Princess Margaret Rose at Swanwick - geograph

London Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

(LMS)

Princess Royal Class 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 Coa ...

No. 6203 ( British Railways No. 46203) ''Princess Margaret Rose'' is a preserved

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.

Service

6203 was built 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 ...

, being works number 253 of 1935, and being the third member of the class and first of the second batch. It was named ''Princess Margaret Rose'' after the then five-year-old daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), Princess Margaret Rose, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II. The locomotive was used to haul the heaviest and fastest LMS passenger trains from London to north and northwest England and to Scotland. During its operational career it was allocated to

Crewe North Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

, Edge Hill (Liverpool), Kingmoor (Carlisle) and

Polmadie Polmadie (; gd, Poll Mac Dè, lit=Son of God pool) is a primarily industrial area of Glasgow in Scotland. Situated south of the River Clyde, Polmadie is close to residential neighbourhoods including Govanhill (to the west) and Toryglen (south-e ...

(Glasgow) motive power depots. After nationalisation in 1948, British Railways renumbered it 46203, and it was withdrawn from service in 1962.

Preservation

After withdrawal, 46203 was bought by Billy Butlin of

Butlins Butlin's is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families. Between 1936 and 1966, ten camps were built, including one in Ireland and o ...

holiday camps and became one of two preserved Princesses, the other being 46201 ''Princess Elizabeth''. After cosmetic restoration at Crewe, it was moved to Pwllheli in Gwynedd, arriving there in May 1963. It remained there until 1975 when it departed for the Midland Railway Centre (now

Midland Railway - Butterley Midland may refer to: Places Australia * Midland, Western Australia Canada * Midland, Albert County, New Brunswick * Midland, Kings County, New Brunswick * Midland, Newfoundland and Labrador * Midland, Ontario India * Midland Ward, Kohima, Na ...

) in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. Butlin sold the engine for £60,000 in 1985 when restoration to working order started, being completed in 1990. It then operated on the UK mainline rail network for several years until 1996, hauling special charter trains. Since 1975, the locomotive has been based at the

. It is owned by The Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust and is on static display in the West Shed Museum pending a future restoration to working order when funds allow. The PRCLT also owns another Stanier pacific, 6233 ''Duchess of Sutherland''.

References

External links

Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust

Railuk database

6203 Preserved London, Midland and Scottish Railway steam locomotives Individual locomotives of Great Britain Railway locomotives introduced in 1935 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain {{UK-steam-loco-stub