Queen Elizabeth Secrets Revealed: Here’s What You Need To Know About The Royal Train
Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Train recently made headlines after she lent the locomotive to Prince William and Kate Middleton when they embarked on their tour of England, Scotland, and Wales.
Following the successful tour, Woman’s Day shared some secrets about the queen’s Royal Train in its Dec. 21 issue.
First, the Royal Train is owned by Network Rail and is only used by senior royals when the queen invites them to board it.
Most often than not, the Royal Train is only used for special occasions and important royal tours.
Locomotion enthusiasts, reportedly, consider it a fascinating machine.
The queen is also very particular about who is hired to drive the Royal Train. After all, she requires the train to stop with just a 15cm margin of error between the carriages and the designated stop.
Years ago, Queen Victoria was the first to use the Royal Train regularly every time she would travel from London to Windsor and back.
Prince Philip and the queen also have separate sleeping quarters on board the Royal Train. And this is possibly the same quarters that Prince William and Middleton used during their tour.
Earlier this month, there were reports that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge slept on separate beds during their royal tour.
The Royal Train is also styled with a polished burgundy theme also known as the Royal Claret. And it features the royal crest throughout the carriages.
Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Prince William and Middleton’s Royal Train tour cost a huge sum of money.
According to reports, the entire tour might have cost between $65,000 and $80,000.
On the Pod Save the Queen podcast, Daily Mirror editor Russell Myers said that royal tours typically cost a lot of money.
“Just to get it off the tracks it probably costs about £20,000 a time, so I imagine this trip will probably come in at about between £50,000 and £60,000. However, they did a lot of miles, they can’t be in the back of a car, because you might get caught short and you have to stop for a wee on the M6,” he said.
According to Express, the Royal Train was used three times during the 2019 and 2020 financial year.
The queen used the Royal Train once and Prince Charles used it twice.
Last year, Prince Charles traveled from Kemble to Carlisle on the Royal Train.
Months later, the queen took the Royal Train from London Euston to Croy before heading to Edinburgh.