OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Train Name Generator
Locomotive and Express Train Names Like The Fenland Flyer
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How the Train Name Generator works
This train name generator makes train and locomotive names in the shapes real railways use: Duchess of Northgate and Sir Hartley Vance as a peer or a knight, The Fenland Flyer and Evening Mail as a named express, Castleford Castle and Harrowfield Hall from a country seat, Northern Star and Endeavour as a star or a virtue, and Old Puffer or the Growler as a shed nickname. Pick the type of engine, choose a style and generate up to a hundred.
How the train name generator works
Railways named their locomotives from the first day, and the names fell into shapes that a railway enthusiast can date to a decade, which is why the Engine select matters: a steam express gets Duchess of Northgate and the Coronation, a goods engine gets Harrowfield Hall and Old Puffer, a diesel gets Sir Hartley Vance and the Growler, a high-speed set gets Northern Arrow and Sparky, and a narrow-gauge engine gets Squire Lionel Webb and the Kettle. The peer-duchess-or-knight form, Duchess of Northgate, Duke of the Wolds, Sir Hartley Vance, Lord Whitfield, is the flagship shape, an express engine named for the aristocracy and the directors of the company that built it, and it is the shape that says the engine was the fastest and best kept on the line; the of-a-place form is for the dukes and duchesses, the given-and-surname form for the knights. The named-express form, The Fenland Flyer, The Coast Express, Evening Mail, The Harbourside Belle, is the train's name rather than the engine's, a headboard carried on a service that ran the same route every day, and it is the shape the public remembers, since passengers rode the Flyer without knowing which engine pulled it. The castle-hall-or-manor form, Castleford Castle, Harrowfield Hall, Kestley Manor, Northgate Abbey, is the class shape, a whole run of engines named for the country seats along the line, one seat per engine, and it is the shape a model railway needs most because it fills a shed with names that plainly belong together. The star-bird-or-virtue form, Northern Star, Silver Arrow, Endeavour, Kestrel, is the modern shape, since diesels and electrics got abstract names rather than aristocrats, and a virtue name reads as a nationalised railway trying to sound forward-looking. And the shed-nickname form, Old Puffer, the Growler, the Kettle, the Workhorse, is the crew's shape, a name for the sound or the temperament, and it is the name the driver uses.
The peers, places, seats, stars and nicknames are ordinary and the shapes shared, so a result is a new combination rather than a real engine by design, and the places are invented, so Castleford Castle points at no real seat and no real nameplate, which matters, since real locomotive names are collected, catalogued and occasionally trademarked by the heritage railways that own them. A locomotive name is also cast on a brass plate and read from a platform, so the shapes here are two to four words, and the express names carry their The.
For the town the line serves, the Town and village page; for the aircraft that replaced the sleeper, the Aircraft page; for the boat the boat train met, the Boat and yacht page; for the car in the station car park, the Car name page; and for the company that ran the railway, the Business section.
FAQ
Why were steam locomotives named after castles, halls and dukes?
Because a railway company wanted its engines to advertise the country they ran through and the people who owned it, so express classes were named for dukes, duchesses and directors and mixed-traffic classes for the castles, halls, manors and granges along the line. Each class kept one shape, so an enthusiast could tell the class from the name.
What is the difference between a train name and a locomotive name?
A locomotive name is cast on the engine and stays with it; a train name is the service, carried on a headboard by whichever engine pulls it that day, The Fenland Flyer, The Coast Express. The Named express style makes the second kind, and the other styles make the first.
How do I name engines for a model railway so they look like a class?
Pick one style and one Engine setting and generate a batch, since a real class shares a shape: ten Castles, ten Halls or ten Duchesses of invented places. Mix in a couple of named expresses for headboards and one shed nickname for the tank engine the layout runs most.
Do modern diesel and electric trains get names?
Fewer, but yes, and the shapes changed: diesels got knights, stars, birds and virtues, and high-speed sets get arrows, bolts and city names, with nameplates unveiled for anniversaries and sponsors. The Diesel and Electric settings tilt the pool that way, and the shed nicknames for them are about the noise.
Can I use these names for fiction or test data?
Yes. The names are combinations of titles, common first names and surnames, invented places, country-seat words, stars, virtues and nicknames and belong to no one, and the invented places keep them clear of the real nameplates that heritage railways and collectors catalogue. For an engine in a story, a game or a model layout, use them freely.
See also: all Places & Things tools, People, Fantasy & RPG, Sci-fi, Culture & Language, Online & Social, Business & Brand.
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