THE CORONATION SCOT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23731, 11 February 1939, Page 10

THE CORONATION SCOT

NEW DECORATIVE DESIGNS WORK OF NEW ZEALAND ARCHITECT ANOTHER BRIAN O'RORKE SUCCESS (From Ouh Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Jan. 12. The schemes of colour decoration, upholstery and lighting on the newly built Coronation Scot, which is to make a 3000-mile exhibition tour of 38 American towns before arriving at the World's Fair in New York, were prepared by a New Zealand architect, Mr Brian O'Rorke, of Christchurch. Mr O'Rorke recently had charge of the redecoration of the L.M.S. Royal train. He supervised the decoration of the Orient Line's Orion and Orcades, and designed the L.M.S. exhibit at the Johannesburg Exhibition. Consisting of eight coaches and the stream-line locomotive, Coronation, the train is to be shipped from Southampton next week. Its tour of America will begin at Baltimore on March 21, and it will reach New York on April 30. The weight of the train and locomotive is 426 tons, and the total length, including locomotive, is about 580 feet. Features of the train include double windows to minimise noise and exclude dust, telephones connecting passenger compartments with the restaurant attendant, and the extensive use of cork and asbestos flooring and lining, to deaden sound and vibration. I Mr O'Rorke has carried out the interior decoration of the first-class corridor apartments on modern lines, giving a flush finish with the use of veneered panels. He has used a variety of selected Empire timbers, 1 and each compartment is finished differently, one with lacewood and beech, another with English willow, another with weathered sycamore and beech. There are over a dozen variations of this wood panelling. ■ THREE COLOUR SCHEMES Mr O'Rorke has introduced three colour schemes—blue grey, brown, and plum. Curtains and carpets tone with each. Seats are deep sprung with loose cushions and upholstered in uncut moquette, selfcoloured except for vertical lines in the blending colours. Each compartment seats four passengers, and below each window is a telephone communicating with the attendant in the kitchen car. Each passenger is provided with an electric cigar lighter. Corridors are flush-finished, in figured red teak with sycamore inlawed banding and walnut plinth. Carpets tone with the timbers. Walls' and partitions in the dining saloons are lined with leather on a felt foundation. Seats are upholstered in leather with loose cushions, and double seats give passengers individual seating. The colour scheme for the first class saloon is grey for the walls and seat ends, with dull pink seats and backs, the walls. The third class dining Bakelite-faced sliding doors match room has green walls and seat ends, with brown for the seats and backs, and bakelite-finished doors. Carpets and curtains tone with both colour ' schemes. NEW FEATURES In the cocktail lounge Mr O'Rorke has introduced some new features in railway carriage interior design. The walls do not follow the contour of the body side. They are built out and give a flat vertical side, with wide sills for the spacious win- j dows, which give a sense of spacious-1 ness to the compartment. Blue leather covers the walls and partitions, and a portion of the ceiling; the remainder of the ceiling is ivory enamelled; doors and sills are finished in blue bakelite. The colour scheme is red, white and blue, with fixed blue-upholstered swivel chdirs Red lines divide the blue carpet into squares; red and white are introduced in the curtains and table tops design. The cocktail bar counter top is veneered with red blisterproof bakelite and stainless steel edgings. The bar's front is padded with dunlopillo rubber, covered with blue leather, divided into three sections with white leather-covered beads, and finished with a stainless steel skirting. A CLUB SALOON The train also has a club saloon. Mr O'Rorke has finished it in an English brown oak with an ivory enamelled ceiling. Chairs and settees have coral vaumol hide upholstering; the carpet is nigger brown with red line squares. There is an electric glow fire, a settee, and easy chairs. Sleeping-car berths have bluegreen shaded rexine walls, with toning bedspreads and carpets. The wash basin is pale yellow porcelain. The outside corridor is finished in walnut and sycamore. The sleepingcar itself has a welded steel underframe and six-wheel bogies. Mr O'Rorke has placed the lighting throughout the train under the control of the guard. He has designed the light fittings to conceal the source of the light. Illumination

in the dining cars is mainly indirect, with supplementary lighting for dining tables. A similar scheme is in the cocktail lounge. The club car has a combination of circular ceiling fittings and wall brackets. There is also indirect distribution in the corridor compartments, with individually-switche'd brackets for local reading. _ Lord Stamp described the Coronation Scot as " The Queen Mary of the Iron Road." He thought it would certainly cdme in for a lot of admiration, and perhaps a lot of criticism. He believed, however, that it would be a lasting credit to British workmanship and artistic design. Driver Frederick Charles Bishop, a 57-years-old bachelor, and Fireman J. McKinnon Carswell, a 34-years-old Scot, both stationed in London, will be the engine crew in America. The colour of the locomotive is the rich crimson lake, picked out with horizontal bands of gold, that was formerly the colour of all the engines on the Midland Railway. '•Coronation blue" has been used recently for the engines under the Dominions category. In accordance with American requirements, the Coronation Scot has been fitted with a large brass bell on the engine, and a cow-catcher.