No. 142 Semi-controlled quality, Hornby’s Coronation?
“It’s a Semi!” I am sure that is what young train spotters used to shout in 1959 at the sight of a Coronation Class Pacific. I am guessing, ‘Semi’ because it had been semi streamlined as opposed to fully streamlined like the ‘streaks’ (A4s) on the East Coast Mainline. East meets West (or Streaks and Semis) The’ Coronations’ were introduced by Sir William Stanier in 1937, the same year as the coronation of George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon with the first member of the class named ‘Coronation’. The locomotives were the logical development of the earlier ‘Princess’ Class and initially all the original Coronations were streamlined, with the exception of 46230-4 / 49-55. The streamlining was gradually removed from 1946; 46243 (City of Lancaster) being the last member of the Class to have its streamlining removed in 1949. In 1947 George Ivatt (Stanier’s successor) added two further locomotives to the Class (46256-7). These last two members of the Class were never streamlin