Blog- The North Western Railway - Name Origins - NWR No.704 'Duke of Gordon'

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704 came out onto the layout for a little run today. Still has tension locks fitted which need replacing with Kadees before it can haul stock, but I took the opportunity to pose it with the other two blue locos, 705 and 805.

 

What's in a name?

 

I thought it would be nice to justify some of the names and liveries of the NWR fleet. I'll talk about 503's history in another post, but this came to light today.

Upon investigating the origins of the name 'Gordon', I found out about the Scottish Clan of that name, so thought, maybe 'Clan Gordon' or 'Duke of Gordon' would be an appropriate name for the NWR's flagship express loco. It was then that I saw, another name for the Duke of Gordon is 'Cock O'The North'.

 

From wikipedia: "For his notable contributions Alexander Gordon, 1st Earl of Huntly was styled Cock o' the North, a designation which has ever since been accorded to the heads of clan Gordon"

 

So, in this universe, what with 704's Gresley origins, and Sir Nigel using that name on the first member of the LNER P2 class in 1934, the name 'Duke of Gordon: Cock O'The North' was given to the experimental A0, and after that non-standard loco's sale to the NWR, the name was re-used in a shortened form on the P2. However, the name 'Duke of Gordon' stayed with the A0, thus, it is known locally as 'Gordon'.

 

 

 

 

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