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How do you pronounce them?


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Such things as "Deltic 22" were fairly common up and down the ECML and perhaps a throwback to the Glory Days when a gaggle of be-capped schoolboys would yell "STREEEAAAAAKKKKK" as the chime whistle sounded and "Number 9" came roaring through.  No. 9 was of course correct for some years but 60009 is still referred to as such by many just as Deltics are referred to in the same manner.  I could never call myself a regular visitor to the ECML (other than six months commuting from Harringay to Moorgate!) but still knew the Deltics as "Deltic one" and so on.  I believe D9000 was "Deltic Oh" or "Deltic Zero" in pre-TOPS days.

 

The diesel with a similar number is / was "sixty-oh-oh-nine" to some and "sixty-double-oh-nine" to others but never "Number 9" nor "six-oh-oh-oh-nine".

 

When class 37/9 was created and gained the nickname "Slugs" they quickly became known as "Slug 1" to "Slug 6" rather than Thirty-seven nine-oh-one.  

 

Such things defy logic as do many other matters on the railway.

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I've been thinking about this as I've been reading, and realised how varied my interpretation of it is!

To give some examples of the way I would say a number:

  • 1466/4866 = Fourteen Sixty Six / Forty Eight Sixty Six
  • 3650 = Thirty Six Fifty
  • 3738 = Thirty Seven Thirty Eight
  • 5051 Earl Bathurst = Fifty Fifty One
  • 6024 King Edward = Six Oh Two Four
  • 60163  Tornado = Six Oh One Six Three
  • 47500 = Forty Seven Five Hundred
  • 80104 = Eight Oh One Oh Four
  • 66072 = Six Six Zero Seven Two
  • 66713 = Sixty Six Seven One Three or Sixty Six Seven Thirteen

So yeah, mine is a real hodge-podge of methods. I tend to use the first two numbers of a Tops Class as a single number, and then the last three individually, except for Class 66s which I call various different things. Setam Locos tend to be spelled out as individual numbers, except for the small GWR tanks which get two pairs (usually).

I think in my case at least, i've picked my numbering scheme up off other people I've heard. For example my dad always calls Didcot's 3738 "Thirty Seven Thirty Eight", whereas on a visit to the South Devon Railway, a friend called the visiting prairie 5542 "Five Five Four Two", which is what I now call it!

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  • 1466/4866 = Fourteen Sixty Six / Forty Eight Sixty Six
  • 3650 = Thirty Six Fifty
  • 3738 = Thirty Seven Thirty Eight
  • 5051 Earl Bathurst = Fifty Fifty One
  • 6024 King Edward = Six Oh Two Four
  • 60163  Tornado = Six Oh One Six Three
  • 47500 = Forty Seven Five Hundred
  • 80104 = Eight Oh One Oh Four
  • 66072 = Six Six Zero Seven Two
  • 66713 = Sixty Six Seven One Three or Sixty Six Seven Thirteen

 

As if to prove - not that more were needed - just how individual and esoteric this subject is my take on those would be :-

 

1466/4866 = One-four-double six / four-eight-double six

3650 = Three six five oh

5051 = Five oh five one

then the same until

66072 = sixty-six oh seven two

66713 = sixty-six seven one three

 

Steam loco 4555 is four triple five to me while I know others call her four five five five or forty-five fifty-five.

 

 

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Incidentally noting a point earlier one thing which irritates me more than anything else is the use of standard phonetic alphabet words in respect of signals - quite why someone has to say 'Delta Yankee' when they mean 'Derby' is totally beyond my mind to comprehend.

To some extent Mike, I must agree on that one but that is what the instructor insisted on and he would have failed any other interpretation. If you wanted your PTS certificate you did as instructed, arguing wouldn't get you far and all SP to SB calls are recorded just in case something goes wrong and you are in the firing line (but I assume you know that anyway).

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To some extent Mike, I must agree on that one but that is what the instructor insisted on and he would have failed any other interpretation. If you wanted your PTS certificate you did as instructed, arguing wouldn't get you far and all SP to SB calls are recorded just in case something goes wrong and you are in the firing line (but I assume you know that anyway).

Quite agree Bruce - I'm afraid this nonsense of the phonetic alphabet has got rather out of hand and displaced some geographical practicality in the process (possibly a consequence of the fact that those who come up with such ideas area long way divorced from the practicalities of the railway?).

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At least though, the phonetic alphabet takes out (virtually) any confusion through mispronunciation of place names and regional accents? Which surely has to be a "safe" option?

 

Local example - Darwen is usually pronounced as I've typed it - unless you live within the locality, then it becomes "Darren".

 

To take your example - "Derby" is usually pronounced with more of a "Darby" emphasis.

 

Cue lots of other examples...........

 

Cheers,

Mick

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Regarding Midland men using just the last four numbers of a loco, in the RCTS green book part 2A page 86 there is an account of how A3 60112 turned up on a freight working from Derby to Cricklewood in 7th of December 1964. The controller had been told "sixty one one two" was available and interpreted it as "sixty-one one two".The book doesn't say if he thought it was a Royal Scot. It would seem that a single dash and the slightly different inflection made all the difference. 

When asking our Control at Crewe which loco or locos we've been allocated for a particular job, we hardly ever mention '66' or 'sixty six', just referring to the individual loco such as ''take nine-five-one for the Thorney Mill and six-oh-six for the Angerstein...''.

 

I still refer to Westerns as 'ten ten' or 'ten twenty two' (always have, always will!), and Tops numbered stuff as 'forty seven oh seven seven' etc, although with the Class 50s it's always been 'fifty twenty two' or 'fifty forty seven', leaving out the 'oh' in the middle. Just seems to trip off the tongue that way ;-)

 

Of all the ex-steam London Midland chaps I've worked with, I don't think any of them referred to their charges using the full five digit BR numbering, with for example a Duchess being referred to as 'sixty two forty' for 46240 City Of Coventry.

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