LMS Royal Scot Class
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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 London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...
(LMS) Royal Scot Class is a class of
4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abs ...
express passenger locomotive introduced in 1927. Originally having parallel boilers, all members were later rebuilt with tapered type 2A boilers, and were in effect two classes.


Background

Until the mid-1920s, the LMS had followed the
Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...
's small engine policy, which meant that it had no locomotives of sufficient power for its expresses 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, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
. These trains were entrusted to pairs of LMS/ MR Midland Compound
4-4-0 4-4-0, in the Whyte notation, denotes a steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels. First built in the ...
s between
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
and , and a
4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abs ...
locomotive of the
LNWR Claughton Class The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) Claughton Class was a class of 4-cylinder express passenger 4-6-0 steam locomotives. History The locomotives were introduced in 1913, the first of the class No. 2222 was named in honour of Sir Gilbe ...
, piloted by an LNWR George V 4-4-0, southwards to
Euston station Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major London station group, central London railway terminus and Euston tube station, connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sout ...
. The Operating and Motive Power Departments of the LMS were satisfied with the small engine policy. However, in 1926 the
Chief Mechanical Engineer Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...
, Henry Fowler, began the design of a compound
Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
express locomotive. The management of the LMS, faced with disagreement between the CME and the other departments, obtained a loan of a GWR Castle class locomotive, ''Launceston Castle'', which was operated for one month between Euston and
Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...
. Following the success of the Castle 4-6-0 in working on the LMS, a decision was taken to cancel Fowler's Pacific project, and to replace it with a 4-6-0 with three cylinders and a simple-expansion steam circuit. Because there was an urgent need for new express locomotives the LMS placed an order with the
North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park W ...
of Glasgow for 50 engines. The North British, with its extensive drawing office and two works, possessed sufficient capacity to expedite the order within a year. The Derby drawing office and North British staff collaborated in designing the class, with the latter producing the working drawings. Fowler took little part in the design process, which was carried out by Herbert Chambers, Chief Draughtsman at Derby, and his staff. The LMS requested a set of drawings of the Castle class from the GWR, but did not receive them. Instead a set of drawings of the SR Lord Nelson Class were obtained, and used for the design of the firebox. The main features of the design followed existing Derby practice, with the cylinders and valve gear being derived from the Fowler 2-6-4T, also being designed at Derby at that time. They were introduced without testing. Radford claims that the boiler owed much to the
MR 0-10-0 Lickey Banker In 1919, the Midland Railway built a single 0-10-0 steam locomotive, No 2290 (later LMS (1947) 22290 and BR 58100). It was designed by James Anderson for banking duties on the Lickey Incline in Worcestershire (south of Birmingham), England. ...
'Big Bertha'. A further 20 were built by
Derby Works The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby railway sta ...
. They were initially named after regiments of the British Army, and after historical LNWR locomotives. Those with LNWR names were renamed in 1935 and 1936 with more names of regiments. From late 1931, after several forms of
smoke deflectors Smoke deflectors, sometimes called "blinkers" in the UK because of their strong resemblance to the Blinkers (horse tack), blinkers used on horses, and "elephant ears" in US railway slang, are vertical plates attached to each side of the smok ...
were tried on various locomotives to stop drifting smoke obscuring the crew's forward vision, the straight sided smoke deflectors were added. These were later replaced by deflectors with angled tops. From 1933 the class was taken off the top-link expresses, being superseded by the
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 Coast ...
and later 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, and ...
pacifics.


North American tour

In 1933, the LMS was invited to send a locomotive and train to the
Century of Progress A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Exposit ...
International Exposition in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, USA. It was decided to send an engine of the Royal Scot class, and one was selected that was due for general overhaul. The identity of this locomotive is generally regarded as having been No. 6152 "The Kings Dragoon Guardsman". The coupled axleboxes were replaced with larger ones, based on a GWR design, and the bogie replaced by a De Glehn type, also derived from GWR practice. Springs and spring rigging were also updated, and the boiler replaced. The rebuilt locomotive assumed the identity of 6100 ''Royal Scot'' with (on its return from the USA) an enlarged nameplate with details of its appearance at the exhibition. It retained this identity after its return from the USA.


Fury

LMS 6399 Fury, built in 1929, was an unsuccessful experimental prototype locomotive with a high-pressure, water tube boiler and compound 3-cylinder drive, based on the ''Royal Scot''. It was rebuilt by
William Stanier Sir William Arthur Stanier (27 May 1876 – 27 September 1965) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Biography Sir William Stanier was born in Swindon, where his f ...
in 1935 with a Type 2 conventional boiler to become 6170 ''British Legion''. This served as the blueprint for later rebuilding, but always remained a one-off.


Rebuilding

In 1942, the LMS rebuilt two
LMS Jubilee Class The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Jubilee Class is a class of steam locomotive designed for main line passenger work. 191 locomotives were built between 1934 and 1936. They were built concurrently with the similar looking LMS Stani ...
locomotives with Type 2A boilers, but later turned to the parallel-boilered Royal Scots whose boilers and cylinders were life-expired, and whose smokeboxes were difficult to keep airtight. Between 1943 and 1955, the whole class was rebuilt to create the LMS Rebuilt Royal Scot Class. The rebuilds were quite substantial, requiring new boiler, frames and cylinders, but in most cases the original frame stretchers, wheels, cab and fittings were retained. The usual procedure was that as each locomotive arrived for rebuilding, it was stripped and the identity transferred to a fresh frameset prepared using the parts recovered from the locomotive that had previously been rebuilt. The new frames were slightly shorter than the originals. Thus, most rebuilt examples retained their own cab, wheels etc., but most of the frame stretchers, and other integral parts of the frame were from the previously rebuilt loco. The new 'Rebuilt Scot' design was carried out under the auspices of
William Stanier Sir William Arthur Stanier (27 May 1876 – 27 September 1965) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Biography Sir William Stanier was born in Swindon, where his f ...
, who was then engaged on war work, so was actually undertaken by George Ivatt and E.S. Cox. Initially these too were built without smoke deflectors, but later acquired them.


