Designed by Sir William A. Stanier, Princess Margaret Rose entered revenue earning traffic in July 1935. During her twenty seven years of service to the LMS and British Railways, she covered one and a half million miles, carried four different liveries and was allocated to eight different motive power depots. On the 3rd. May 1936 she attained the class speed record of 102.5 mph. Following her withdrawal in October 1962, she was sold to Sir Billy Butlin and put on static display at Butlins Holiday Camp, Pwllheli, North Wales.
Still under the ownership of the Butlins group, she was moved to The Midland Railway Centre during 1975, arriving at Butterley on the 5th. November, where she remained as a static exhibit until purchased from Butlins in October 1988. She was then quickly restored to full mainline operating standards and returned to service on BR metals in June 1990.During late 1994, The Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust was formed, and in early 1995 Princess Margaret Rose along with two 21 inch gauge Princess Royal class locomotives were transferred into the ownership of this charitable trust to secure their long term future.
Built as the first of the production batch of Princess Royal class locomotives at Crewe, order number 395, LMS lot number 120, and completed on 1st. July 1935 at a total cost of £9,692 for engine and tender, she entered revenue earning service on 4th. July 1935 hauling a train from Crewe to Euston, and was subsequently allocated to Camden (1B) on the 6th.
Princess Margaret Rose attained the class speed record of 102.5 mph between Tring and Cheddington during a vacuum brake test run between Euston and Crewe on 3rd. May 1936.
6203/46203 was allocated to eight different motive power depots during her twenty seven years of service, as shown below :
| Camden (1B) |
4 years, 1 month |
| Polmadie (27A & 66A) |
2 years, 2 months |
| Edge Hill (8A) |
12 years, 6 months |
| Holyhead (14A) |
6 months |
| Crewe North (5A) |
6 years, 5 months |
| Carnforth (24L) |
9 months (stored) |
| Carlisle Upperby (12B) |
3 months |
| Carlisle Kingmoor (12A) |
6 months |
During this period Princess Margaret Rose carried 4 different liveries, LMS Crimson Lake, Black, Caledonian Blue and finally BR Brunswick Green.
46203 was the only LMS pacific ever to visit Derby works for major repairs (to overcome loose outside cylinders and replacement of front end frames), this taking place between 10th. December 1951 and 17th. March 1952.
The total mileage officially recorded between 1935 and 1961 was 1,494,484 but it is now known that she completed at least an additional 9,000 miles during 1962.
Working Life - Restoration - Preservation
