In honour of Gordon Brown

[Surfer]

At last, with Gordon Brown deciding to throw in the towel and resign, his cabinet colleagues decided it would be a worthy gesture to name a railway locomotive after him. None of the privatised operating companies wanted to be associated with him but a bright spark remembered that the government owned the National Railway Museum. A senior 'Sir Humphrey' went from Whitehall to the museum at York to investigate the possibilities.

"We have a number of locomotives at the National Railway Museum without names," the museum curator told the top civil servant. "Mostly freight locomotives though."

"Oh dear, that's not very fitting for a prime minister," said Sir Humphrey. "How about that big green one, over there?" he said, pointing to 4472.

"That's already got a name" said the curator. "It's called 'Flying Scotsman'."

"Oh. Couldn't it be renamed?" asked Sir Humphrey. "This is a national museum after all, funded by the taxpayer."

"I suppose it might be considered," said the curator. "After all the LNER renamed a number of their locomotives after directors of the company, and even renamed one of them Dwight D Eisenhower."

"That's excellent", said Sir Humphrey, "So that's settled then .. let's look at renaming 4472. But how much will it cost? We can't spend too much, given the state of the economy."

Well, said the curator, "We could always just paint out the 'F'."

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Although I am not a Labour supporter or have never voted for them it was very emotional to see Mr. Brown and his wife and children walk away from 10 Downing Street. I will admit to filling up a little. After all he has lived at No.10 for 13 years as he swapped with Tony Blair when he became Prime Minister and Mr. Brown was Chancellor.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I too shed a few tears Colyn ap Brydgynd.

They were tears of joy and laughter though :O)

 

[Oklahoma]

Thought there was already an engine named afer him, one of Thomas' friends!!

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Yes, I believe you're right 602, Thomas did have a friend called Gordon. Wasn't Gordon the red engine with the clunking wheels?

 

[Mel]

No LB, that was James the Red engine. Gordon was the express train with the arrogant attitude, who didn't listen to anyone. Always getting stuck somewhere and having to be rescued by Thomas and the smaller engines.

Talk about Life imitating Art.

mel

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Thanks for the correction Mel :O)

Yes, I do remember now and it was Gordon who ignored the signals, ran away, and ended up getting derailed after hitting the buffers. Despite having a last minute blow up he finally ran out of steam :O(

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

exellent news Ian, this could set a trend? in 6 months to a years time the same 'sir humphrey' could be back at york, wanting to change the name of the mallard to "cammeron" you know the green one that had all its working parts hidden under a stylish fairing but was just the same as all the other loco's under the bodywork, it looked nice but did not see much service apart from a few flashy runs.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Ee bah gum ya ol' tyke, you are almost right.

There was a loco already named 'Cameronian'. It was the same class as 'Flying Scotsman', an LNER A3, which has been renamed as 'Lying Scotsman' because Thomas's friend 'Gordon' expired. All is not lost though because after scrapping they melted him down and are going to make a replica of the 'Rocket', a far more suitable locomotive in his image.

Like you said, they are going to rename the Gresley A4 'Mallard' to 'Cameronian', a far more sleeker locomotive, a record holder and faster at getting things done :O)

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

faster is not better if it uses more coal or is that coalition

 

[colin(bridgend)]

It would appear to me that the contributers to this topic are getting all steamed up over nothing. Next thing you will be discussing Shaun the Sheep and comparing him to our former Prime Minister.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

No Colyn ap Brydgynd, when we refer to Shaun the Sheep we are talking about Carwyn Jones, the First Minister for Wales :O)