British Royal Train

The Royal Train ( The Royal train ), the Court train, which is the British monarch, his family and the royal courtyard.

History

Queen Victoria traveled as first among the British monarch with a train: On June 13, 1842 went in a special train of the Great Western Railway ( GWR ), which operated the line between London and Windsor. Pretty soon had all the major railway companies of the island 's own car for the use of the royal family and other dignitaries. The train of the Queen went to high safety standards and only with limited speed. The driveway was blocked in advance, closed the course. Subsequently, a pilot locomotive drove 15 minutes before the train of the queen. Once this had happened, could - until the Court train was also run over - no change at the track and more are made. Policemen were in sight distance along the railway line.

Even after 1948 British Rail had been established, each region had continued their own vehicles for the Court train. A uniform " Royal Train" was only in 1977 on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II created, although the royal family in recent years, often traveling with trains plan to save costs.

Rolling stock

The train now consists of two locomotives and nine cars, but not all are used at once to form a train. The cars are also used for other heads of state. From home users, they can not be hired.

Locomotives

Although the railway companies had reserved often special locomotives for Court Train that have been maintained even with very high effort, there was no locomotive, which was reserved exclusively for the train. This was the first time in 1990, when two locomotives of the series were 47 put into service for this purpose. During the nineties, they were used exclusively in the Court train. Today, they constitute part of the National Railway Museum in York.

2004, they were by two locomotives of Class 67, owned by DB Schenker Rail (UK), replaced (No. 67005, Queen's Messenger, and No. 67006, Royal Sovereign ). The new locomotives are also used for freight. Occasionally, the royal train is pulled by other machines, so in March 2005, when Prince Charles went on the Settle - Carlisle Line and its train was pulled by the steam locomotive Duchess of Sutherland.

Car

Historic Vehicles

The following table lists the royal saloon carriage chronologically until 1977. When a Year separately disclosed, it is a conversion.

Current Court train

1977, the Court Train was renewed to a considerable extent, to make it fit for the Silver Jubilee of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. A number of new car was added to the refurbished train and made numerous older cars out of service. Since that time the cars are painted in royal purple and numbered consecutively in a series that begins with 2900.

More changes took place during the mid- 1980s, when newer cars the train had been added, which corresponded in its basic form, the car type Mark 3. This new set is approved for a maximum speed of 125 mph, which is important when a route on a busy main route must be found for the train.

The following table lists the royal saloon car which had set in Chapel Train after 1977, in numerical order: