Train Spotters and Transvestites...is there a connection???

[Richard]

Very close, mr angry, the Scott's were classes D29 & D30 'Wandering Willie' was a D30 (the D34's were the 'Glen Class). I think the best names were on the A3's, mostly racehorses; that produced some weird ones like 'Shotover', 'Gay Crusader', 'Call Boy', etc. Oh and what about the A2 'Cock o' the North'!

[mr angry]

There was also a B1 called "Bongo" as well. Some of the Deltics had racehorse names as well, although they didnt seem to be as daft as the A3 ones were.

[wampony]

The first 40 of the B1 class were named after antelopes, with one exception. The other named B1's were named after directors of the L.N.E.R., why there was a director's name amongst the antelopes I don't know.
The only one named after a british antelope was 61040 Roedeer. Sorry I can't give any other info at the moment as my loco books are all packed away in boxes.
I like this class of loco, although the last of them had gone for scrap 8 years before I was born!
As for names of loco's in general I think the L.N.E.R. had some of the best.

[Richard]

The naming of the later B1's was a bit bizarre with lots of un-named ones dotted with directors at random intervals, and where the hell did 'Mayflower' creep in from?
As a devoted GWR fan, I have to agree that the LNER had the best of the odd names but we had, among the addresses of the aristocratic customers, a 'Castle' numbered and named '100 A1 Lloyds'! How's that for bonkers?

[Lizzie_Claymore]

Well, actually, "A1 at Lloyds" actually means 'of the highest quality'. (I suspect they were boasting!)

Lloyd's Register of Shipping used an alphanumeric code for classifying ships for insurance purposes. A1 denoted the highest quality vessels.

...but a bit bonkers, I grant you.

[mr angry]

I always thought the LNER had the daftest names, some of which we have touched upon, an A3 "Pretty Polly", I ask you. As for the GWR, the earlier locos had some quite good names, the Dean and early Churchward 4-4-0s and The Saints were quite well named, but then they got boring with long lists of Halls and Granges etc.

The LMS wasnt too bad, I liked some of the Jubilees names, after places in the Empire and Commonwealth and I also liked some of the names s on the West Country pacifics on the Southern , and also the Britannias

[Richard]

Well, actually, "A1 at Lloyds" actually means 'of the highest quality'. (I suspect they were boasting!)

Lloyd's Register of Shipping used an alphanumeric code for classifying ships for insurance purposes. A1 denoted the highest quality vessels.

...but a bit bonkers, I grant you.

Yes I knew about the Lloyds shipping register but to actually extend the reference to number the loco 100 was going a bit too far! Still, they had a precedent (not the LNWR sort ) with the reincarnated 'The Great Bear' which they called 'Viscount Churchill' numbered 111.

I liked the broad gauge names; Ah yes, I remember them well!

mr angry is right about about the 'Halls'. Apparently a rumour went around the GWR staff that the final one was to be called 'That's 'all'!

Hey guys, watch out! Bill will be banning us all for filling the forum with 'off topic stuff'!

[Lizzie_Claymore]

I always thought the LNER had the daftest names, some of which we have touched upon, an A3 "Pretty Polly"

What a shame it didn't survive into the 1970s - it could have been sponsored by a well-known manufacturer of hosiery, which is still going and which I wear sometimes!

[wampony]

mr angry is right about about the 'Halls'. Apparently a rumour went around the GWR staff that the final one was to be called 'That's 'all'!

Better than being named after the other well known stately home of Sod 'all.

[BillShipton]

[quote"]
Hey guys, watch out! Bill will be banning us all for filling the forum with 'off topic stuff'! [/quote]

Don't think anyone's been banned for that!! Besides one of the contributors is a trainspotter and a transvestite, the other a trainspotter and a naturist so that is quite on-topic for us!

[Richard]

Thanks Bill! I was reminded of the days when we would sneak into a loco shed if we thought there might be a 'Streak' or a 'Semi' inside and had to keep a sharp look out for the shed foreman. Sometimes we'd get a benign one who would turn a blind eye but others threatened us with the police! Those were the days when I was just becoming a teenager (and Bill was a glint in his dad's eye!).

We must also apologise to mr sniffles for hijacking his thread, sorry. .

[La Perla]

Thanks Bill! I was reminded of the days when we would sneak into a loco shed if we thought there might be a 'Streak' or a 'Semi' inside and had to keep a sharp look out for the shed foreman. Sometimes we'd get a benign one who would turn a blind eye but others threatened us with the police! Those were the days when I was just becoming a teenager (and Bill was a glint in his dad's eye!).

We must also apologise to mr sniffles for hijacking his thread, sorry. .

Oh, so it's Mr Sniffles is it. My apologies. I thought the name was Mrs Niffles! Now there's whole new image when reading his/her entries.

Thank you Richard.

[BillShipton]

I've been debating the Mr Sniffles/Mrs Niffles question myself!

[Mike Nomic]

I've been debating the Mr Sniffles/Mrs Niffles question myself!

I thought the avatar was a bit of a giveaway.

Mike.

[Mike Nomic]

To paraphrase (not parrot phrase - that's a different sketch) Monty Python ...

'Dear Sir,
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms about the thread which you have just broadcast, about the trainspotter who wears women's clothes. Many of my best friends are trainspotters and only a few of them are transvestites.
Yours faithfully,
Brigadier Sir Charles Arthur Strong (Mrs.)
PS I have never kissed the editor of the Radio Times.'

Train Spotters and Transvestites...is there a connection??? No more than there is between trainspotters and any other minority fetish/kink/predilection, or between transvestites and any other hobby. I have been involved in railways from a very early age, have been a trainspotter, a railway modeller, a railway preservationist and steam loco owner; and in all those years I have only ever encountered one transvestite enthusiast.

Train Spotters and the clergy ... is there a connection? Rev Wilbert Awdry wrote the 'Thomas the Tank Engine' series of books, Rev Eric Treacy was Bishop of Wakefield and a renowned railway photographer, Rev Teddy Boston had a live steam railway in the grounds of his vicarage. There is a Scottish Clergy Railway Circle, and if you refer to Isaiah (chapter six): "I saw the Lord … and His train filled the temple … and the temple was filled with smoke."

Mike.