History

 

A special carriage built by the London and Birmingham Railway in 1842 for Dowager Queen Adelaide

The first member of the British Royal Family to travel by train[1] was Dowager Queen Adelaide who took a train from Nottingham to Leeds on 22 July 1840.[2] Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to travel by train, on 13 June 1842[3] on the Great Western Railway (GWR), which ran the line between London and Windsor (for the Castle).[4] The train transported the Queen from Slough to Paddington, and was hauled by the locomotive Phlegethon driven by Daniel Gooch assisted by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.[3] The Queen used a Royal Saloon which had been constructed by the Great Western Railway in 1840.

The first carriage built for the exclusive use of a member of the British Royal Family was constructed in 1842 by the London and Birmingham Railway for Dowager Queen Adelaide. This carriage is now on display in the National Railway Museum in York.

In 1869 Queen Victoria commissioned a pair of coaches for £1,800 (equivalent to £150,000 in 2015)[5] with the London and North Western Railway.[1]

In 1874 the Great Western Railway built a new royal saloon at their Swindon works for the use of the Queen.[6] It was constructed under the supervision of Joseph Armstrong. It was 43 feet (13 m) long.

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Queen Victoria's Great Western Railway saloon of 1897 in Swindon

In 1897 they marked the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria by providing a new Royal Train of six coaches. Until now, railway companies had provided special saloon carriages, but there was no regular Royal Train until this one was constructed.[7] It replaced the GWR Royal carriage of 1874 which was re-fitted and lengthened to 53.5 feet (16.3 m).[8]

In 1877 the London and South Western Railway built a royal saloon for the use of the Queen.[9] It was built at the company workshop at Nine Elms and was 50 feet (15 m) long.

In 1899 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway provided a new royal train of five carriages, each 52 feet (16 m) long, comprising the Royal saloon in the centre, with saloon carriages at either end. The Morning Post of 17 April 1899 reported

The Royal Saloon is divided into two sections, the larger portion being especially fitted for the Princess of Wales, and the smaller portion for the Prince of Wales. In the matters of the decorations and furniture of the saloons the Company consulted their Royal Highnesses, whose choice rested on quiet, and at the same time artistic, ornamentation. The chief woods employed are Karri pine, Cuba mahogany, and satinwood. The inlaid panels and Lincrusta-Walton dados, in which the rose, shamrock, and thistle are designed, show great taste of skilled workmanship, and the same remark may be applied to the furniture in the saloon, which consists of sofas and easy-chairs upholstered in dark green morocco, that being the colour and material which her Royal Highness preferred to any other.[10]

Nearly sixty years later, after her funeral in 1901, Queen Victoria's coffin was taken to London Paddington station and transported on the Royal Train back to Windsor where she is buried.[11]

 

King Edward's saloon of 1902 at the National Railway Museum York

In 1902, her son Edward VII commissioned a new Royal saloons from the London and North Western Railway. They were built in the Wolverton railway works under the direction of C.A. Park. Two saloons were provided, one for the King and one for the Queen. The interior decoration was carried out by S.J. Waring and Sons. The Kings saloon had a smoking room in mahogany, with inlays of rosewood and satinwood, a day compartment in the Colonial style, in white enamel. The saloons included electric heating.[12] These saloons are now preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.

In 1908 the Great Northern Railway and North Eastern Railway jointly provided two new saloons and a brake van for use over their lines. King Edward VII used this for the first time on 7 September 1908 for a journey to Ollerton railway station when visiting Rufford Abbey to stay with Lord and Lady Savile for the Doncaster Races.[13]

In 1912 the Midland Railway provided a Royal Saloon for George V. It was built at the company workshops in Derby under the supervision of D. Bain, the works superintendent, and fitted out by Waring & Gillow. It was numbered 1910 to mark the year or the Coronation and first used in July 1912 when the King and Queen travelled from Yorkshire to London.[14] The Midland Railway company also provided a dining car which could be attached to the saloon when required.

Prior to the partition of Ireland in 1921, royal trains were occasionally used for the British Royal family when Ireland was under British rule. In 1897 the Great Northern Railway provided a new Royal train of six vehicles comprising a drawing room saloon, a dining saloon, first-class carriage, composite coach, and two vans. This was constructed in their own workshops and used for the first time during a visit by the Duke of York and Duchess of York in September 1897 and a trip from Banagher to Clara over the tracks of the Great Southern and Western Railway.[15] This use of a Royal Train continued in Northern Ireland until the last British royal train there in the 1950s.[16]

 

The King's armoured saloon of 1941 built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (now with armour plating removed) in the Glasgow Transport Museum

The Great Western Railway abandoned its old royal saloons of 1897 during the 1930s and borrowed stock from the London, Midland and Scottish Railway when required. After the Second World War they provided new saloons for their own Royal Train.[17] In 1941 the London Midland and Scottish Railway built three armour-plated saloons for the King. Shortly after the war, the armour plating was removed. Two of these have survived into preservation.

 

Royal Train arriving at Tattenham Corner on Derby Day in 1959. Notice the station master marking the stopping point for the driver.

After the formation of British Railways in 1948, the individual regions continued to maintain the constituent railway companies' Royal Train carriages. A single "Royal Train" was formed in 1977 as a response to the demands of the Silver Jubilee. The Royal Family have also travelled on ordinary service trains more frequently in recent years to minimise costs.[18]

The train currently consists of nine carriages, seven of these being of the British Rail Mark 3 design, including two that were built for the prototype HST train. Not all of these will be used to form a train, as different vehicles have specified purposes. Two locomotives are designated for use on the train and painted in the claret livery of the royal household, but are used for other traffic when not hauling the royal train. The carriages may be used for other Heads of State, but 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.[18]

Train drivers are specially selected based on their skills, including the ability to make a station stop within six inches of the designated position.[18]