10/10/1922 |
L.N.W.R. Claughton Notes |
Referring to the letter concerning the above in the September journal, there are one or two errors which should be corrected. It was stated that 207 was allocated the name Sir Charles Cust and used for the Royal Train working of 8/10/1921. 207 was not used, or named, and, in fact, neither was this engine used for the Royal Trains of 10/10/1922-1747 being the engine concerned, which had, for the occasion, been given the number and nameplate of 207 Sir Charles Cust (in both directions ! !). The statement that 207 was ' one of only three of the 70 Claughtons built 1920-21 to be named when built ' is therefore incorrect. It was put into service August, 1921, nameless; named Sir Charles Cust in December of that year. Of these 70 locos, 2059 C. J. Bowen Cooke was certainly named when built (May, 1920) and it might be mentioned that the plates were altered later to read October 1920-to synchronise with the death of Bowen-Cooke. 1914 Patriot, also built May, 1920, was presumably named when put into traffic-though I have a note that the name was carried by Claughton 2097 for a short while, but no date (? before or after 5/20). As a matter of interest, the story of altered or transferred 'Claughton ' names is completed by the following notes: LNWR 2204 Sir Herbert Walker became Sir Herbert Walker, KCB 4/17. 1093 Guy Calthrop became Sir Guy Calthrop 3/19. 155 I. T. Williams became Sir Thomas Williams 12/19. LMSR The LNWR had honoured its three V.C.s by bestowing their names on Claughton class locos in February, 1922: 1097 Private W. Wood, V.C.; 1407 Lance Corp'l J. A. Christie, V.C.; and 2035 Private E. Sykes, V.C.-and allocated these to the home depots of those worthy gentlemen. Consequent upon the introduction of 'LMS block-number allocations' in 1926, it was necessary to transfer 1097 and 2035 away; so, in April, 1926, their names were removed and transferred to un-named Claughtons 179 and 158 respectively-which were allocated as replacements under the scheme; these latter two becoming LMS 6018 and 6015 (of the Long-sight batch). The former two-unnamed-became LMS 5988 and 5976. The third ' V.C.'-1407, L./Cpl. J. A. Christie, V.C. (LMS 5967) was not affected by the reallocations. In later days, this loco was always to be found at Rugby shed on the observance of Remembrance Day, when the shed staff placed a wreath on the smokebox door. Unfortunately (and perhaps shortsightedly), 5964 Patriot had suffered the indignity of having been transferred to the Midland Division. Apart from the above, the last Claughtons to receive names were 192 Bevere and 2445 Baltic-both in July, 1923, after which the LNWR (now Western Division 'A' of the L.M. & S. Rly.) had to abandon the practice, to conform to Midland Division policies. Finally, to avoid duplication of names with LMSR locos. 6204 and 5726, 6004 Princess Louise and 5999 Vindictive had their nameplates removed, 6/35 and 8/36 respectively. 5999 was the only Claughton to be renumbered in LNW numbers. Built as No. 13 12/20, named Vindictive 7/22-and renumbered 2430 10/22 (possibly someone was superstitious !-not vindictive !). 6004 was the last Claughton to remain in service (then reboilered with a large ' Scheme 3 ' boiler)-and was the sole survivor for 8 years. During this time, she was reported as being seen at work from all over the LMS system. It lasted long enough to be taken into BR-LMR stock-but never carried a '4' prefix. Withdrawn during April, 1949-and cut up at Crewe, 10/8/49. Which concluded yet another page of LNWR history-although some of the Claughton's names were perpetuated on certain '(Baby Scot '/' Patriot' class locos-but that is another story. |
SLS/197010 |