Ive often been confused by the British Railways Lion emblem which appeared on the tender sides and tank sides of locos. Should it face forwards on both sides?
The answer is ‘It depends when you were looking!’. Has he lost his ball bearings, I hear you say. No, here’s the story:- In 1956 Britannia class no. 70016 ‘ARIEL’ was decorated with a new style BR emblem – a lion striding over a loco wheel probably describes it best. For aesthetic reasons, one presumes, the lions were made to face forwards, in other words the lion on the left hand side of the tender faced left like the one in the photo and the one on the right, faced to the right. Simple. But the College of Heralds, who govern the use of heraldic devices, got wind of all this malarkey and objected in 1959. The end result was that the design had to be changed so both lions faced the correct way, i.e. to the left. So from then on the lion on the left hand side of the loco faced forwards whilst the lion on the right hand side of the loco faced backwards. Careful study of photos and the date is obviously needed before you settle on the correct style for your locomotive or tender.
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