The Queen’s final journey should have been by train

The Queen loved the royal train. The Royal yacht was a luxury that was more for show than convenience but the train was a unique way for her to travel in comfort and without the hassle of flying. Modestly fitted out in a seventies vinyl panelled style with little extra decor, the Royal Train suited her unfussy taste and was easily accessible for her at Windsor. Therefore it was no surprise that the plan for a final rail journey had long been part of the London Bridge operation if she passed away in Scotland. It was envisaged that the Royal Train, which incidentally was not owned by the Queen but by the German state owned railway company DB Cargo, would be used to take her body down to London.

She would have approved of this for good reason. The origins of the concept of Royal trains stretch back to Queen Victoria for whom the Great Western Railway provided a special carriage in 1840 which, according to the company, was ‘handsomely arranged with hanging sofas of carved wood in the rich style of Louis XIV’.