GLASGOW MUSEUMS ACQUIRE HISTORIC RAILWAY NAMEPLATE ‘THE RT. HON JOHN SMITH, QC, MP’
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14th March 2020
On Saturday 14th I attended a heritage railway event in Glasgow, below is a piece taken from the Glasgow Times. Glasgow Museums has acquired a railway nameplate of outstanding historic merit, named after John Smith, the late Labour leader and former Member of Parliament for Monklands East. The plate, ‘The Rt. Hon John Smith, QC, MP’, which has been mounted on a wooden backing board, was presented by the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board (RHDAB) in the presence of members of John Smith’s family at Riverside Museum, where the city’s world-class transport and technology collection is exhibited.  RHDAB, co-chaired by Lord Richard Faulkner, selected Glasgow Museums as the recipient of the significant nameplate given John Smith’s connection to the area and the organisation’s reputation for preserving items of railway heritage from across Scotland, together with the impressive scope of the collection in its care. This was a key item on the agenda of the annual Heritage Railway Association Scottish Forum, which took place at Riverside museum this weekend. Lord Faulkner of Worcester, Co-Chair of RHDAB and President of the Heritage Railway Association, said: ‘We are deeply grateful to Glasgow Museums for agreeing to accept this iconic nameplate, which commemorates the life of one of Britain’s greatest statesmen. It is a rare honour for trains and locomotives to be named after parliamentarians, and it is wholly fitting that the wonderful Riverside museum should be this nameplate’s final home. I particularly appreciate the efforts of my colleagues in the RHDAB Scottish Support Group for the part they played in ensuring this important part of the story of railways in Scotland is preserved for everyone to enjoy and appreciate for ever.’  An online link to the Glasgow Times can be found here A link to the press release from The Herald here A link to the press release from The Metro here |