Queen Mary

[waggy]

Once again, I seek the wise counsil of our members.

I was talking to a retired driver today who always asks after the current project, he passed a remark that sent me here.

He said that the first "Royal" Princess Coronation loco's, ie, 46221 " Queen Elizabeth " through to 46224 "Princess Alexandra" had name plates with a blue background.

I know it's a minor issue but could anybody advise me as to the detail?

Merry Christmas to all you peeps,

Waggy.

[Deleted]

Waggy,

I have a book on Britannias which mentions that it was common practice for Scottish sheds to paint the nameplates in a pale blue background, and at least one Britannia, 70049 Solway Firth, was seen (in 1965) with this. Might this explain it?

Regards and Merry Christmas,

John

[Laurie_B]

I'm guessing that this might date from when these locos were built.The first lot ,were built as streamliners and some [6220-6224] were painted blue-with go-faster-stripes too!The nameplate backround would have matched the overall loco paint scheme.I also seem to think that some of the Coronation class nameplates were actually chrome plated too-well some of the earlier ones.
Also,after nationalisation,some of the class were painted 'BR Blue',46221 and 46224 being so painted,though they were both repainted 'BR Green' in 1952.Maybe the nameplates retained the blue background.

[JohnP]

Did the RCTS publish a book on these locos? I'd guess the info would be there if they did!

JohnP

[Laurie_B]

I'm not sure that the RCTS have produced a book on the "Coronation" class,I agree that the info would almost certainly have been found there.There is a book on their publications list about LMSR loco nameplates,so that might contain some relevant information.