Who's your Greatest Westerner?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

http://www.greatwesterners.co.uk

Who, past or present, have made the greatest contribution to your town, city, community and the region? Who deserves to be remembered as an all-time great?

Great Western Railway are looking for your local heroes from the fields of Sport, Charity, Community, Business, Arts, Entertainment and Academia from across the West Country to be acclaimed as one of our 100 Great Westerners and potentially, have one of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s new fleet of locomotives names in their honour.

Fill in the form ... My Greatest Westerner Nomination is...

Each winner will receive two tickets. First Class train travel from your nearest Great Western Railway train station (embarkation point) to London Paddington. Overnight accommodation in a 3*+ London Hotel. Dinner for two at the Great Western Railway gala dinner. Return from London Paddington to Bristol or Cardiff on the new Intercity Express Train (IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan))) September 2017. First Class train travel from Bristol or Cardiff to your original embarkation point.

If you're looking for ideas ... from IBT Times

Swedish operator to name train 'Trainy McTrainface' in tribute to Boaty

MTR^▸ (Mass Transit Railway, based in Hong Kong) Express says 'Trainy McTrainface' would bring joy to those let down by UK^▸ (United Kingdom) decision not name a polar ship 'Boaty McBoaface' following similar online poll.

[ChrisB]

Oh, good grief!

[grahame]

Oh, good grief!

Is your reaction to the British or the Swedish part of my post?

[bobm]

I'd have probably gone for Brunel or Gooch - and they have already been honoured on the new trains.

[NickB]

Has anyone put forward Chris Grayling?? 

💥

[grahame]

The specification is an interesting one ... "from the fields of Sport, Charity, Community, Business, Arts, Entertainment and Academia from across the West Country"

On one hand, it's far wider than just railway people. Are they even sought? I suppose that they come under the business and community categories, with the competition designed to look across a very wide area rather than be purely inward looking within the rail community.

On the other hand, it's narrow.  It says "across the West Country". the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) (Intercity Express Train) running in our area will provide an electric train service for people travelling to the centres of the cities of London, Westminster, Newport and Cardiff (and you could argue for Bristol with a Parkway station on the outskirts). I suspect that none of the cities truly served with electric train services would consider themselves "West Country", and those sons and daughters of theirs who didn't stray a little way at least towards Devonshire and Cornwall are outside of consideration.

I have made a nomination - from history, of a gentleman from the world of art who passed away 20 years ago (so wasn't able to complete his phone number and email address - optional fields, thank goodness) on the form.  And looking at the wider spec, the results should include people like Banksy, Jenny Agutter, Henry Moule, Rachel Fowler, Henry Shrapnel and Tom Daley.  For a pair of power cars, how about "Butch" and "Sundance" - see their story.

[TaplowGreen]

The specification is an interesting one ... "from the fields of Sport, Charity, Community, Business, Arts, Entertainment and Academia from across the West Country"

On one hand, it's far wider than just railway people. Are they even sought? I suppose that they come under the business and community categories, with the competition designed to look across a very wide area rather than be purely inward looking within the rail community.

On the other hand, it's narrow.  It says "across the West Country". the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) (Intercity Express Train) running in our area will provide an electric train service for people travelling to the centres of the cities of London, Westminster, Newport and Cardiff (and you could argue for Bristol with a Parkway station on the outskirts). I suspect that none of the cities truly served with electric train services would consider themselves "West Country", and those sons and daughters of theirs who didn't stray a little way at least towards Devonshire and Cornwall are outside of consideration.

I have made a nomination - from history, of a gentleman from the world of art who passed away 20 years ago (so wasn't able to complete his phone number and email address - optional fields, thank goodness) on the form.  And looking at the wider spec, the results should include people like Banksy, Jenny Agutter, Henry Moule, Rachel Fowler, Henry Shrapnel and Tom Daley.  For a pair of power cars, how about "Butch" and "Sundance" - see their story.

Perennial pub type debate, always good fun and as you suggest, "Westcountry" is Devon and Cornwall! As someone from the God's own county (Devon) I think I can do a bit better than that..........Bob Fitzsimmons, Graham Dawe, Philip Curtis VC, Beryl Cook, Robert Lenkiewicz, Michael Foot, Robert Falcon Scott, Francis Drake, William Elford Leach..............Tom Daley's a bit of a strange one, amazing sporting achievements without doubt, but most Janners get a bit sick and tired of him these days.............funnily enough my office overlooks his London residence!!!

[John R]

I'm just excited about the fact that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are introducing a new fleet of locomotives. Together with some brand new Mk 5 rolling stock they will provide a much better journey environment for the longer distance regional services.

[grahame]

This competition is one I had overlooked when it launched - it's joint with the Bristol Post - see their article ((here)) and dates back to a start when we thought we were headed for a thumpring great Tory majority, and for these new trains to be arriving and leaving the Great Western cities of Bath and Bristol under electric power.  A lot has changed since then - not only in the electric catchment of the new trains. 

The competiton on the Bristol Post web site appears to have only generated limited interest - not generated lots of shares or comments, and I'd not come across it until yesterday - some 7 to 8 weeks after its launch.  There doesn't appear to be a closing date stated, it talks of terms and conditions but all I could find was a very limited number of comments - not the usual "employees of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and Bristol Post" not eligible stuff.  No comment on transfer of copyright of the text used to either GWR or The Post, and a whole host of other things which were I posting uber-pedantically I would pick up on.

My suggested people was somewhat tongue in cheek ... and (yes) I'm sure that amongst the winners, the organisers will pick some people most of us have never heard of, and some, we've heard of in the news quite out of proportion the other way. I wouldn't be surprised to end up with a front or rear car (let's not call the locomotives!) called "Duchess of Cornwall" and we might learn about the humour of the organisers if the car on the other end were called "Diana Spencer".  Again, someone who's likely to be known to most readers and riders.

[ChrisB]

Oh, good grief!

Is your reaction to the British or the Swedish part of my post?

You seriously need to ask? :-).....Swedish, of course.

[grahame]

Oh, good grief!

Is your reaction to the British or the Swedish part of my post?

You seriously need to ask? :-).....Swedish, of course.

That part of the story has now reached The Guardian ...

Trainy McTrainface: Swedish rail firm approves name following online poll

MTR^▸ (Mass Transit Railway, based in Hong Kong) Express allows name following public vote, saying news will bring joy to many – and ‘not just in Sweden’

[ChrisB]

It is rather pathetic, frankly.

[JayMac]

Attached is the list of 'Great Westerner' names that will be affixed to GWRs^▸ (Great Western Railway) fleet of Class 800/802s.

This is from a Facebook post so usual caveats about veracity.

Nice to see some recognition of emergency services personnel with the likes of firefighter Fleur Lombard, police officer Mark Freshwater, and the Plymouth Lifeboat Crew.