The tradition of railway sponsorship, which originated in England, was lost in the 1870s. It took 100 years for the SNCF to revive this tradition. In 1973, the city of Metz became the sponsor of the first locomotive to be named in the 20th century, the BB 15006. Since then, almost 700 pieces of rolling stock have received a city’s arms. The Cité du Train-Patrimoine SNCF in Mulhouse has a fine collection of coats of arms, made of metal until the arrival of the TGV in 1981. For reasons of safety and aerodynamics, the metal plates were then replaced by screen printing adhesives.