(Miniature) Locomotive Nameplate

With a young son obsessed with trains, today our two obsessions met with the purchase of a miniature nameplate to steam locomotive 2845/61645 ‘The Suffolk Regiment’.

Whilst this is not the original nameplate; one of which resides in the Suffolk Regiment Museum and the other is known to be in private ownership, this is a quarter-sized replica, cast in brass to fit a miniature/narrow gauge-sized engine.

2845 was a Gresley designed B17 class standard gauge locomotive (4-6-0) brought into service in June 1935 as part of the Regiment’s 250th Anniversary celebrations, with the London and North Eastern Railway. In 1952, then under British Railways control, it was refurbished and re-designated as 61645, but still retained its original name, though by then it has switched from its original ‘Doncaster’ Green LNER livery to a standard, darker, British Rail ‘Locomotive’ green. Ironically, in February 1959, the engine was scrapped as part of the conversion from steam to diesel, just six months before the Regiment itself was amalgamated.

In its original LNER form, the nameplate looks to have been painted with a red background, and certainly the original has a red background, but this might have been added prior to its presentation to the Regiment (the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Regiment T.A.) in 1963.

Colour photographic evidence of 61645 shows that in its dark green livery, the inside of the nameplate was painted black - as per this miniature replica, and that it had a full frame around the title (though the original at the museum had almost all of the bottom of the frame removed - maybe to get it off the engine when it was being scrapped? Or perhaps the bottom of the plate was affixed to the engine which butted to the nameplate when it was mounted onto the engine?

Many moons ago, a good friend of mine secured the other one and so we could if requested, put them back onto an engine if the engine could be found!

All research as to what engine they were made for had drawn a blank, but if anyone knows where a narrow gauge replica of a B17 was running, please do let me know. It would be good to know why they were made and why of all the major names in this class - they were known as ‘Footballer’ and included some major UK football teams (Manchester United, Liverpool, Sheffield Wednesday and West Ham), why someone would choose to recreate the humble ‘Suffolk Regiment’? Did we have a steam-loving ex-Colonel who was mad about trains that we are yet to discover, who had a miniature railway in his garden?