Category:Duchess Class locomotives

1959: City of London loco [image info]

1956: Duchess of Montrose [image info]

~1960 Kitmaster No.4 Loco [image info]

The LMS Duchess Class consisted of locomotives of the 4-6-2 Princess Coronation Class that were either built without streamlining, or that had their streamlining stripped. All the streamlined Coronations were eventually stripped of their fairings and converted to Duchesses, the last being 6243 City of Lancaster, which lost its fairing in May 1949.

The combined Coronation/Duchess Class fleet eventually consisted of thirty-eight locomotives. These were the most powerful steam locomotives on the UK railways, and because they could do "heavy" jobs that even the early diesels couldn't cope with, many of them stayed in use until 1964.

Naming

The Coronation Class appeared in 1937, with 6220 Coronation. The first of the non-streamlined version was 6230 Duchess of Buccleuch, one of a run of five (6230-6234) that had "Duchess" in their name (although, confusingly, the previous five red "Coronation Class" streamliners, 6225-6229 had also had "Duchess" names).

Most of the rest of the Coronation/Duchess class were named after cities (starting with 6235 City of Birmingham), with the exception of the penultimate loco (the last Duchess built by the LMS), 6256 Sir William A. Stanier F.R.S. (1947) (which was named after the designer), and 6244 City of Leeds (1940) (which was renamed King George VI after the reigning monarch, the following year).

Duchess/Coronation loco names:

Numbering

All the Duchess locos had consecutive numbers starting from 6220, and were renumbered with gained a "4" prefix with nationalisation (e.g. "6220" -> "46220") with the exception of the very last Duchess built, 46257 City of Salford, which was built after the BR era had started, and therefore always had the "4".

Upgrades

The first fifteen locos (6220-6234) consisted of five blue streamlined, five red streamlined, and five with no streamlining. These first fifteen were initially built with single chimneys, but better, more efficient double-chimneys were added to the design and included in all the the newer locos from 6235 City of Birmingham (1939) onwards, and the first fifteen locos had all been upgraded to the new double-chimney design by the end of 1944.

The new chimneys didn't waste so much energy, and gave an additional performance boost, but since they didn't blast the smoke upwards so strongly, the non-streamlined locos then required side deflector plates to stop the smoke drifting back onto the loco and its train, obscuring the view.

See also:

• Coronation Class locomotives