"Alberta": a brief account of a namesake locomotive.

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How many Albertans are aware that there was once a locomotive named after this province? The odd fact is that this engine was built and served her entire working life, not in Canada, but in Great Britain. So why, when and how did this come about? The British are famous for their harmless eccentricities, one manifestation of which is bestowing apt names on locomotives. So it was not all that unusual for one such engine, built 1934 in Glasgow, Scotland, to be given the name Alberta.

The London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS)--a private company, with its head office in London--was created in 1923 from six major--and several minor--railway companies throughout the British Isles. It was not an easy amalgamation, particularly in locomotive policy. So when the position of chief mechanical engineer (responsible for motive power), fell vacant in 1932 the LMS directors appointed an outsider, William (later Sir William) Stanier, of the rival Great Western Railway. Stanier's aim was to introduce a broad series of modern power to suit the straightened circumstances of the 1930s, engines that would be suitable throughout the LMS network. Pre-1914 engines were by then obsolete, sluggish, extravagant with coal, and difficult to maintain. Stanier set to work. One dire need was for engines capable of hauling medium length express trains at 60-70 mph. The first of the new class emerged from the workshops two years later.

In 1935, George V had been King-Emperor for 25 years over that vast empire upon which the sun was reputed never to set. His loyal subjects, fully a quarter of the world's population, joined in the anniversary celebrations. In accordance with the tributes to the Empire, it ...