When The London Midland and Scottish Railway came into being, it was relying on LNWR and MR designs for its top flight expresses between London and Glasgow. Sir Henry Fowler needed something with more power than these locos could offer, so that double heading and loco changes could be eliminated. Impressed by the GWR Castle class, and the SR Lord Nelson class, he needed something similar - and quickly!

The North British Loco Company of Glasgow produced the 'Royal Scot' class to the LMS specification in double quick time and they were a success - straight out of the box.  6100 was named after the train it was designed to pull - the Royal Scot express. In 1933 the loco was displayed at the Chicago World's Fair and covered 11,194 miles in North America. Well, actually, it was 6152 that did that, as identity with 6100 was swapped before the visit. The bell on the front footplate is a souvenier of the visit. This however, isn't the end of the story, as Sir William Stanier started a rebuild programme with the trademark taper boiler and top feed as well as new cylinders, and, in some cases, new frames, and even new tenders. In some cases all that was left was the number and the name. They were even more successful in this form and that is the loco you can see here.