Journey on the Coronation Scot

Princess Alice' hauls her passengers to Scotland aboard the streamlined Coronation Scot in this dazzling film from the late 1930s

One of the London Midland & Scottish railway's crack streamliners, 6223 'Princess Alice' backs onto her train at Euston Station before departing with the 1.30pm Coronation Scot. Comprised of specially designed streamlined stock, the train would make only one stop at Carlisle before arriving in Glasgow at 8pm. Some remarkable, and risky, shots taken from the rear of the train, capture the thrill of 1930s high-speed rail travel as we charge through the passing landscape.

Hubert Davies, who made this remarkable film, was a professional photographer. His journey on the Coronation Scot gives us a valuable glimpse, from a passenger's point-of-view, of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway's high-speed train service to Glasgow, on the West Coast mainline. The 1.30pm Coronation Scot, was a response to the London and North Eastern Railway's rival service to Edinburgh called The Coronation, which left Kings Cross at 4pm. It ran on the East Coast mainline and was also hauled by newly introduced streamlined locomotives called A4s. High speed running on both lines was curtailed a few years after this film was made when, as a wartime safety measure, rail speeds were reduced.