''The Coronation'' was a streamlined express passenger train run by the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

between and . Named to mark the

coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The coronation of George VI and his wife, Elizabeth, as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and as Emperor and Empress of India took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Wednesday 12 May 1937. ...

, it was inaugurated on 5 July 1937. The down train (northbound) left London at 16:00 and arrived in Edinburgh at 22:00; the up train (southbound) ran half an hour later.

Design

The design was based on the very successful streamlined train, ''The Silver Jubilee'', built in 1935, but instead of being painted silver it was given a two-tone blue livery. Internally it was decorated in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style.

Formation

The train was formed of four two-car articulated units, with a 'beaver-tail'

observation car An observation car/carriage/coach (in US English, often abbreviated to simply observation or obs) is a type of railroad passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the rearmost carriage, with windows or a platform on the rear of ...

added in summer, marshalled as follows on a southbound service from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the northbound service from London to Edinburgh would be marshalled the opposite way round with the Locomotive and tender, and observation car being coupled to the opposite ends (see image right): Seatin plan of LNER Coronation train

* Locomotive and tender * Brake Third + Kitchen Third * Open First + Open First * Open Third + Kitchen Third * Open Third + Brake Third * Observation car The train was usually hauled by a streamlined LNER Class A4 'Pacific' locomotive, in a special

Garter Blue A garter is an article of clothing comprising a narrow band of fabric fastened about the leg to keep up stockings. In the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, they were tied just below the knee, where the leg is most slender, to keep the stocking ...

livery with red wheels. From October 1937 this became the standard livery of the class. The observation cars had a distinctive 'beaver tail' shape. They ran in this form until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when the train's coaches were put in store. In 1948 various vehicles returned to service as general passenger stock, but they never ran as a full set again - the observation cars were transferred to the West Highland line in 1956. Their original observation end was found to give limited views, so

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

rebuilt them with a more angled end and added larger windows, running in this form from 1959 to 1968. Both the observation cars have survived and are being restored by Railway Vehicle Preservations Ltd, which has restored one to its original condition, the other as rebuilt.

References

External links

The train in miniatureScience and Society Picture LibraryRailway Vehicle Preservations Ltd
* , illustrated contemporary description of the ''Coronation'' and ''Coronation Scot'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Coronation (train) Named passenger trains of the London and North Eastern Railway Railway services introduced in 1937

Design

Formation

See also

References

External links