Hornby R3119 Duchess of Abercorn LMS 4-6-2

Description

Hornby R3119 Duchess of Abercorn Princess Coronation Class 6234 LMS 4-6-2 DCC Ready

Model Production Details:

Length: 299mm, Livery: LMS Maroon, Class: Coronation, Period: TBA, Finish: Pristine, Features: Sprung Buffers, Brake Rods, Cab & Tender Detail. Fixed Cartazzi Wheel Assembly, NEM Couplings Motor: 5 Pole Skew Wound, Loco Drive.

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.

Locomotive Overview

The Princesses are related to the GWR King Class, the general outline essentially being a King with a larger firebox supported by additional trailing wheels. This origin is explained by the designer William Stanier coming from the GWR to the LMS.

When originally built, they were used to haul the famous Royal Scot train between London Euston and Glasgow Central.

Locomotive Construction

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.

Turbomotive

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, and ‘not all that much different’, it used a larger 40 element superheater to give a higher steam temperature, more suitable for turbine use. 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. It entered service in June 1935 on the London-Liverpool service.

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.

Later production

A second batch of eleven locomotives was constructed later.

Accidents and incidents

• 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.

Main article: Weedon rail crashes

• On 21 September 1951, locomotive No.46202 Princess Anne together with the leading locomotive hauling the Liverpool train was No. 45637 Jubilee Class 4-6-0 Windward Islands. This locomotive was severely damaged in the accident, having borne the brunt of the impact, and its remains were scrapped. The Princess Anne train was derailed at Weedon, Northamptonshire due to a defective front bogie on the locomotive. Fifteen people were killed and 35 were injured.

Naming

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 locos were known to railwaymen as “Lizzies”, after the second example of the class, named for Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Later examples of 4-6-2 express passenger locomotive built by the LMS were of the related but larger, Coronation Class.

Withdrawal

The class was withdrawn in the early 1960s in line with British Railways’ modernisation plan.