Naming Update
It’s been another busy month, with no fewer than eight locomotives and two units receiving new names in the period under review.
On July 16, our Railways Illustrated
cover star for issue 246, 08567, which has recently been repainted into Arlington Fleet Group green livery, was named John Arlington Stephens 20th May 1925-19th July 1984 at Eastleigh Works in memory of the father of AFG managing director Barry Stephens. The nameplates on the Class 08 were unveiled by Mr Stephens in front of invited friends and family on July 16. Direct Rail Services has renamed Mainline-liveried 37419 Driver Tony Kay 1974-2019. The nameplates were fitted at Carlisle Kingmoor Depot in May while the locomotive was receiving attention but not seen until it re-entered traffic in early July. The Class 37/4 was previously named Carl Haviland 1954-2012.
Two GB Railfreight Class 66s have been named in the past few weeks, with 66787 named Three Bridges ASC
at Three Bridges station to mark the 40th anniversary of the Area Signalling Centre on June 30. The naming was carried out by GBRF business development director Tim Hartley, Crawley MP Henry Smith and representatives of Network Rail.
The second is 66785, which was named John Ellis in a ceremony at Moreton-in-marsh station on July 15, after the former chairman of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group and rail industry veteran. The naming was carried out by a surprised Mr Ellis. As reported elsewhere in this issue, GBRF’S 69006 was named Pathfinder
Railtours, along with a Peter Watts 50 years service 1973-2023 dedication in a ceremony at Gloucester station on June 23. The naming of the Class 69 was carried out by GWR managing director Mark Hopwood and Pathfinder founder Peter Watts, who was unaware of the event until he arrived at the station.
Recently repainted 73119 was named Paul Taylor at London Waterloo on July 1 in memory of the popular GBRF manager and charity fundraiser, while the locomotive was working UK Railtours ‘The Chessy Ned’ charter. The naming was carried out by Mr Taylor’s widow, Tracy, with the charter raising funds for Prostate Cancer UK. Southeastern has named 375829 Verena Holmes (1889-1964) Women in Engineering on June 23 at Cannon Street station to coincide with International Women in Engineering Day 2023. Kent-born Verena Holmes was the first woman to become an elected member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Imeche) and set up her own all-female engineering firm in 1946 after working on naval weaponryduringthesecondworldwar.the namingoftheclass375wascarriedout by her great niece. Caroline Yardley. Meanwhile, Great Western Railway named Hitachi IET 800005 Aneurin Bevan NHS 1948-2023 at Newport station on July 4 to mark the 75th anniversary of the formation of the NHS. The naming was carried out by Welsh author Aneira Thomas, who is recognised as being the first baby to be born on the NHS in 1948. Inthepreservationsector,125preservationhasreinstatedtheformernames carried by HST power cars 43045 and 43060, which have been returned to operational condition on the Nene Valley Railway. 43045 is renamed The Grammar School Doncaster AD1350 and 43060 County of Leicestershire.
The St Catherine’s Castle and Raglan Castle nameplatesthathadbeenfitted to 43041 and 43171 respectively were removedfromthehstpowercarsprior to their removal from Laira depot to Sims Metals at Newport for scrapping.