The SLS name plate, works plate and artefacts collection Last updated 4 August 2010
Within the long history of the SLS the preservation of many aspects of our railway heritage, together with the associated artefacts, has been an integral aspect of both the Society's interests and that of individual members. The result is that the Society are now the custodians of a wide range of memorabilia ranging from the operational miniature steam locomotive, Orion, through a selection of name plates, works plates, photographs and other documents. Most of the documents are stored in the Library which is covered by a separate section and the Photographic Collection is also covered on other pages.
The Society's unique collection of locomotive works plates and nameplates are on display to the public at various museums around the country. Photographs of some items with the collection are included below.
Back to the page top
Latest news re our heritage "plates" collection.
Works plates display - Highley Engine House (SVR)
The works plates formerly on display in Glasgow until closure of that section of the hosting museum have been relocated and are now again on show located at the excellent "Engine House Museum" on the Severn Valley Railway at Highley. The photo' below shows the formal acceptance event for the loan to the SVR of these plates for this new exhibit within the museum's collection..
From left to right the individuals are - David Mee - Curator, Highley Engine House; Dr Michael Bailey MBE, SLS and David Williams, Chairman, Severn Valley Railway. Date 31st July 2010. Photographer - M A Green.
Nameplates at Locomotion Shildon
"Stephenson" Class 87 plates.
Nameplates from the Class 87 AC electric locomotive named "Stephenson" are displayed at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon. These plates had been on show at the Robert Stephenson trust museum in Newcastle but due to closure of that facility were handed over to Locomotion in a presentation ceremony on 30th March 2009.
Photo of plate by John New. Note this picture, and that of the steam era plates below, has been de-skewed (digitally straightened) in Photoshop. If you visit to view to view/photograph these plates you need to be aware that they are mounted above head height and will suffer from perspective distortion when photographed..
Steam era "Stephenson" plates.
In addition to the plates from the class 87, shown above we have a further collection of plates from several steam locomotives which formerly carried the name "Stephenson". These are also now on loan to the National Railway Museum and are also on show at Locomotion, in Shildon (below). A new page has been created indexing these locomotives and can be found here - Locomotives named Stephenson.
"Stephenson" plate from 87 101 (Viewable on request in the SLS Library.)
In addition to the AC electric plates from the Class 87 locomotive on show at Shildon (above) the Society also has one of that style in the library together with one of the brass plates from 87 101 as shown. Both styles of plate are therefore available for members to view on the Library opening dates as listed in the Journal.
LNWR nameplates from our collection - Kidderminster Railway Museum
As the Society has such a long pedigree, achieving our centenary in 2009, the plates collection also spans a period in excess of a century too. As you can see in the picture below in addition to the LNWR "Stephenson" plate from 1906 shown above which is part of the display at Locomotion we have additional LNWR plates on display at the Kidderminster Railway Museum where our Midland's Centre meetings are held. NB The LNWR image below has been straightened using digital techniques.
About these LNWR plates -
Narcissus - information still being compiled.
Sirocco - From LNWR No. 693, of George Whale's Precursor Class, built November 1904 and withdrawn in June 1949. An excellent Wikipedia entry covers details of the class.
Britannic - From LNWR No. 353 of George Whale's Experiment class, built June 1905 and withdrawn in December 1930. A Wikipedia entry covers details of the class.
Other nameplates from our collection at Kidderminster Railway Museum
(Section is work in progress - more info about these plates to follow)
All photo's above by J New and copyright J New/SLS unless credited to the contrary.
Great Central Railway locomotive nameplates - Loughborough railway museum
The SLS have two ex-GCR nameplates in our collection which are on loan to the Great Central Railway Museum, Loughborough. (No photo's currently available) The plates concerned are from the locomotives Sir William Pollitt and Lord Stuart of Wortley respectively.
The Sir William Pollitt plate was carried by a GCR built 4-4-2 Atlantic (LNER type classification C5) built in December 1906 to a Robinson design. The name was added in May 1911. In LNER days it carried the number 5365 until 1946 when under the renumbering scheme of that year it was renumbered to 2898. Locomotive withdrawn = August 1947. This external website carries more details of the locomotive class.
The Lord Stuart of Wortley plate was carried by a GCR built 4-6-0 (LNER type classification B3) built in October 1910 to a Robinson design. In LNER days it carried the number 6168 and although allocated number 1499 in the renumbering scheme of that year it was not carried. Locomotive withdrawn = September 1946. This external website carries more details of the locomotive class
Special train headboards
A related page about some of the SLS Special train headboards can be found here.
SLS Publications
SLS Photograph Collection
Locomotives named Stephenson
How to join
SLS Library (Membership service)
SLS Resources (Free service)
The Society's YouTube channel
Meetings calendar
About us / Contacts
Links to other sites
Links to other railway sites (Off-site link)
