46203 Princess Margaret Rose
LMS Princess Royal Class 4-6-2 Pacific

Locomotive No. 46203 Princess Margaret Rose was fully overhauled by British Railways in 1961. After that overhaul she only did some 6,000 miles in traffic for British Railways and as such was in exceptionally good order when withdrawn from service. Other than the years stood at Butlins, the locomotive was always kept in covered accommodation and this too kept her in good condition.When it came therefore to overhaul she was still in very good order. For the overhaul the largest element of work by far was labour.
On the whole of the mechanical side, the work involved stripping the locomotive into component pieces, cleaning and re-assembly with no materials costs involved.A very dedicated team of volunteers soon assembled under the leadership of Mr Eric Riley – the Locomotive Superintendent to carry out the project.The Midland Railway Trust facility provided covered accommodation as with all the other locomotives at the centre. With the locomotive being in very good condition very little had to be renewed.

A basic summary of renewals is listed.

A number of the materials were used free of charge as a result of the Midland Railway Centre being given steel from local steel companies. The work took about 18 months from August 1989 to March 1990.A team of about 40 volunteers was involved with about ten of these forming the nucleus. The Midland Railway steam crane was used to lift all the heavy parts off and back on – again as with all other locomotive restorations at the centre.An estimate/guess for the costs of materials the figure would be about £10K The number of hours worked on the locomotive would be 12,000 over the project. This figure can be compared with a current similar project where every hour worked is recorded. ferent liveries and was allocated to eight different motive power depots.

Working Life - Restoration - Preservation