The Queens starts her Christmas holiday

[E_Reeves]

Were there other passengers on this service too?

 

[CardiffKid]

Yes it was a regular train.

 

[Hadders]

Were there other passengers on this service too?

Yes, absolutely. It's a normal service train. The Royal Party normally have one of the 1st class compartments for their exclusive use. Rumour this year is that they used the standard class bit right at the front of the train. Standard class and first class seats are exactly the same.

 

[E_Reeves]

Yes, absolutely. It's a normal service train. The Royal Party normally have one of the 1st class compartments for their exclusive use. Rumour this year is that they used the standard class bit right at the front of the train. Standard class and first class seats are exactly the same.

Well I definitely didn't expect that

 

[colchesterken]

On a non rail related matter. Megan has made her mark on the Royals. I thought it was interesting that Harry and Megan
Looked after the elderly ones on the trip.

 

[bigfoote]

As an adjunct to this, I was surprised to learn HM used SWR to travel down to Portsmouth for the HMS Queen Elizabeth commissioning. I can't find it but there is a photo of her walking through Portsmouth Harbour ticket office...although AFAIK it is unbarriered due to the Wightlink terminal.

 

[Harbouring]

As an adjunct to this, I was surprised to learn HM used SWR to travel down to Portsmouth for the HMS Queen Elizabeth commissioning. I can't find it but there is a photo of her walking through Portsmouth Harbour ticket office...although AFAIK it is unbarriered due to the Wightlink terminal.

Yes no barriers but it’s quite a walk to the main road since the bus station opened. I expect they had her car waiting outside the entrance which is now technically a pedestrian only area. They might have put the train into platform 1 too to ensure a quick departure

 

[Bedpan]

Going up a few posts .... I know who the Duke of Lancaster is but am a bit confused by the reference to Brenda. Is Brenda some sort of code name for the Duke of Lancaster? Also, are there any other female dukes knocking around?

 

[6Gman]

Going up a few posts .... I know who the Duke of Lancaster is but am a bit confused by the reference to Brenda. Is Brenda some sort of code name for the Duke of Lancaster? Also, are there any other female dukes knocking around?

Brenda is a nickname for the Queen coined - I believe - by the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Incidentally, I don't think she is the Duke of Lancaster, but does hold the Duchy of Lancaster.

(The Duchy became extinct in, I think, 1413 when the holder became King Henry V. Ever since the Duchy has been rolled into the monarchy. However the Monarch is sometimes referred to as Duke of Lancaster within the county itself. But it's all unofficial.)

 

[6Gman]

Well I definitely didn't expect that

She's been doing it for several years. I have heard a story - possibly apocryphal - of a driver who likes to pass the time before departure chatting to passengers opening his door to find the Queen and DofE sitting there. A story I doubt because I feel sure the relevant driver is informed of his VIP passenger in advance.

 

[Highlandspring]

Rumour this year is that they used the standard class bit right at the front of the train. Standard class and first class seats are exactly the same.

Could this be the first time she's travelled in standard class on a train since her trip from Helensburgh to Dalmuir on 303008 in 1965?

 

[FenMan]

She's been doing it for several years. I have heard a story - possibly apocryphal - of a driver who likes to pass the time before departure chatting to passengers opening his door to find the Queen and DofE sitting there. A story I doubt because I feel sure the relevant driver is informed of his VIP passenger in advance.

Obviously Her Maj is getting on a bit, but one of the reasons she likes Sandringham is that she loves driving and the locals don't call any attention to it. In other words she can behave relatively normally - something that is impossible at Windsor or Buck House.

Back in the 70s, a winter storm had brought down some trees. One was blocking a road and a chap who worked for my father had stopped to pull the tree to the side of the road. A Range Rover approached and out popped the Queen to thank him for his consideration.

It's well known that Charles is not a fan of Sandringham, so the traditional pre-Christmas train journey to Norfolk may not last.

 

[Taunton]

the Duke of Lancaster? Also, are there any other female dukes knocking around?

Female Duke of Lancaster? SHE would appear to be very well known to the railway.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=d...AhXhD8AKHVe1DJUQ9QEIMTAE#imgrc=yeIkyEcQf_bUzM:

 

[30907]

I don't think she is the Duke of Lancaster, but does hold the Duchy of Lancaster.

(The Duchy became extinct in, I think, 1413 when the holder became King Henry V. Ever since the Duchy has been rolled into the monarchy. However the Monarch is sometimes referred to as Duke of Lancaster within the county itself. But it's all unofficial.)

The Loyal Toast in the county is "The Queen, the Duke of Lancaster." That's pretty official!

 

[Welshman]

Female Duke of Lancaster? SHE would appear to be very well known to the railway.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=duke+of+lancaster+ship+heysham+belfast+picture&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=yeIkyEcQf_bUzM%3A%2C0zcZujHa6LkS7M%2C_&usg=__tdifNcHWmH3M5b-tQv_GGc34j2Q=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNsPXZtp_YAhXhD8AKHVe1DJUQ9QEIMTAE#imgrc=yeIkyEcQf_bUzM:

Indeed - now a proper eyesore - beached at Llanerch-y-Mor and clearly visible from the Chester to Holyhead railway.

