A railway model, the Manchester Regiment and an Italian company ........ what more could anyone want?

Here is one of those little stories that pretty much does the lot.

It starts with a picture of model railway, touches on the history of a famous class of railway locomotive and ends with an Italian company.

So to begin with here is David Harrop’s model of one of the Royal Scot class of locomotives.

He tells me that they were “numbered 46100 to 46170, latterly all named after regiments. 46148 the Manchester regiment was at Longsight.”

And there is more, because the model locomotive was made by the Italian company Rivarossi which was set up in 1945, acquired other model companies and finally went into receivership in 2003.

A year later Hornby acquired the assets of Rvarossi and today their models are again sold under the Italian name.

All of which takes me neatly from The Manchester and David to me, because I had the Hornby Double 0 Royal Scot which will have been a Christmas present sometime in the late 1950s.

Now you will notice I neatly sidestepped all that history of locomotives for no other reason than I know I would get a bit of it wrong and I will leave you to explore the story of how railway locomotives, along with entire trains and now trams have names.

And that by extension makes me ponder on why buses are not also awarded a personal name.

Location; Manchester, London, Italy

Picture; the Manchester model locomotive from the collection of David Harrop, and Hornby box from courtesy of Ken Jaggers,http://www.jaggers-heritage.com/