R3677 Princess Coronation Class Duchess of Hamilton No. 6229
Couldn't load pickup availability
William Stanier became Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1932. Whilst in this position, he designed a new Pacific locomotive (4-6-2 wheel arrangement). The result was the LMS Coronation Class, an enlarged and improved version of his previous design, the LMS Princess Royal Class.
Construction took place in the LMS Crewe Works in Cheshire. The specific purpose of the Coronation Class was to haul non-stop express services between London Euston and Glasgow Central. This service held the name ‘Coronation Scot’. Thus, the engine was incredibly powerful. During their construction period between 1937 and 1948, 38 were built in total. The first 10 of these had the addition of a steel streamlined casing.
6229 ‘Duchess of Hamilton’
The tenth engine built, and the last of the streamlined Coronations, was the 6229 Duchess of Hamilton. It entered service on 10th September 1938.
At the same time, the LMSR had accepted an invitation from the organisers of the World’s Fair in New York to send a streamlined train out to the exposition. So, as the newest of the ‘Coronations’, 6229 was selected. It underwent a temporary name swap with the ‘6220 Coronation’ – the first of the class. So, for a time, there was a blue 6229 Duchess of Hamilton in the UK and a red 6220 Coronation in the USA. It returned to the UK in 1942 after the outbreak of the Second World War and received its original identity back.
It retired in 1964 and saved from scrap by Sir Billy Butlin who placed it in his Butlins Minehead camp. Later purchased by the National Railway Museum, today it is in preservation.
Please Note
Steam pipes fitted for display only. Various detail components can be customer fitted, including the drain cocks. Please be aware that you should not permanently fit any parts until you are certain that there will be no fouling during use. Depending on layout configuration some detail components are only suitable for fitting if the model is on static display.