The current Everton boss unveiled the nameplate on Tuesday afternoon
Former Preston North End manager David Moyes unveiled a freight locomotive named after the club, on Tuesday afternoon.
Moyes revealed the commemorative nameplate of a GB Railfreight (GBRf) locomotive on the disused platform seven of Preston train station. The now-Everton chief was in charge of North End between 1998 and 2002, winning the Football League Second Division in 2000 - as well as the Third Division as a player, in 1995.
PNE’s former club chairman, Bryan Gray - also founding chairman of the National Football Museum - was also in attendance alongside Moyes. Both of them made speeches prior to the unveiling, as did John Smith OBE: the CEO of GBRf, in front of North End fans and members of the public.
“Yeah, very good,” Moyes told the Lancashire Post at the event. “I will never forget my roots... Preston, what they did for me and gave me in the early part of my career. I am, sadly, getting one of the oldest Premier League managers - if not the oldest.
“But not as old as Roy Hodgson, who has just come back, I’ve got to say! So, I am alright with that one! I quite like that... but I have to remember that Preston did me great. Whether it be the people who ran the club, or the supporters who were with me at the time.
“A big thank you to everybody. This was the least I could do, come down here and get a locomotive named after Preston North End.”
“I think it is (special that the bond with fans has remained),” added Moyes, who took time to speak and take pictures with PNE supporters at the station. “I don’t think it will ever go away. It certainly wouldn’t go away from me. If I am ever going to drop into a game, it will be Preston North End. That is where it started for me.
“Even my time as a player, I really enjoyed it. We had different successes… promotion; disappointments of not going up. Then being the manager, we were so close in getting to the Premier League. We have to hope that, someday, Preston will find that opportunity of getting there in the future.”
Tuesday’s event was a particularly important one for GBRf as it is more than 25 years since the company, founded in 1999, was officially launched. ‘Preston North End’ is a class 66 locomotive, the same class that were first launched 25 years ago.
GBRf have previously named locomotives after other football clubs such as Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Peterborough United, Wolves & Huddersfield Town. Its five-digit locomotive number is 66303 and it was built in 2006 at the General Motors Electro-Motive Division in Ontario, Canada.
It was previously named Rail Riders in 2007. GB Railfreight operate services across the UK and claim to be one of the fastest growing companies in the railway sector, with a fleet of c170 locomotives and1,800 wagons, transporting 22% of Britain’s rail freight.
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