Royal Funeral Trains

We welcomed Nicolas Wheatley to bring us a third instalment of his research on Funeral Trains. This time he concentrated on Royal Funeral Trains. The first that Nicolas was able to research was in the 1840s, the latest – surprisingly - was for Lord Mountbatten of Burma in 1979 when his coffin was transported from Waterloo to Romsey. Most of the more recent funerals for Royal Family members have not involved use of trains simply because logistics did not require such. Plans for HM Queen Elizabeth II did include use of a train but, because she died whilst at Balmoral, the decision was taken to fly her back to London. In 1936 the funeral train for HM George V was hauled from London to Windsor by GWR Castle Class 4082 Windsor Castle. When HM King George VI died in 1952 it was intended that the same locomotive would be assigned to the funeral train arrangements. However, it was in pieces in Swindon Works for overhaul at the time so, rather hastily, freshly outshopped 7013 Bristol Castle was renumbered 4082 Windsor Castle for the purpose of hauling the train. The renumbering was never reversed. And, yes, HM Queen Victoria’s train from Southampton to London did make the journey rather more quickly than the speed of which she would have “been amused”!