Gordon and other deserving names

Saw the end of a film on General Gordon the other day, and wondered why
it had not been used on a Britannia. Just the job of 70047, I'd have
thought.

Anyone know if it was considered ?

Was the WD 2-10-0 named Gordon after Gordon of Khartoum ?

There again, the thread on Ipswich fans made me realise that Constable,
as in Haywain, was never used either - nor Gainsborough. (I assume the
A3 was a racehorse, not the artist.)

Must be a few other deserving folks out there than would have graced a
splasher or smoke deflector.

Not sure if a 153 bodyside is not diluting the brand image though.
Kester

Kest...@mail.interware.hu wrote:
> Saw the end of a film on General Gordon the other day, and wondered
why
> it had not been used on a Britannia. Just the job of 70047, I'd have
> thought.
>
> Anyone know if it was considered ?

I don't know about that, but I'm always a bit surprised that there was
one named Earl Haig. I had the impression that the anti-Haig reaction
set in very soon after WW1 and that he would have been widely regarded
as a discredited Blimp by the 1950's. Apparently there was a public
subscription for the "grateful nation" to buy him a mansion and the
Government had to top it up when it fell well short of the target.

>
> Was the WD 2-10-0 named Gordon after Gordon of Khartoum ?

I don't know but I'd think it was almost certainly the case - Unless
someone at Longmoor was a fan of Rev W.Awdrey :-)

> Must be a few other deserving folks out there than would have graced
a
> splasher or smoke deflector.

Henry Purcell, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Michael Tippett,
William Walton...

>
Andy Kirkham
Glasgow

Unless anyone can tell me different, I can't recall a single BR or Big
Four steam loco bearing the name of an artist or sculptor, unlike
writers (Shakespeare, Kipling, Dickens and many others) and composers
(Elgar). There seems to be a lack of scientists, too - Faraday, Newton,
Davy or Priestley would all have been good candidates for steam loco
names (I believe, however, that at least one industrial loco was named
after Michael Faraday). And is Wren the only architect to be honoured?
David E. Belcher

I think you're right about BR and the Big Four, but I've an idea that
if you go back to the LNWR, which was, top say the least, omivorous,
in its naming policy, you might find some of those scientists -
possibly all of them. A railway with locos named The Auditor, Problem
and Vandal was evidently quite hard-up for decent names and would have
welcomed any reasonable suggestion.

(OK, I know, Vandal probably didn't have today's meaning in those days)

I'm not surprised about the lack of sculptors, as there aren't really
any British sculptors that are household names (except perhaps Henry
Moore ) but JMW Turner undoubtedly deserves to be commemorated,
especially in view of his Rain, Steam and Speed.

An architect who has been honoured more recently (by a 37, I think., or
was it just a Strathclyde EMU?) is Charles Rennie Macintosh, but then
he's no longer merely an architect but a tourism/heritage/marketing
icon.

Andy Kirkham
Glasgow