Four Princess Royals were painted between May 1950 and May 1951 in the lined blue livery that was the first official scheme for top link express passenger engines in 1950. 46208 Princess Helena Victoria, pictured at Crewe North on 28th April 1951, remained in blue only until November 1952. It was the first of the production series engines (6203-12) to carry one of the early boilers without a combustion chamber but rebuilt with a dome, and ran in this condition until April 1957. The diamond shaped holes on the front frames just above the leading bogie wheel were for the flanges of the inside cylinder by-pass valves, which were never actually fitted. Their presence indicates that 46208 still had its original front frames when this picture was taken.

Photo: T.G. Hepburn/Rail Archive Stephenson