Coronation Scot 4-6-2 on an express
The Coronation Scot was a named express passenger train of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway inaugurated in 1937 for the coronation of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth which ran until the start of the war in 1939. It ran on the West Coast Main Line between London (Euston station) & Glasgow (Central), stopping at Carlisle for crew change & to pick up and set down passengers to and from London only. The service was designed to compete with rival services on the East Coast Main Line, for prestigious London to Scotland traffic. It was scheduled to complete the journey from London to Glasgow in 6 hours 30 minutes. Three trainsets were formed from existing carriages & given a blue livery similar in colour to that previously used by the Caledonian Railway . The first five of the Coronation Class pacifics were also turned out in blue with silver "cheat lines". The Coronation Scot train ran only on weekdays and during summer weekends & made its first run on 29th June 1937 between London Euston and Glasgow. A further ten were built in 1938, the first five being streamlined and painted in a crimson lake and gilt livery. Maintenance problems aggravated by many inaccessible parts prompted the decision to remove the streamlined casings from all the locomotives so fitted from 1946. Front end modifications were necessary but the original smokeboxes were retained until they became life expired. As a result the angled smokebox was for sometime a feature of the de-streamlined engines. The first three withdrawals 46227, 46231 and 46232 were made by the Scottish Region of British Railways in December 1962 from Polmadie (Glasgow) shed. The class was basically rendered extinct in September 1964 when eighteen locos (precisely half the class) were unceremoniously withdrawn, many in good condition to be replaced by mediocre diesels: he last loco ( not withdrawn in September due to being booked for a rail tour) was 46256 Sir William A. Stanier withdrawn in October 1964
Size: 2673px × 1667px
Location: WCML
Photo credit: © Digbydachshund / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 4-6-2, coronation, express, lms, locomotive, pacific, scot, steam, streamlined, wcml
