The Princess Coronation Class was designed by William Stanier, a development of the Princess Royal Class. In late 1931 Stanier was 'head hunted' to become Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSR), specifically to introduce more powerful and modern locomotives.
The first ten of the Class were streamlined, five of which were liveried in LMS Blue with silver lining especially for the Coronation Scot service between London Euston and Edinburgh. The other five were liveried in Crimson Lake with gold lining.
The 'Duchess of Sutherland' locomotive No. 6233 was outshopped from the LMS Crewe Workshops on the 31st July 1938 at a cost of £13,800.00. One of the third batch of the Class, it was built without streamlining or smoke deflectors. The single chimney locomotive was liveried in LMS Crimson Lake and allocated to Shed 1B at Camden, London. A double chimney was fitted in 1941 with smoke deflectors being fitted in September 1945. In 1946 'Duchess of Sutherland' was re-painted in LMS Black.
On passing to the newly formed British Railways in 1948, the 'Duchess of Sutherland' was re-numbered as 46233 and allocated to Crewe North. The locomotive was re-painted in Brunswick Green in the early 1950s and moved to Carlisle Upperby in June 1958. After running for 1,650,000 miles, the second highest mileage of the Class, locomotive No. 46233 was finally withdrawn from Edge Hill in February 1964.
Following withdrawal the locomotive was bought by Butlins for static display at a holiday camp in Scotland before being moved to Bressingham Steam Museum. In 2002 the restored 'Duchess' was used to haul the Royal Train taking Queen Elizabeth II on a tour of Wales. To mark the 25th anniversary of the 'Friends of the Settle and Carlisle' in March 2005 the 'Duchess of Sutherland' hauled the train taking the Prince of Wales from Carlisle to Settle.
'Duchess of Sutherland' was later acquired by 'The Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust' and restored over a 5 year period at a cost of more than £350,000 and was rolled out in March 2010 liveried in LMS Lined Black. To meet mainline running standards a Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) and other modern safety devices were fitted.
Between 2010 and 2011 the 'Duchess of Sutherland' underwent a major overhaul and returned to service wearing the early British Railways Brunswick Green livery as represented by the locomotive here.
This train pack contains:
- LMS ‘Duchess of Sutherland’ Princess Coronation Class locomotive
- 1 x BR Mk1 Support Coach