45170 from Turkey to its homeland

Senior Vice president Dallas Mechan, in the absence of President Mark Rossiter, welcomed 26 Rotarians.

Past president Anne Mitchell gave details of this year’s Euroscholar candidature. Of the 20 students who entered essays for selection, one from Kirkcaldy High School was selected to go to Brussels. The young lady will be a guest of the club at the meeting on 20th December.

After the secretary’s business, Dallas introduced the speaker for today, none other than past president Iain Gow. Iain announced the number 45170 as his subject. 45170 is the number of a buoy at the southern end of Lake Michigan, which comes out of the water in the icy winter months when navigation is not possible. This, he admitted, is a fairly boring subject, and so he moved on to another user of 45170. This time, he was able to tell us that it represented a French postcode for a group of villages between Paris and Orleans. 

Another person using 45170 is an American frisbee golfer of dubious ability, and so Iain moved on to the real reason for his talk, the steam locomotive with the number 45170!

45170 is a Stanier class 8F 2-8-0 built in Glasgow. She is 63ft long and one of 842 built from 1935-1946. She was shipped to Turkey, via Egypt, during WW2.

The convoy was attacked but 45170 was one of 20 which survived to make landfall. Known as the Churchills, these monsters saw service in Turkey, Egypt and Iran, notably on the Trans Iranian Railway to the Caspian Sea ports forming part of Russia’s war supply lines. 

Class 8F was withdrawn from service in 1968 and some survive in various states of disrepair. 45170 was one of these and was purchased from Turkey by the SRPS of Bo’ness, where it is being restored. The project is progressing well but requires a further £250000 to ensure completion, when the locomotive will be suitable for main line working.

All donations are welcome and further information is available by Googling 45170.

After questions, Dallas gave the vote of thanks for a very interesting talk.