Did you call Black Fives "Mickies"?

['CHARD]

Could be, but more likely because locos without a leading truck would have a tendency to 'waddle' or roll, more so as the driving wheel bearings became more worn, well that's how it was explained to me by a former Bescot driver ( Cole) who lived next door to one of my uncles in Pleck (Walsall) .

 

Thanks Paul.  As an acquired-steam man, I will freely admit to having worked out the relevance of 'Dub' (aka 'Dub-dee') to those types, about forty-five years after the last was retired!

[Michael Edge]

Duck foot was a reference to the wheels on LNW locos with H section spokes - i.e. web-footed.

['CHARD]

Duck foot was a reference to the wheels on LNW locos with H section spokes - i.e. web-footed.

 

Oh now that's a real new one for me Michael!  

 

And I dare say it may be enlightening to some earlier platform-enders!

[bike2steam]

Good, but doesn't quite cover the 4F which was referred to as the 'Duck-6'???

[The Stationmaster]

Lightbulb moment.  As a committed and avowed non-sportsman, am I right in thinking the term 'Duck'-anything refers to a zero or nought as the first digit?

I only ever heard it used in respect of 'Duck Eights' - i.e. the G2As which were of course 0-8-0s - but then I was on the Western and they were very definitely foreign (except at Oxford, and no doubt in the West Midlands).  I understand 'jocko' was a Birmingham term for an 0-6-0T and allegedly stem from some LMS ones delivered there which had been built in Scotland, it is still used in respect of diesel shunters in the West Midlands.

[Focalplane]

I've made an interesting, and hitherto unrealized, observation from this discussion and sharing of experiences:  spotters and railwayman often had different names for the various classes.  For example,  Mickey would have been a spotter's name IIRC, not a railwayman's.

 

As to more recent posts, the diesel shunter at the present day Great Central (heritage) Railway is called a Jocko, while I see references to G2As being called Austin Sevens (from 7F power classification) though I don't remember that nickname back in the 1950s.  And G2As used to penetrate deep into western Country in southwest Wales, although they were running on LMS tracks most of the time.

[bike2steam]

A little bit of confusion here me thinks, 'Austin-7's were the Fowler 7F 0-8-0's, which were supposed to be replacement for the LNWR locos - but didn't quite work out that way.

 

Mike, I only heard the term 'Duck-8 & Duck-6' at Bescot, and Bushbury sheds.

[APOLLO]

My elder brother referred to the Princess locos as "Lizzies" (Princess Elizabeth) - they had all gone before my time.

 

Brit15

[bluebottle]

..... 9Fs were "whinnied niners"!!

 

..... 9F's were Spaceships .....

 

9Fs were often referred to by spotters at Woodhouse Grammar as "Winnies" (i.e: windshields, anything else with smoke deflectors being rare on the old MSLR).

I understand that they were referred to as "Spaceships" by footplatemen because they were so much in advance of anything else they had been given. It seems rather odd that in "Locomotives in Detail No. 7: Riddles Class 9F" (Ian Allan) the writer David Clarke says that: "The clear gap between the boiler and running gear gave cause to the nickname 'spaceships' ".

[edward66]

Definitely Mickeys in north Lancs. 4Fs were Woofs presumably for exhaust note, Princess Royals were Prinny Royals, Patriots were Pats.

 

Edward