LONDON MIDLAND & SCOTTISH RAILWAY
With 15 carriages on the drawbar, 1927-built LMS ‘Royal Scot’ No. 6111 Royal Fusilier has its work cut out at Kenton (near Harrow) with the Down ‘Mid-day Scot’ in April 1928. Despite being five years after the Grouping, there are still a number of vehicle
The LMS was the world’s largest transport business and the largest commercial enterprise in the British Empire. Its 7,790 miles of rail reached all four countries of the United Kingdom (running in Northern Ireland under the guise of the Northern Counties Commission).
LYR Chief Mechanical Engineer George Hughes was recruited to continue his work under the LMS, introducing the bulky ‘Crab’ 2‑6‑0. He also blessed former Caledonian routes with 20 more Pickersgill ‘Greyback’ 4‑6‑0s.
His retirement was followed by the appointment of the MR’S Sir Henry Fowler as CME in 1925. It was a bone of contention for some at the former LNWR in Crewe. His ‘Small Engine Policy’ was continued into the LMS era, spreading the influence of double‑heading across the system to the chagrin of dyed‑in‑the‑wool LNWR men whose large 4‑6‑0s now required assistance unless trains were shortened.
Managerial frictions had existed from the get‑go, with bitter rivals in the Midland and LNWR forced to work in an uncomfortable collaboration.
To rub salt into wounds, MR Crimson Lake was chosen for passenger and mixed‑traffic engines as well as carriages. Economic realities meant that ‘red’ was later adopted only for passenger types; with black for all mixed‑traffic and goods engines.
Cabsides were initially adorned with the LMS legend on a rectangular lozenge, later replaced by the company roundel, while Derby inspired smokebox numberplates were standardised (though many LNWR locomotives were never adorned).
Meanwhile, Fowler continued to build 150 more of his own 4‑4‑0 ‘Compounds’, but his thinking had left the LMS in a critically underpowered situation.
In late 1926, an urgent call from ‘top brass’ for 50 new large locomotives by summer 1927, led the LMS to the North British Locomotive Works of Glasgow. The resultant ‘Royal Scot’ 4‑6‑0s enabled heavily laden, non‑stop runs between London and Carlisle.
Double‑heading of Toton to Brent coal trains was becoming increasingly anachronistic. Thus, Fowler commissioned Beyer, Garratt to construct articulated 2‑6‑0+0‑6‑2s to handle trains of 1,450 tons.
In the 1920s, four‑aspect colour light signals were introduced in Manchester, and they were the first non‑semaphore type anywhere on the LMS.
The LMS did not develop a corporate identity for its stations until the 1930s; instead retaining the pre‑grouping colours of its constituents.