Railway/Railroad Heraldry

[Jeremy Kudlick]

Not a railway company, but a town that owes much of its 19th and 20th century prosperity to the Great Western Railway, is Swindon.

The blazon is: Quarterly per fesse nebuly Azure and Gules a Pile Argent thereon three Crescents of the second in the first quarter three Castles one and two of the third in the second a Mitre Or in the third and a winged Wheel of the last in the fourth a Chief also of the third thereon a Locomotive Engine proper.Crest : On a Wreath of the Colours a dexter Arm embowed proper grasping two Hammers in saltire Or. Motto : 'Salubritas et Industria' - 'Health and Industry'.

As you may imagine the inclusion of a "Locomotive Engine" in a grant of arms dating from 1901 must have been a tough decision for the College of Arms, and an even tougher one for the heraldic artist who illustrated the grant and every heraldic artist ever since. Allegedly the "correct" depiction is of an engine named "Lord of the Isles", built in 1891/92.

Are you sure the College didn't intend for Thomas to be depicted?

[Chris Green]

Re the 'arms' of The North British Railway Company -
the arms of Edinburgh on the left include the supporters within the shield
and the arms on the right are those of Berwick.


Iain Boyd

Well done Iain.

Are you sure the College didn't intend for Thomas to be depicted?

Positive Jeremy! Thomas the tank engine was the brain-child of the Rev W Awdry in 1946. He based Thomas on the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway's E2 tank of 1913-16. So neither Thomas nor his real-life origin existed when the NBR obtained their grant of arms.

[Chris Green]

The Great Central was apparently the only early British railway company to be granted a CoA (in 1898):

Argent on a cross gules voided of the field between two wings in chief sable and as many daggers erect, in base of the second, in the fesse point a morion winged of the third, on a chief also of the second a pale of the first thereon eight arrows saltirewise banded also of the third, between on the dexter side three bendlets enhanced and on the sinister a fleur de lis or. And for the Crest on a Wreath of the Colours A representation of the front of a locomotive engine between two wings Or.




Following grouping of the railways in 1923 the GCR's successor, the London & North Eastern Railway, was granted arms that included the GCR's motto "Forward":

[Ryan Shuflin]

As you may imagine the inclusion of a "Locomotive Engine" in a grant of arms dating from 1901 must have been a tough decision for the College of Arms, and an even tougher one for the heraldic artist who illustrated the grant and every heraldic artist ever since. Allegedly the "correct" depiction is of an engine named "Lord of the Isles", built in 1891/92. Here is a picture:

It is understandable why some heraldists then have opted to use the winged wheel as a symbol of locomotion, rather then an engine, which it looks like has been done on the shield here.

[Chris Green]

It is understandable why some heraldists then have opted to use the winged wheel as a symbol of locomotion, rather then an engine, which it looks like has been done on the shield here.

Yes, Swindon chose to use both an engine and a winged wheel for some reason. The GCR used a winged helmet (morion) presumably to represent the Roman god Mercury, god of communication and travellers.

[Chris Green]

In Ireland the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee (founded 1906) was a very long name for a modest narrow-gauge railway. It used a variation of the arms of Tyrconnell, a hand grasping a cross crosslet fitchy rather than grasping a latin cross. Not so pretentious as some, the CoA was encircled by a ring containing the title and a sprig of shamrock rather than by a pretend Garter.

[Chris Green]

The preserved London & North Eastern Railway locomotive "Dominion of Canada" sports a rather fine Canadian Royal Arms:



http://www.nrm.org.uk/AboutUs/PressOffice/PressReleases/2012/December/dominionofcanadacrest.aspx

[Chris Green]

The North Eastern Railway held sway in Yorkshire from 1854, but its Directors put no less than three coats of arms into what looks like a fret-saw artist's nightmare:



The top-centre CoA is York, unsurprisingly as that was the NER's HQ. But what are the other two?

The bottom-left CoA has four quarters: 1) York, 2) ? 3) Berwick upon Tweed 4) ?

The bottom-right CoA has: 1) Leeds 2) ? 3) Kingston upon Hull 4) Middlesborough? (But Middlesborough's arms were granted only in 1911 and were: Argent a Lion rampant Azure on a Chief Sable three Ships Or sails Argent.)

[Chris Green]

The London & Birmingham Railway didn't last long (1833-46) before becoming part of the London & North Western Railway, but that didn't stop its directors assuming a CoA which, if the city fathers of London or Birmingham (or indeed the College of Arms) had been on the ball, could have kept the Court of Chivalry busy for months. Not only did they appropriate the arms of both cities unaltered, plus the crest of the City of London, but placed a sword of state and sceptre behind the arms.



I said that the arms were unaltered, but those keen of eye will have noted that the 1st and 4th quarters of Bimingham are Gules a Bend lozengy Or rather than Azure and the 2nd and 3rd are Per Pale indented Or and Azure instead of Or and Gules. I suspect this error may have crept in at a much later date - the artefact concerned being part of the gates of Euston Station now at the National Railway Museum in York, and clearly repainted recently.

[JMcMillan]

The London & Birmingham Railway didn't last long (1833-46) before becoming part of the London & North Western Railway, but that didn't stop its directors assuming a CoA which, if the city fathers of London or Birmingham (or indeed the College of Arms) had been on the ball, could have kept the Court of Chivalry busy for months. Not only did they appropriate the arms of both cities unaltered, plus the crest of the City of London, but placed a sword of state and sceptre behind the arms.

It would have been very interesting if the two sets of city fathers had taken this to the Court of Chivalry, since the crest of London was said as late as 1915 (by Fox-Davies) to be "of no authority," because not recorded in the College of Arms, and the arms of Birmingham (again according to F-D), were not granted until 1889. Before 1889, the city simply used the arms of the family of de Birmingham, who had once held the manor from which the village, town, borough, and eventually city took its name.