Accidents and incidents

*On 13 October 1939, 6130 ''The West Yorkshire Regiment'', piloted by Black 5 locomotive no. 5025, was hauling a
Euston railway station Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major London station group, central London railway terminus and Euston tube station, connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sout ...
to
Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...
express passenger train when they collided with LNWR Class G1 no. 9169 while it was attaching a van to the rear of an Inverness train at Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. 5 people were killed and more than 30 were injured. *On 30 September 1945, at the
Bourne End rail crash The Bourne End rail crash occurred on 30 September 1945 when a sleeper train from Perth to London Euston derailed, killing 43. The cause was driver error, possibly compounded by ambiguous signalling regulations. Overview The train was the 1 ...
, 6157 ''The Royal Artilleryman'' was hauling an express passenger train which was derailed at
Bourne End, Hertfordshire Bourne End is a village in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated on the ancient Roman Akeman Street between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, on the former A41 London-Liverpool Trunk Route, on the Grand Union Canal that runs between London and ...
due to excessive speed through a set of points. 43 people were killed and 64 were injured.


Details

Note: Date built refers to the 'LMS build date'.


Preservation

No original Royal Scots in 'as built' condition survive, as all were rebuilt by 1955. However, two of the rebuilt locomotives have been preserved as LMS Rebuilt Royal Scot Class examples.


In fiction

No. 6115 Scots Guardsman featured in the 1936 film
Night Mail ''Night Mail'' is a 1936 British documentary film directed and produced by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. The 24-minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London, ...
along with No. 6108 Seaforth Highlander, the latter being cleaned at an unknown shed. 46126
Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and do ...
featured in the 1949 film Train of Events.


Models

Models to 00 scale of the Royal Scot in both unrebuilt and rebuilt forms have been produced by several manufacturers, and each has been available in several liveries with a variety of numbers and names. Mainline (
Palitoy Palitoy was a British toy company. It manufactured some of the most popular toys in Britain, some original items and others under licence. Its products included Action Man, Action Girl, Action Force, Tiny Tears, Pippa (doll), Pippa, Tressy, Mainli ...
) introduced a model of the rebuilt locomotives in 1977 and they were followed by
Airfix Airfix is a British brand and former manufacturing company which produced Injection moulding, injection-moulded plastic model, plastic scale model kits. In the UK, the name 'Airfix' has become practically synonymous with plastic models of this typ ...
who introduced their own version in 1978, but after the Airfix range was incorporated into the Mainline range, the ex-Airfix model was dropped. In unrebuilt form,
G & R Wrenn G&R Wrenn was a toy company specialising in the manufacture of model railways. It was founded in 1950 by George & Richard Wrenn. Origins G&R Wrenn's first product line was trackwork for 00 gauge model railway equipment, producing a variety of ...
introduced a model in 1980; and Mainline introduced their own version in 1982. Bachmann took over the tooling for both of the Mainline locomotives, and did do several production runs, with the ultimate intention of re-tooling the design to upgrade it to modern standards and detailing, but unfortunately for them, Hornby beat them to it. Hornby produced their own Rebuilt Scots, these being introduced in 2007, along with the rebuilt patriot locomotives. Rivarossi (now part of Hornby) made a similar model of the No. 6100 in an intermediate 1:80 scale (approx. 3.8 mm/ft) between HO & OO in 1977 based on the original unrebuilt form in LMS livery. It also made another model of the No. 6140 "Hector" sister engine. Graham Farish released a British N gauge model in 2009, in LMS Black, and BR Brunswick Green liveries. Comet Models produce a 4 mm kit in brass and white metal for the rebuilt Scot. Wills produced an original version kit in whitemetal which Southeastern Finecast have revised this kit and added an etched chassis. Eames/Jamieson produced a rebuilt version using nickel silver for the superstructure. Brassmasters did a limited edition kit in 4 mm. The erstwhile Kitmaster company produced an unpowered polystyrene injection moulded model kit for
TT gauge TT scale (from "table top") is a model railroading scale at 1:120 scale with a track gauge of 12mm between the rails. It is placed between HO scale (1:87) and N scale (1:160). Its original purpose, as the name suggests, was to make a train set ...
. In late 1962, the Kitmaster brand was sold by its parent company (Rosebud Dolls) to
Airfix Airfix is a British brand and former manufacturing company which produced Injection moulding, injection-moulded plastic model, plastic scale model kits. In the UK, the name 'Airfix' has become practically synonymous with plastic models of this typ ...
. It is thought that the moulds for this locomotive were amongst those lost or destroyed at about this time or before. As a result, unmade examples of this kit exchange hands between collectors for considerable sums.


References


Sources

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Further reading

* {{Authority control 7 Royal Scot NBL locomotives 4-6-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1927 Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain 2′C h3 locomotives Passenger locomotives