The un-named experimental turbine driven No 6202 ended its service days in that form
in May 1950, but thereafter was rebuilt and named ‘Princess Anne’ on the second birthday
of the Princess Royal.David Bradshaw considers the subsequent rebuild and the decision
to abandon the hybrid locomotive after just 11,443 miles as a victim of the tragic
Harrow & Wealdstone crash of 8 October 1952, whereas No 46242 ‘City of Glasgow’ would
be returned to service.
Known to all as the ‘Turbomotive’ since its completion at Crewe Works on 29 June 1935
– two years and two days after No 6200 Princess Royal entered traffic as Stanier’s first Pacific, just over 1½ years after No 6201 Princess Elizabeth followed, and a mere four days before the first production ‘Princess Royal’ appeared
– Swedish-inspired turbine-driven steam locomotive LMS No 6202 was the third of the
LMS prototype Pacifics, and the most radical. With its mileage building, and nationalisation,
a repaint in BR lined black and renumbering behind us, No 46202 passes Halton Junction
with a Liverpool (Lime Street) to London (Euston) express in 1949. With finer ‘lines’
on the other side, where the forward turbine and control rods were masked by a lengthy
casing along the full platforming, this right-hand side view shows the casing of the
smaller reverse turbine ending mid-way along the boiler, which was far less attractive.
Smoke deflectors mask part of the bulbous casing above where cylinders would normally
be. Aesthetics aside, this deviation from normal practice was successful – No 46202
could match a production ‘Princess Royal’ in performance, and use less coal and water
while it was doing it.
R A Whitfield/Rail Photoprints Collection
I don’t remember the date, although it must have been 9 October 1954, I recall reading
the headlines in my father’s Daily Herald of the appalling accident at Harrow & Wealdstone on the previous day where, as a
result of a series of coincidences and errors, the 8am Euston to Manchester and Liverpool
service ploughed into the wreckage of a southbound express which had collided with
a local train in the station. The result was 111 deaths and many more injuries. Since
then I have been fascinated with the fate of one of the locomotives involved, No 46202
Princess Anne, the erstwhile ‘Turbomotive’ which was the train engine on the Manchester/Liverpool
express and had only recently been rebuilt as a traditional reciprocating locomotive
at Crewe Works and given the name of the Queen’s daughter.
