LMS Route: Rugby to Tamworth

Trent Valley Lineside - Newbold on Avon: lnwr_nupa1169

LMS 4-6-2 Streamlined Princess Coronation class No 6220 'Coronation' passes over Newbold Troughs whilst at the head of the down 'Coronation Scot' express service to Glasgow in Aug 1937. The Princess Coronation Class was a class of express passenger steam locomotives built by the LMS, designed by William Stanier, as an enlarged version of his Princess Royal Class. The first examples were originally built with streamlining, though this was later removed post-war to assist easier maintenance. The non-streamlined locomotives were often referred to as the 'Duchess Class'. To enginemen they were all known as 'Big Lizzies' being the bigger version of the Princess Royal class known as 'Lizzies'. It is widely held that they were the most powerful passenger steam locomotives ever to serve on the British railway network.

The first five, Nos 6220 to 6224, were built in 1937 and were streamlined and painted Caledonian Railway blue with silver horizontal lines to match the Coronation Scot train they were built to haul. The streamlining, as can be seen, is probably best described as like an upside down bathtub and was largely adopted for publicity reasons in response to the LNER's streamlined A4s operating in direct competition on the East Coast. William Stanier, the LMS's Chief Mechanical Engineer and designer, felt that the added weight and difficulty in maintaining the locomotives was too high a price to pay for the actual benefits obtained at high speed. The second batch of locomotives, Nos 6225 to 6229, were also streamlined, but painted in the more traditional crimson lake, with gilt horizontal lining. This livery matched standard LMS stock and a planned brand new Coronation train to be made up of articulated coaches. Although a prototype for the articulated train was built and exhibited in America it was never put into service due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

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