The

LMS Coronation Class The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Coronation Class is a class of express passenger steam locomotives designed by William Stanier. They were an enlarged and improved version of his previous design, the LMS Princess Royal Class, an ...

No. 6220 (

British Rail 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 ...

ways No. 46220) ''Coronation'' was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

Overview

6220 was built in 1937 at

Crewe Works Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1840, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s, a lot ...

, the first of its class of streamlined locomotives. It, along with others were given a special livery of

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

blue with

go-faster stripes Racing stripes, also called 24 Hours of Le Mans, Le Mans stripes or Rallying, rally stripes, were originally applied to racecars to help identify them in the field during races. The term "racing stripe" is also used to refer to diagonal lines pai ...

instead of the more conventional red. During a press run on 29 June 1937, 6220 set a new speed record on the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. Driver TJ. Clark and fireman C. Lewis (with

Robert Riddles Robert Arthur "Robin" Riddles, CBE, MIMechE, MinstLE (23 May 1892 – 18 June 1983) was a British locomotive engineer. Biography LNWR and LMS Riddles was born in 1892 and entered the Crewe Works of the London and North Western Railway as a pr ...

(engineer) and inspector S. Miller on the footplate), pushed the Stanier pioneer to a claimed speed of 114 miles per hour on Madeley Bank south of Crewe, which broke the previous record of 113 mph set by the rival

LNER LNER may refer to: *London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 *London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a type ...

. However, the celebration was premature, as the footplate team realised the train was still making 110 mph only a mile and a half from

Crewe station Crewe railway station is a railway station in Crewe, Cheshire, England. It opened in 1837 and is one of the most historically significant railway stations in the world.A4 Class 4468 ''Mallard'', which reached 126 mph whilst trialling a new quick action braking system. In 1939, 6220 temporarily swapped identities with 6229 ''Duchess of Hamilton''. The new ''Coronation'' was sent on a tour to America for the World's fair. There was thus a blue 6229 ''Duchess of Hamilton'' in Great Britain and a red 6220 ''Coronation'' in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. On the return of the engine from North America, their identities were swapped back again. 6220 swapped its single chimney for a double chimney in December 1944. The streamlining was removed for maintenance reasons in September 1946, and

smoke deflectors Smoke deflectors, sometimes called "blinkers" in the UK because of their strong resemblance to the blinkers used on horses, and "elephant ears" in US railway slang, are vertical plates attached to each side of the smokebox at the front of a ste ...

were installed during maintenance. It was painted LMS 1946 black livery in September 1947, followed by BR standard express blue from January 1950 to April 1952. It was painted BR green in April 1952. 46220 remained in semi-streamlined form with sloping

smokebox A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is e ...

front until February 1957 when a round-topped smokebox was fitted. 46220 was never painted maroon and was in BR green when withdrawn. 46220 was withdrawn in 1963 and scrapped at

External links

Railuk database

6220 Coronation Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Railway locomotives introduced in 1937 Scrapped locomotives {{UK-steam-loco-stub