Present Your Case

If there’s a locomotive that you think needs to be offered ready-to-run, here’s the place to voice your opinion…

Locomotive: LMS Stanier ‘Coronation’ 4-6-2 Gauge: ‘N’ gauge

Proposed by: Matthew Taylor What is it?

An icon. Nothing – not even Gresley’s great ‘A4’ – screams verve and élan quite like the ‘Coronation Scot’ hurtling along the West Coast Main Line at over 110mph; a blue and silver beam powering its way from London to Glasgow in six and a half hours.

The doyen of Stanier’s express ‘Pacifics’, No. 6220 Coronation only held the British steam speed record of 114mph for 13 months before her eclipse by Gresley’s Mallard, but the newsreel (https://youtu.be/liihagde6gs) of that record-breaking press run – shot from a plane as she races along the line south of Crewe – is the most awesome combination of steam and speed ever captured.

As the narrator puts it, Coronation was “Built for power, built for speed. A veritable king of locomotives” and the run provided “such an orgy of speed that has never before been indulged in over LMS metals.”

I would challenge any modeller to watch that clip and not want to recreate it!

What would make it viable?

I would like to see a manufacturer produce a ‘Coronation’ class locomotive and the ‘Coronation Scot’ train in ‘N’ gauge.

The opportunity to run scale-length trains through a scenic landscape is so often put forward as one of the great selling points of ‘N’ gauge. And what better showcase for this than the ‘Coronation Scot’?

I hope that it would make a great opportunity for leading ‘N’ gauge manufacturer Graham Farish by Bachmann, which already has a modern chassis for the locomotive thanks to its excellent non-streamlined ‘Duchess’. Farish also produced the acclaimed LMS Stanier coaches only a few years ago.

The star turn would be a ‘Coronation Scot’ train pack in blue and silver livery. The coaches used in the ‘Coronation Scot’ were built specifically for that train. However, the Farish Stanier coaches are pretty close in my view – certainly more accurate than those used by Hornby in its 2012 train pack.

A manufacturer could also offer a streamlined ‘Duchess’ as an individual locomotive; the second batch of crimson and gold locomotives (6225-6229) hauled regular crimson stock – the same that Farish has already produced.

This would create two commercially complementary products for the manufacturer. Both the first two batches were twinned with Type A tenders, meaning the livery is the only significant difference between the batches.

The ‘Coronation Scot’ had a short life; the war curtailing its service after just two years, but no train offers quite the same wow factor and it is arguable that a real showcase express that appeals to the mainstream is something that is missing in ‘N’ gauge.

Can I see a real one?

No. 6229 Duchess Of Hamilton was re-streamlined in 2009 and is permanently on display at the National Railway Museum in York. You can’t miss it.

Have your say

Do you agree with Matthew’s argument? Go to www.model-rail.co.uk and take part in our vote.