John Herivel loco LNER 8900 (James Beeson)
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John Herivel loco LNER 8900 (James Beeson) |
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A lightly-restored James Beeson gauge 0 model of 4-4-0 locomotive LNER 8900, with "John Herivel" on the nameplate.
Unfortunately, we don't know the backstory. John Herivel was one of the best-known codebreakers at Bletchley Park, and since the real loco doesn't seem to have ever carried this name, it's possible that this might be a special presentation model.
John Herivel
John Herivel (1918 - 2011) was a mathematician who was recruited to become a celebrated Bletchley Park codebreaker, and after the war became a science historian.
The original locomotive
The Claud Hamilton was the first of its class (the Claud Hamilton Class, GER S46-Class, or LNER D14 Class), and was the largest locomotive on the Great Eastern Railway. The designers must have considered it to be something special, as the number originally assigned to it, 1900, was also the year that it was built.
Although often referred to as James Holden locos, the design was mostly done by Frederick V. Russell. These locos had a comparatively longe lifetime, being rebuilt and upgraded into D15 and D16-Class machines.
When the GER was absorbed into the LNER, loco 1900 was renumbered 8900, and in 1946, in the buildup to full nationalisation, carried the number 2500.
The only loco of its class to be given a name, it was rebuilt as an updated D16 in 1931, and was withdrawn in 1947.
In preservation
Although nine of the class are preserved, there is a project to scratchbuild a new D16/2 Class loco, 8783 Phoenix.
