All aboard the Evening Star!

The paper’s name is returning to the tracks after 50 years – this time on the side of a modern electric locomotive.

A Class 90 express engine operated by National Express will be officially named as The Evening Star at a special ceremony at Ipswich station tomorrow.

The train, which is being given the name as part of the Evening Star’s 125th anniversary celebrations, will then start working life on the Norwich to London Liverpool Street line.

Peter Meades, a spokesman for National Express East Anglia, said: “The train will be coming down for a special ceremony on Platform Four at 11.30am. We have a special set of miniature curtains which will be used for the unveiling of the name plate.

“The train will then travel up to our Norwich depot before going into service later that day or at the weekend.”

Local dignitaries attending the ceremony will include Ipswich MP Ben Gummer, the town’s Mayor Jane Chambers and Nigel Pickover, the editor of the Evening Star.

It’s not the first time that the Evening Star has had a train named after it.

In March 1960 the last-ever main line steam locomotive built by British Railways was named Evening Star at Swindon.

It was a heavy goods engine but it was never cleared to work on East Anglian railway lines.

Mr Meades added: “It’s quite unique to have a train named after a newspaper. I’m certainly not aware of too many other cases.

“We always try to name trains with something which has a local angle. We’ve had engines named after the Royal Anglian Regiment and the poet Sir John Betjeman.

“We are delighted to name this locomotive to mark the anniversary of a newspaper that is at the heart of its community.”