Museum
The REME Locomotives Scribe: Richard Davies, Curator, The REME Museum
T
here are many traditions that link the British military with the civilian world, and one of these is naming locomotives after the regiments and units that comprise the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces. REME has been no exception to this long-established activity, and this article marks the beginning of a series that describes each locomotive named REME, as well as outlining the relevant material in the Museum’s object and archival collection related to those respective histories. The first REME locomotive was originally built in May 1934 at the Derby works of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company, and given the number 5996 (in common with the ‘big four’ firms that dominated Britain’s railways from 1923 until post-war nationalisation, the company was usually referred to by its initials, LMS). It cost £5,453 8s This image of ‘REME’ was taken on 27th March 1960 at the Camden shed in London. This is a fitting 10d to build, a sum that equates to location, as this is where the locomotive was based for much of its later years. One of the two about £277,000 today. nameplates can just be seen on the left-hand side At the time it was built, 5996 was Scots were redesignated as the Patriot class. designated as a member of the Royal Scot class (a class was a A total of seventy Patriots were built, and it appears most of group of locomotives with specific characteristics associated with them were named after British regiments or military the purpose for which it was originally designed). First built in organisations; many of the units chosen were based in 1927, the Royal Scots were produced to meet the need for a geographic areas served by the LMS and from which the Army modern locomotive that could pull LMS express trains to the recruited. Oddly, 5528 remained unnamed up to the point when North West and Scotland from Euston station. A year after it was the railways were nationalised in 1948. This was a strange built, 5996 was renumbered 5528 and the entire group of Royal situation: REME was without a locomotive, and 5528 was without a name. Fittingly, it took a former member of the REME TA, who had returned from National Service in the Middle East, to resolve the situation. Mr. John Webb was a Fireman employed by the newly-formed nationalised British Railways at the Stewarts Lane MPD (Motive Power Depot) in South West London, and in 1958, he wrote an internal memo suggesting a locomotive should be named REME. History does not record if logic played any part in the decision, but the unnamed 45528 was ultimately chosen as the loco to receive the designation (5528 had by this time been renumbered as 45528 as part of the many changes brought about by nationalisation). The name ‘REME’ was applied at Crewe Mr. John Webb, the former REME soldier who first suggested a loco be named after the Corps, stands next to another, but much more modern, REME locomotive. This was taken in October 1987 when a class North MPD without any 47 diesel was named ‘Craftsman’. Captain Lionel Campuzano of REME TA’s Specialist Sector stands attendant ceremony (and also alongside Mr. Webb without consulting the Ministry 38 craftsmaneditor@reme-rhq.org.uk