 

[mpthomson]

The Loyal Toast in the county is "The Queen, the Duke of Lancaster." That's pretty official!

She’s normally only known thus in Lancashire (and to the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment of the Army), and it’s not a formal title. The actual title is moribund, although the Duchy of Lancaster refers to her estate in that county.

 

[mpthomson]

Obviously Her Maj is getting on a bit, but one of the reasons she likes Sandringham is that she loves driving and the locals don't call any attention to it. In other words she can behave relatively normally - something that is impossible at Windsor or Buck House.

That’s the same reason she used to enjoy staying at Abbeystead House so much.

 

[Welshman]

Few will recall nowadays that it must have been 60 years ago the same journey was done from Liverpool Street with the Royal Train, for the first time hauled by a Brush Type 2 (Class 31) instead of the traditional steam power. It made it as far as Audley End, where the Brush failed. It was rescued by a completely unpolished B1 from Cambridge shed, driven down there flat out tender first to assist.

National newspapers the following morning had a field day.

A certain Gerard Fiennes recalls, in "I Tried to Run a Railway" another incident involving the Royal Train at Liverpool St:-
The arm had fallen off the up starter at Tottenham. Arms falling off signals, he reminds us, are unusual happenings, and the chances of it happening immediately in front of the Royal Train are incalculable. Now the proper drill was to station a hand-signalman to caution all drivers, so Fiennes was surprised find the train ran to time. He later learned of the enterprise of the Great Eastern, in sending a porter, clutching the signal arm, scampering up the post, and proudly holding it in the "off" position as his Sovereign unwittingly passed by under clear signals.
A nice story for Christmas!

 

[paul1609]

hope she used her rail card.......................

Its a HM Forces Railcard doesn't have the restrictions of a Senior Railcard when used Peak in the NSE Area....

 

[HowardGWR]

Brenda is a nickname for the Queen coined - I believe - by the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Incidentally, I don't think she is the Duke of Lancaster, but does hold the Duchy of Lancaster.

(The Duchy became extinct in, I think, 1413 when the holder became King Henry V. Ever since the Duchy has been rolled into the monarchy. However the Monarch is sometimes referred to as Duke of Lancaster within the county itself. But it's all unofficial.)

You are Nicholas Witchell and I claim my £5.

 

[Taunton]

A certain Gerard Fiennes recalls, in "I Tried to Run a Railway" another incident involving the Royal Train

David L Smith, in his fascinating accounts of the old Glasgow & South Western, and it's successors, had further Royal Train stories, with previous Sovereigns. One trip required an en-route reversal, and every level of management were either on the footplate or down on the ground, all waving on the loco crew independently as they ran round, to minimise the time - whereupon the immaculately polished loco was directed through open catch points onto the ballast. Queen Victoria (I think it was) had to be taken on by the local pilot engine.

It's a surprise they ever manage to have a trouble-free journey.

 

[DarloRich]

Brenda is a nickname for the Queen coined - I believe - by the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Incidentally, I don't think she is the Duke of Lancaster, but does hold the Duchy of Lancaster.

(The Duchy became extinct in, I think, 1413 when the holder became King Henry V. Ever since the Duchy has been rolled into the monarchy. However the Monarch is sometimes referred to as Duke of Lancaster within the county itself. But it's all unofficial.)

Correct - However the Queen IS the Duke of Lancaster. The Monarch is always the Duke of Lancaster. I think it stems from Henry the 5th who ascended to the throne from the Duchy of Lancaster and has passed ot every monarch thereafter.

As an aisde a Duke is the top of the hereditary title tree and a female may hold a dukedom in her own right and be addressed as Duke.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

On a different note - are Kings Cross to Kings Lynn services DOO operated? Or is there a 'changing of the guard' en-route?

 

[tsr]

That would be quite amusing, but I’m afraid it’s DOO. I have not heard of any guard being positioned in case (say) DOO cameras failed, though it would not surprise me. 387s can be worked by guards, although finding someone with the route knowledge to route-conduct a guard with 387 knowledge (who would quite possibly be one of the few based South of the Thames in Southern land) would be quite the logistical effort.

The process of changing the guard is rather less spectacular on the railway than it is at certain royal locations, anyway. A guard chucking their Avantix bag out of a train is not a tourist attraction!

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

But of course there are similarities; all the weird uniforms, poncing up and down, saluting and occasional shouting at tourists!

 

[Harbouring]

With the 387 being relatively recent on this route I wonder her majesty made use of her red pen?

 

[DanTrain]

I guess this means in a few (hopefully not too few) years we could have the service taking the King from King's Cross to King's Lynn

 

[delt1c]

what is so special about the "Queen " going for Christmas holiday. We all work hard throughout the year asnd look forward to christmas festivities but nothing in the news about "ordinary" people

 

[yorkie]

what is so special about the "Queen " going for Christmas holiday. We all work hard throughout the year asnd look forward to christmas festivities but nothing in the news about "ordinary" people

You did choose to click on the thread. If it's not of interest, don't read it. No-one is making you read things against your will

 

[delt1c]

You did choose to click on the thread. If it's not of interest, don't read it. No-one is making you read things against your will.

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