More journeys by the Queen
I CONGRATULATE you on your excellent coverage of the life of her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in relation to her travel by train. Your list of Royal Trains was extensive, but not totally comprehensive as I am sure you are aware [indeed, the list was a compilation only of those trips mentioned in back issue of The RM – Ed].
It is quite likely that someone from the railway fraternity will eventually compile a comprehensive record stretching back to the years before her accession to the throne as well as the 70 years of her reign. May I suggest that now is the time for material for that possible work to be assembled from the wide readership of the magazine?
Would it be possible to set up a special web page (or site) to which anyone with royal memories linked to the railways could send either a written contribution or photos they have taken, which could possibly be included in the suggested book?
Roy Thurley Llandudno
WHILE the leading articles in the October issue were a fitting tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II, I was a little disappointed that not one of the three journeys she made by rail in Northern Ireland during her reign was included. The first was aboard the special 1953 Coronation train, which ran from Lisburn to Lisahally, on the outskirts of Londonderry (and from there she then sailed up the Foyle into the city). The Queen travelled in the former GNR(I) Directors’ coach, which is now part of the collection at the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Whitehead Railway Museum. Another vehicle from the train – the UTA dining coach – is also housed there.
When the Queen opened the Belfast cross-harbour link in the 1990s, she travelled the short distance from a specially constructed platform on the Dargan Bridge to Belfast Central station in a Castle Class DEMU.
Her Majesty’s final rail journey in Ulster, and perhaps her last trip by any steam-hauled train anywhere, was in July 2016. During what turned out to be their final visit to the Province, the Queen and Prince Philip travelled along the north coast from Coleraine to Bellarena. There she officially opened the new NIR station and passing loop. That train was composed of RPSI stock pulled by GNR(I) steam loco No. 85. It is the same set of Mk.2 carriages used by the Society for all its mainline trips, so if you travel on one of the trains you might sit in the seats used by the Queen and her husband on that day!
