Royal Trains

The first time a reigning monarch is believed to have travelled by train was 13th June 1842, when Queen Victoria travelled from Slough to London (Paddington) on a train belonging to the Great Western Railway (GWR). Many other royal journeys were made by train in the interim with most of the different railway companies maintaining their own small fleet of royal carriages but it was not until 1977 that a dedicated "Royal Train" was produced in time for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Many other countries have had, or still do have, royal trains reserved for the use of their monarch. Japanese Railways had a royal train for the Emperor for many years but it is no longer in use. In Norway, however, a new royal train was built as recently as 1994 and contains seven compartments for the royal family and their staff. During trips a few extra carriages from NS (Norwegian State Railways) are added for press and others accompanying the royal family.

The King of Romania, Ferdinand I, had a train specially built by an Italian engineering company in 1927, though sadly he passed away before it could be delivered and it was left to his successor Carol II to become the first Romanian monarch to have a royal train. It had five carriages, finished in mahogany, cherry and rosewood; lamps were made of the finest crystal, the interiors were decorated with alabaster and chair coverings were made from the finest Spanish leather. Not content with just having a royal train the Romanian royal family also had their own private station built at Baneasa, Bucharest. Yet events caught up with the monarchy and the train was used by Carol II to go into exile in Spain; it was later used by King Mihai in 1948 when he ate his last meal on Romanian soil. The communist president, Nicolae Ceausescu used the train for a breakfast meeting with President Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger in 1975, and used it extensively to entertain foreign guests, including Kruschev and Brezhnev. It was replaced by a Presidential Train in 1978 but has now been lovingly restored and is used for charter services within Romania.

But it was in Russia where a royal train was used more than anywhere else. In 1888 (the same year as Jack the Ripper was terrorising the East End of London) the Imperial train with Tsar Alexander III on board, was derailed at Borki in the south of Russia with the loss of 21 lives. The Tsar survived and ordered a further two trains to be built to replace the wreck – one for travel within Russia; the other for use abroad.

They were built between 1894 and 1896 but Alexander died in 1894 so never got to use it, that honour falling to his heir, Nicholas II. The furnishings were lavish – silk, leather, oak ceilings, beech and satinwood furniture, thick carpets. The Tsar's bath was made of copper outside and silver inside. Apart from the royal compartments there were baggage cars, workshops, kitchens – one carriage was even built as a church. The Empress's compartment had a suspended bed, like a hammock and all the furnishings were made of the finest blue silk. The leather-covered desk had a silver writing set. There were carriages for ladies-in-waiting and other staff, all of which were sumptuously decorated.

It was in this well-travelled train, during a journey to Tsarskoe Selo that Tsar Nicholas II signed his Act of Abdication, on March 2nd 1917 (in the then Russian calender). The following year, in July he and his family were executed by the soviets on the direct orders of Lenin. It was the end of the Tsars in Russia. Two carriages from the Imperial train (bedroom and dining room) were transferred to the Alexandria Park of the Peterhof Museum (previously the summer palace of Peter the Great) near St Petersburg. Sadly they were destroyed during the Second World War, though some artefacts have been kept and can be found within the Museum.