The streamlined East Anglian service of the London and North Eastern Railway was introduced on 27 September 1937,[1] soon after the Coronation and the West Riding Limited, but differed from those – and from the Silver Jubilee of 1935 – in several respects.

It did not use new Class A4 4-6-2 locomotives but instead existing Class B17 4-6-0s were given a streamlined casing; although new carriages were built, these were neither articulated nor streamlined; there was no special livery; it ran at speeds not much greater than those achieved by existing expresses on the Norwich line; and there was no supplementary fare.

The footplate was removed, a streamlined casing similar to (but shorter than) that of Class A4 was fitted over the existing outer boiler covering, the cab sides were replaced, and the tender sides increased in height; they were renamed from Norwich City and Tottenham Hotspur to East Anglian and City of London respectively (the displaced football club names were used to rename Class B17/2 nos.

Unlike the special carriages built for the other streamlined services, the East Anglian carriages were not articulated, and were not streamlined either – they were of normal external appearance, with varnished teak finish, although they did conform to the latest LNER practice in that the external doors were in the vestibules, rather than in the seating areas.

[8] The bogies were of standard LNER pattern (having wheelbase 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m)) as used with all other non-articulated Gresley stock.

The internal styling was very similar to that of the Coronation and the West Riding Limited, except that the first class seating was arranged 2+1 instead of 1+1.

There were two factors which limited the peak speeds: the general speed restriction on the Norwich line of 80 mph (130 km/h), and the need to fit in with other services using the same tracks, particularly on the congested stretches west of Colchester (51+1⁄2 mi or 82.9 km from Liverpool Street) – the quadruple track finished at Shenfield (20+1⁄4 mi or 32.6 km).

[13] In 1938, the Norwich–Ipswich stage was accelerated, and was now run in 48 minutes, giving an average speed for that stretch of 57.5 miles per hour (92.5 km/h).

[14][15] The service resumed again on 7 October 1946,[16] using the six 1937 carriages (overhauled) plus a further two all-third coaches to make an eight-carriage train, but was now hauled by Class B1 4-6-0s.

In 1986 this service ran Monday - Friday only departing from Norwich 07:54 and returining from Liverpool Street station at 16:50, the train in each direction taking 1 hour 58 minutes.