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Friday, March 29, 2024

Signal success for Heritage Supporters

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The Institution of Railway Signal Engineers has taken delivery of an historic locomotive nameplate.

Class 37 locomotive no. 37232, belonging to DB Schenker, previously carried the name: ‘Institution of Railway Signal Engineers’ and had been designated for preservation by the Railway Heritage Committee (RHC). The nameplate was handed over by Nicky Morgan, MP, chairman of the newly-created All Party Parliamentary Group for Heritage Rail to IRSE President Claire Porter.

‘We are delighted to have the opportunity to provide a permanent home for this nameplate,’ said Colin Porter, Chief Executive of the Institution. ‘It was a great honour that the Institution’s name should have been carried on such a fine locomotive, and it is wonderfully appropriate that the nameplate should now be coming to us, just before our centenary year.’

The nameplate was initially carried by locomotive 37411, which was named by Margaret Hale, wife of the then IRSE president, Cliff Hale, at Fort William on 28th May 1987. The nameplates were transferred to a second locomotive, 37232, which was named by British Rail’s Director of S&T Engineering Ken Burrage at Perth station on 6th November 1990. Latterly the locomotive worked on engineering trains.

RHC Chairman Peter Ovenstone said, ‘This event once again illustrates the excellent working partnership which the Railway Heritage Committee has enjoyed with the railway industry.’ He went on to explain that it had been agreed that the power of designation and the statutory protection it affords should be transferred to the Trustees of the National Museum of Science and Industry.

‘We have been greatly heartened by the Government’s decision which recognises the significance of the nation’s railway heritage and the value of continuing to maintain the statutory protection system which has worked so well over the last 18 years.’

The government had intended to disband the committee but is now understood to be re-thinking this. The Railway Heritage Committee has long been valued by the railway industry. A final decision on the way ahead is expected in February. The Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) was founded in 1912 and has members word wide.

 

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