Rutherford and I

In the 1940s I travelled to school daily by train, and first saw the words "Lord Rutherford of Nelson" on the large name-plate of a railway engine. Only later did I realize that the locomotive had been named after a physicist. A few years ago I also found that Ernest Rutherford officially opened London Midland Scottish's railway research laboratory in Derby in 1935. He and a party of dignitaries, including William Bragg and James Jeans, travelled up from London in a dining saloon pulled by the same engine, which had been named by Rutherford's young grandson. The then brand new engine steamed badly and arrived late in Derby, causing some embarrassment in high places.