collection of paperwork given to him by a client.
The young blonde-haired woman is sitting on a stall with a Jubilee nameplate on her lap, four plates at her feet, and five plates leaning on the wall behind her, including nothing less than Britannia from No. 70000 and Princess Alexandra from an LMS Princess Coronation Pacific. All are in ex-locomotive condition, suggesting they were carried by the relevant engines.
Notes on the back of the image give a date – September 16, 1965 – and even what is assumed to be the name of the woman, Jackie Williamson. Also written on the back is ‘Engine name story’, ‘Nantwich office’ and ‘A girl from Crewe’, indicating it may have been a press photograph to accompany an article.
One of the leading newspapers in the area is the Crewe Chronicle, which was previously titled the Crewe & Nantwich Chronicle, but the publication’s records don’t go that far back, while Crewe Library searched its microfiche archives but was also unable to track down such an article.
In addition to the Britannia plate, and Princess Alexandra from No. 46224, there are three further ‘Brit’ plates, William Wordsworth from No. 70030; Tennyson (No. 70032); and Lord Roberts from No. 70042; while from the LMS come Jubilee 4-6-0 trio Silver Jubilee, Ontario and Sierra Leone, from respectively the class numerical leader, No. 45552, and Nos. 45554 and 45627.
One of the plates at the woman’s feet is seemingly unidentifiable, but enlargement of the image suggests it is De Robeck from No. 45678, and there is enough visible of another to indicate it is Bellerophon from Jubilee No. 45694.
Of the locomotives that carried the plates in the photograph, one, the Princess Coronation, had been withdrawn in 1963, one of the Jubilees in 1962 and two others in 1964, but the remaining engines, including all four ‘Brits’, were still in service when Jackie sat on the stall for the photographer.
The photograph has another twist, which is probably the most astonishing of all. The floor appears to be covered by a sea of even more nameplates, and scrutiny of the image reveals the probability that these include at least five Princess Coronation class nameplates – four named after Cities and one a Duchess.
Simon said: “When I first saw the photograph I thought it was a straightforward press or official BR shot, but the more I looked, the more I saw, and the more baffled I became, as most of the plates are from locomotives which at that time hadn’t been withdrawn.
“Further research explained that, for security reasons, BR removed a number of nameplates from some locomotives before they were taken out of service, and in fact there are quite a few mid-1960s images of engines that were originally named but not carrying either of their plates.
“The plates covering the floor, however, are difficult to explain, as even then, when railwayana collecting was in its infancy, you’d have thought BR didn’t want to damage them, especially such desirable plates as those from Princess Coronations.
“And what was the purpose of the photograph? It doesn’t look a carefully-posed image in an appropriate setting, but rather in a back room somewhere with plates propped up casually against a wall. Was it an official BR shot, or was it an image created by a press photographer, and if so was it ever published? And where was it taken? The obvious conclusion is Crewe, where all the locomotives concerned were built, but surely if so, a more appropriate setting could have been used.”