But can anybody confirm how widespread the slang terms of blacks and
reds was. I just had a thought, I am probabley be getting the CRE after
me now. Can anybody think of a suitable pc term for an LMS Class 5MT.
Kevin
"Kevin"
I was brought up on the Midland mainline in West Yorkshire and Stanier
engines were everyday motive power. We referred to the main Stanier classes
exclusively as:-
Black 5s (never blacks)
Jubes (never reds)
8Fs (heard them occasionally called Black 8s).
John.
The message
from "John Turner" contains these words:
Were they never called "Mickeys" over in Outer Yorkshire?
(as in "Mixed Traffic", 5MT)
Common expression over here: "It's only a Mickey!" when the
Liverpool-Llandudno flyer failed to produce the expected Jub or Scot.
Kim asked:
------------------------------------
No Kim...
The assorted company perched on the then comfortable
ex-LNWR wooden fence*** at Winwick Jn might or might
not refer to a Black 5 as a Mickey but the (then) brand new
Ivatt 2-6-0s received the extended name of Mickey Mouse.
*** 58 years on, I've still got the splinters in my bum cheeks!
"kim" wrote
We're talking about a hobby involving (mainly) young kids here Kim -
confusion was the order of the day, otherwise why give anything a nickname
at all?
John.
The message
from "kim" contains these words:
Nah! They were Mickey Mice... [on the grounds that they couldn't pull
themselves along, so don't give them a train]
This Great Western bigot thinks that the Ivatt class 2s were possibly
the best of the modern post war locomotives - especially after they
were given better drafting copied from the Dean Goods.
Both tank and tender versions.
Hawksworth had a design for a lightweight 4-4-0 using a domeless
version of its boiler in much the same way as this County class had a
boiler derived from the 8F. It was intended to replace the old
double-framed 4-4-0s but was never built.
I think it would have been a pretty little engine. A modern boiler on
a small 4-4-0 with GWR chimney, safety valve cover, cab, tender etc
and a continuous splasher like the Counties. But it couldn't have
pulled much. The 2-6-0 was much better.
On moving - at the tender age of 5 - from the South Coast to north
Manchester, and with the four-track ex-L&Y Manchester to Blackpool line at
the end of the avenue, I became interested in the trains at the end of the
road. From the friendships I struck up, I recall the local nicknames were:
"Stan Tanks" - any Stanier 2-6-4T (we rarely saw Fowler/Fairburn/Ivatt tank
engines; "Crabs" - the Hughes-Fowler 2-6-0's (but not the Stanier 2-6-0's,
which were rarely seen); "Mickeys" - Stanier Black 5's; "Pats" - rebuilt and
unrebuilt "Patriots"; "Jubs" - Jubilees; "Scots" - Royal Scots; "Prinnies" -
"Princess" Class; "Semis" - Coronation Class (latter two only seen when
visiting Manchester London Road); "Shielder" - any locomotive with smoke
deflectors; "Coffeepots" - Fowler 0-6-0T; "DubDees" - Austerity 2-8-0's
and - eventually - "Brits" and "Clans" for the named Standard locomotives.
As far as I can recall there was no nickname for the Stanier 2-8-0's,
although we did see plenty of them.
... and that was what 6/7/8 year olds in the Pendlebury area called them!
Hope this helps,
David Costigan
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