Royal Train

Another Special Train that sees occasional use on the railway is this Royal Train, by appointment to Her Majesty!

The train consists of six Hornby carriages and a Hornby locomotive, all resplendant in the Royal Purple livery.

The locomotive is this splendid Hornby Class 67, 67006 'Royal Sovereign', Catalogue Nº R3272. She is fitted with Hornby TTS sound decoder and she is very heavy, making light work of the six-coach load.

Behind the loco is the first of two Hornby Royal Household Couchette, kitchen & brake van.

This, like the second one in our train, is numbered 2921.

Next comes the Duke of Edinburgh's lounge, bedroom and bathroom, Nº 2904.

This, in turn, is succeeded by the Queen's lounge, bedroom and bathroom, Nº 2903.

 

Her Majesty must eat while she is on her travels so, next, we have this Royal Household dining car with kitchen, 2917.

If it is a particularly long journey, she might also need to spend the night on the train, hence the inclusion of the Royal Household sleeping car, Nº 10734.

Although, the real 10734 (ex-Nº 2915) was actually sold to Cotswold Rail in 2001 and was later to become a sleeping car as part of the Northern Belle.

Finally we have the second Royal Household Couchette, diesel generator & brake van.

Unfortunately this, like the first Couchette, is numbered 2921 but would be easy to renumber 2920.

This, then, concludes our Royal Train.

Although, not quite, because we do have a steam locomotive that can be assigned to Royal Duties, should her Majesty so desire!

Indeed, she has previously been featured on this blog but she is such a handsome loco that she is worth a second look.

The loco in question is BR Class 8P7F 4-6-2 70000 'Britannia', complete with white cab roof, indicating that she is in charge of Her Majesty's special train!