LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton

London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Princess Coronation Class 6229 (British Railways number 46229) "Duchess of Hamilton" is a preserved steam locomotive.

Service

6229 was built in 1938 at Crewe as the tenth member of its class and the last in the second batch of five red streamliners (the original five 6220-4 having been given a unique Caledonian blue livery), complete with silver speed cheat stripes. In 1939 6229 swapped identities with the first of the class 6220 "Coronation" and was sent to North America with a specially-constructed "Coronation Scot" train. There was therefore for a while a blue 6229 "Duchess of Hamilton" in the UK and a red 6220 "Coronation" in the USA. R.A. Riddles drove for most of the tour, owing to the illness of the assigned driver. The locomotive (though not its carriages) was shipped back from the States in 1942 after the outbreak of the Second World War, and the identities of the locomotives were swapped back in 1943.

6229 was painted wartime black livery in November 1944. Her streamlined casing was removed for maintenance-efficiency reasons in December 1947 and she was then given the LMS 1946 black livery. In 1948 she passed into BR ownership. BR added 40000 to her number to become 46229 on 15 April 1948. She was painted in the short-lived BR blue livery in April 1950, but was soon repainted on 26 April 1952 into Brunswick green. The semi-streamlined smokebox was replaced with a round-topped smokebox in February 1957, and in September 1958 she was painted maroon. The lining was BR style to begin with then in October 1959 she received the current LMS style lining which she has carried for all her years in preservation.

Preservation

46229 was saved from the scrap yard along with classmate 6233 "Duchess of Sutherland" as a result of Sir Billy Butlin's efforts to place these locomotives as children's playground exhibits at his holiday camps. "Duchess of Hamilton" survived at Minehead Holiday Camp and it returned to steam on the main line under the auspices of the Friends of the National Railway Museum. The Museum accepted the locomotive from Butlin's in 1976 on a twenty-year loan, and purchased it in 1987. It first ran as the Museum's flagship locomotive in 1980 and was operational until 1985. After an extensive overhaul, it resumed running in 1989 and was finally withdrawn from main line duty in 1996 when its seven-year boiler ticket expired.

From 1998 to 2005, 46229 was a static exhibit in the National Railway Museum, standing next to "Mallard". She is one of three preserved Duchesses, the others being 6233 "Duchess of Sutherland" and 46235 "City of Birmingham".

In September 2005 the National Railway Museum announced that the streamlining would be re-instated, returning the locomotive to its original appearance. This work is now underway at Tyseley Locomotive Works and is scheduled for completion by 2009, the 70th anniversary of the launch of the "Coronation Scot" service for which "Duchess of Hamilton" was originally built.

In fiction

Although not mentioned in the text, the Duchess appears alongside "Thomas" and "Mallard" in The Railway Series book "Thomas and the Great Railway Show", on the occasion of Thomas's visit to the National Railway Museum, York.

External links

* [http://www.railuk.co.uk/steam/getsteam.php?number=46229 Railuk database]
* [http://ukhrail.uel.ac.uk/cgi-bin/rlylocos?NO=46229&NA=Duchess+of+Hamilton&CL=&CO=ANY&BL=&WN=&LO= Preserved locomotive database]