Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox locomotive The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Princess Royal Class is a class of express passenger 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by William Stanier. Twelve examples were built at Crewe Works, between 1933 and 1935, for use on the West Coast Main Line. Two are preserved.
OverviewEdit
The designer of the class, William Stanier, had previously been Works Manager of the Great Western Railway's depot at Swindon Works, and had been recruited with a brief to replace the LMS's miscellany of locomotives inherited from its constituent companies. He made extensive use of Great Western features in his designs.
To match the power and speed and especially the prestige of the London and North Eastern Railway's express Pacific locomotives, Stanier designed the Princess Royal class almost as soon as he was appointed to the LMS. When originally built, they were used to haul the famous Royal Scot train between London Euston and Glasgow Central.
DesignEdit
The class was based on GWR 111 The Great Bear, a design produced in 1907 for the Great Western by George Jackson Churchward.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The smokebox and cylinders were closely based on those of the GWR 6000 Class (also known as the King Class).<ref name=Tuplin107>Template:Harvnb</ref> The inside cylinders were abreast the leading bogied wheels and drove cranks on the leading coupled axle, the outside cylinders were abreast the rear bogie wheels (which made substantial cross-bracing necessary between the cylinders and the locomotive frame) and drove crank pins on the centre coupled axle.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Each of the four cylinders had its own set of Walschaerts valve gear.
Other minor details, such as corks to close oil boxes, closely followed Great Western practice.
ConstructionEdit
A prototype batch of three locomotives was to be constructed in 1933. Two were constructed as drawn but the third set of frames was retained as the basis for an experimental turbine locomotive.<ref name="Nock, Turbomotive construction" >Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Raising Steam, Turbomotive" /><ref name="Rowledge, First two" >Template:Cite book</ref>
TurbomotiveEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The third prototype was constructed with the aid of the Swedish Ljungstrom turbine company and known as the Turbomotive, although not named. It was numbered 6202, in sequence with the Princess Royals. Although 'generally similar' to the rest of the Princess Royals,<ref name="Nock, Turbomotive construction" /> and 'not all that much different',<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> it used a larger 40 element superheater to give a higher steam temperature, more suitable for turbine use.<ref name="Raising Steam, Turbomotive" >Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref group="note">This trifurcated superheater design was later used on the Duchess class.<ref name="Raising Steam, Turbomotive" /></ref> This boiler was also domeless as would later be used for the second batch of the Princess Royals. The continuous exhaust of the turbine, rather than the sharper intermittent blast of the piston engine, also required changes to the draughting and the use of a double chimney.<ref name="Nock, Turbomotive" >Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Experiments With Steam, Turbomotive" >Template:Cite book</ref> It entered service in June 1935 on the London–Liverpool service.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
This Turbomotive was rebuilt in 1952 with conventional 'Coronation' cylinders and named Princess Anne, but was soon destroyed in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash.<ref name="Experiments With Steam, Turbomotive" />
Later productionEdit
A second batch of eleven locomotives was constructed later.<ref name="Rowledge, 1935 batch" >Template:Cite book</ref> The first two locomotives of the class to be produced had a firebox combustion volume too small for the grate area, and the subsequent locomotives had enlarged fireboxes.<ref name=Tuplin107/>
Accidents and incidentsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}
- On 17 April 1948, a passenger train hauled by locomotive No. 6207 Princess Arthur of Connaught was halted after a passenger pulled the communication cord. It was then hit from behind by a postal train, which a signalman's error had allowed into the section, resulting in the deaths of 24 passengers.
- {{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} On 21 September 1951, locomotive No. 46207 Princess Arthur of Connaught was hauling an express passenger train that was derailed at Weedon, Northamptonshire due to a defective front bogie on the locomotive. Fifteen people were killed and 35 were injured.
- {{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} On 8 October 1952, locomotive No. 46202 Princess Anne was one of the locomotives on the 8:00 a.m express from Euston to Liverpool and Manchester, along with LMS Jubilee Class No. 45637 Windward Islands. Princess Anne took serious damage in the crash, having the leading bogie torn off and main frames buckled, and was scrapped after being deemed uneconomic to repair it.
NamingEdit
Each locomotive was named after a princess, the official name for the class was chosen because Mary, Princess Royal was the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Scots. However, the locomotives were known to railwaymen as "Lizzies", after the second example of the class, named for Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II. Later examples of 4-6-2 express passenger locomotive built by the LMS were of the related but larger, Coronation Class.
WithdrawalEdit
The class was withdrawn in the early 1960s in line with British Railways' modernisation plan.
DetailsEdit
.jpg){kind=link}
PreservationEdit
Two examples, 6201 Princess Elizabeth and 6203 Princess Margaret Rose are preserved and both have operated on the mainline in preservation. They were named after the two children of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), and his wife, Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth, and after the king's death, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother). Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (later Queen Elizabeth II) was seven years old in 1933 when her namesake was built, and Princess Margaret Rose was nearly five in July 1935 when her namesake was completed. At the time, they were third and fourth in line to the throne. 'Princess Margaret Rose' is owned by The Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust and is on static display at the West Shed Museum, Midland Railway-Butterley, Ripley, Derbyshire.
Note: Loco numbers in bold mean their current number.
| Number | Name | Built | Withdrawn | Service Life | Livery | Location | Owners | Status | Mainline Certified | Photograph | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LMS | BR | |||||||||||
| 6201 | 46201 | Princess Elizabeth | Nov 1933 | Oct 1962 | 28 Years, 11 Months | LMS Crimson Lake (on completion) | Carnforth MPD | 6201 Princess Elizabeth Society | Under Overhaul <ref>Work Start's on Lizzie's Overhaul Trackside issue 27 October 2023 page 6</ref> | No, to be certified | File:6201 Princess Elizabeth in Preston.jpg | Withdrawn July/August 2021 due to cracked firebox.
Mainline Standard overhaul commenced in September 2023.<ref>Work Start's on Lizzie's Overhaul Trackside issue 27 October 2023 page 6</ref> |
| 6203 | 46203 | Princess Margaret Rose | Jul 1935 | Oct 1962 | 27 Years, 3 Months | BR Crimson Lake, Late Crest | Butterley | Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust | Static Display | No | File:LMS 8P 4-6-2 46203 PMR Carlisle 22.09.94R edited-2.jpg | Last ran in 1996. |
GalleryEdit
- 46201 at Carlisle.jpg
46201 Princess Elizabeth at Carlisle awaiting scrapping. The locomotive was later preserved.
- Princess Margaret Rose at Swanwick - geograph.org.uk - 1041810.jpg
Princess Margaret Rose at Swanwick West Shed in 2006.
MediaEdit
- 6201 at Langho on Whalley Bank – sound recording.
ReferencesEdit
- Ian Sixsmith The Book of the Princess Royal Pacifics Template:ISBN
- Hugh Longworth British Railway Steam Locomotives 1948–1968 Template:ISBN
- Template:Cite book
- David Hunt, Bob Essery and Fred James LMS Locomotive Profiles No. 4: The "Princess Royal" Pacifics
- Template:Cite book