A1 Steam Locomotive Trust headboard on 60163 Tornado

A headboard is a board hung on the front of a

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

. Generally it can depict a

named train In the history of rail transport, dating back to the 19th century, there have been hundreds of named passenger trains. The following is a list of named trains. Lists of these have been organized into geographical regions. Trains with numeric na ...

. Headboards are distinct from locomotive nameplates. In the United Kingdom, headboards were common on the public railway in the age of

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and into the age of

Diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

and

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

trains, although in modern times, use of headboards on scheduled trains is now defunct, although headboards are often still used on the occasion of a "last train", such as the withdrawal of a particular class of locomotive. On the scheduled network, headboards were used to denote special named trains, such as luxury pullmans, blue riband

expresses Expression may refer to: Linguistics * Expression (linguistics), a word, phrase, or sentence * Expression (mathematics), Symbolic description of a mathematical object * Fixed expression, a form of words with a specific meaning * Idiom, a type of ...

or other once a day special services such as

boat train A boat train is a passenger train operating to a port for the specific purpose of making connection with a passenger ship, such as a ferry, ocean liner, or cruise ship. Through ticketing is normally available. __NOTOC__ Notable named boat train ...

s. Latterly, headboards are still used by

railtour A railtour is a special train which is run in order to allow people to experience rail travel which is not normally available using timetabled passenger services. The 'unusual' aspect may be the route of the train, the destination, the occasion, ...

companies for

rail enthusiast A railfan, train fan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff, anorak (British English), gunzel (Australian English), trainspotter (British English) or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally in ...

's excursions, to denote the name of a tour, or more generally the name of the organisation running a tour. Headboards are also frequently used on

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

line services to denote special trains, the name of the railway, a locomotive's anniversary, or events. Common practice in the UK is to display the headboard on the front of a locomotive (temporarily attached, to denote the name of the train or other purpose), and to have the nameplate of the locomotive on the side of the locomotive (permanently attached to denote the name of the locomotive). Confusion may have arisen over the example of the "Flying Scotsman" — where ''The Flying Scotsman'' is a famous named train service operating since 1862, after which a now famous locomotive, the 1923 built No. 4472 ''Flying Scotsman'' was named — while the ''Flying Scotsman'' headboard has been worn by many different locomotives over the years, when No. 4472 was running the service for which it was built, this would give rise to No. 4472 displaying the name ''Flying Scotsman'' on both the front and the side of the locomotive.

See also

Further reading