British Royal Train

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Class 67 67005 Queen's Messenger brings up the rear of the Royal Train as it heads along the Dawlish sea front on 15 September 2004. 67002 Special Delivery is heading the train.

The Royal Train is the name given to the set of railway carriages dedicated for the use of the British Monarch, other members of the Royal Family, and their staff.

[edit] History

Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to travel by train, on 13 June 1842, when she travelled on the Great Western Railway (GWR), which ran the line between London and Windsor (for the Castle).^[1] Pretty soon, all the major railway companies operating in the British Isles had their own carriage(s) dedicated for use by the Royal Family or other dignitaries.^{[citation needed]} After her funeral, Queen Victoria's casket was taken to London Paddington station and transported on the Royal Train.^[2]

In 1948, upon the formation of British Railways, the individual regions continued to maintain their own Royal Train carriages. A single "Royal Train" was only formed in 1977 as a response to the demands of the Silver Jubilee. This train has been maintained since privatisation of the UK's railways, although the Royal Family have travelled on ordinary service trains more frequently in recent years to minimize costs.^[3]

The train currently consists of nine carriages, though not all will be used to form a train, as different vehicles have specified purposes. Two locomotives are nominated for use on the train, but are used for other traffic too. The carriages may only be used for other Heads of State; they cannot be hired by private users. When not in use, the train is stored in Wolverton, where it is maintained by an Alstom subsidiary.^[3]

Train drivers are specially selected based on their skills, including the ability to make a station stop within six inches of the designated position.^[3]

[edit] Locomotives Nominated for the Royal Train

Class 67, no. 67006 "Royal Sovereign" at Evesham on 26 March 2005. This is the locomotive painted in Royal Claret livery for hauling the Royal Train.

Former Royal locomotive 47798 Prince William at the Rail200 railfest at the National Railway Museum 1 June 2004.

Although railways often had nominated locomotives for hauling the Royal Train (with special high maintenance regimes), no locomotive had ever been dedicated solely to the train until the 1980s when two Class 47 locomotives were painted in the claret livery of the royal household. During the 1990s these were dedicated solely to Royal Train duty until they were replaced in 2003 by two Class 67 locomotives, both owned by EWS. The new locomotives are used for normal freight duties when not on royal duty. Occasionally the Royal Train is attached to other engines, such as in March 2005 when Prince Charles was carried over the Settle-Carlisle Railway by the steam locomotive, Duchess of Sutherland.

Locomotives nominated for working the Royal Train over the years have included:

• 1990-2004: Class 47 locomotives 47834 Fire Fly and 47835 Windsor Castle (painted in InterCity livery) and later refurbished, renumbered and renamed as 47798 Prince William and 47799 Prince Henry (painted Royal Purple). Both are now withdrawn and the former is preserved at the National Railway Museum, York.
• Since 2004: Class 67 locomotives 67005 Queen's Messenger and 67006 Royal Sovereign (painted Royal Purple).

[edit] Royal Train Carriages

[edit] Historic Carriages

The table below lists Royal Train carriages in chronological order through to 1977. Where a separate date is shown for building, the vehicle was converted rather than built new.

[edit] Fleet from 1977

In 1977, the Royal Train was considerably changed in order to update it for use during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee celebrations. A number of new carriages were added to the train, and old ones either refurbished or withdrawn. Since this time all Royal Train vehicles have been painted Royal Purple and numbered in a dedicated series commencing at 2900.

Further changes took place during the mid-1980s, when more new carriages were added to the formation. These new vehicles were of Mark 3 design, and were converted prototype Mark 3 carriages originally built for the development of the High Speed Train (HST) in the early 1970s. This new Mark 3 formation for the Royal Train has a maximum speed of 125mph—important if paths are to be found for the train among the crowded main line.

The table below lists all the vehicles used in the fleet since 1977 in numerical order.

[edit] See also

• Royal Train
• Air transport of the Royal Family and executive of the United Kingdom
• Royal Yacht
• Official state car

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Royal Train

• About the British Royal Train from HM Website
• Royal Express is more Pizza than Orient , a description of the fixtures and fittings from The Scotsman, 2002

[edit] References