Liveries
The first five locomotives, Nos. 6220-6224, were painted in Caledonian blue with banding in silver-coloured aluminium paint. Wheels, lining to the edges of the bands, and the background to the chromium-plated nameplates were painted in a darker blue, Navy or Prussian blue. The second batch of streamlined locomotives, Nos. 6225-6229, were painted in crimson lake, with banding in gold lined with vermilion and black. Nameplates had a black background. LMS Shop Grey was carried briefly in service on 6229 Duchess of Hamilton from 7 September 1938 until its return to Crewe Works later that year, on 9 December 1938, to be painted crimson lake as No. 6220, in preparation for the 1939 visit to the New York World's Fair, USA. Insignia for both liveries was in unshaded sans-serif.
The non-streamlined Nos. 6230-6234 were painted in a special version of the standard crimson lake livery. The locomotives were lined out in gold bordered with fine red lines, with serif lettering and numerals in gold leaf and vermillion shading. Handrails and sundry small external fittings were chrome-plated, as were the nameplates, which had a black background.
Streamlined locomotives Nos. 6245-6248 were outshopped at Crewe in 1943 in plain black. The following batch, Nos. 6249-6252, were outshopped without their streamlined fairings, but with streamlined tenders, again painted unlined black with red-shaded yellow numerals and lettering.
In March 1946 No. 6234 Duchess of Abercorn was painted in a blue/grey colour. This was the colour of a proposed new post-war livery, one version of which had a pale straw yellow line along the running plate, yellow and black edging to cab and tender, and unshaded sans-serif numerals and lettering. 6234 was painted in BR experimental lined black in October 1948 and renumbered 46234.
No. 6256 Sir William A. Stanier FRS was outshopped in 1947 in black, with lining and edging in maroon with fine straw yellow lining. Lettering and numbering were in a sans-serif grotesque font, in yellow with an inner maroon line.
BR Blue was carried by 27 of the 38 locomotives, the first two being so painted in May 1949. One locomotive is known to have carried the blue livery until June 1954.
BR Green was introduced in November 1951 with 46232 Duchess of Montrose. Between October 1955 and December 1957, all 38 locos carried it concurrently, the only livery the entire class carried. Locomotives allocated to the Scottish Region remained green until withdrawal.
BR Red was carried on 16 locomotives from the late 1950s: Nos. 46225-6, 46228-9, 46236, 46238, 46240, 46243-48, 46251, 46254, 46256 allocated to the London Midland Region. 46245 was the first, in December 1957; a further fifteen examples followed between May and November 1958. The style of lining varied: the first six repaints into crimson (including 46245) were lined out in the LMS style; the last ten received the BR style of lining as used on the standard green livery; no. 46247, originally lined in the LMS style, was given the BR style in July 1959; and by November 1961 those with the BR lining were repainted to match 46245.
From September 1964, a yellow diagonal stripe on the cab side denoted a restriction not to work under the 25kV overhead wires south of Crewe. Within a short time of this being applied, the remainder of the class were withdrawn.
After the formation of British Railways in 1948, some locos ran with tenders carrying BRITISH RAILWAYS lettering. This was applied to three different liveries: the LMS-style lined black livery (nos. 46224, 46225, 46236, 46257); the BR experimental dark blue livery (nos. 46224, 46227, 46230–2, 46241); and the BR experimental lined black livery (nos. 46226, 46234, 46238, 46246, 46248, 46251, 46252, 46256). The early BR crest was applied from 1949, this in turn was replaced by the later crest from 1956.
Read more about this topic: LMS Coronation Class