How Charles steamed in to save vandal-hit royal train
IT was the railway line generations of Royals took en route to their holiday retreat at Balmoral.
So when Prince Charles heard that vandals had caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to historic Royal Deeside railway property, he quickly took action.
Yesterday it emerged the Prince has donated a significant sum to the Royal Deeside Railway Preservation Society after mindless thugs caused £10,000-worth of damage to a classic carriage and engine marked for restoration.
The society was set up to commemorate the Aberdeenshire line that once carried
‘It was a shock but a nice shock’
Queen Victoria to her Highland estate.
Several generations of Royals followed in her tracks when they used the picturesque route until it was shut down in 1965.
It was not until three decades later that trains were seen again in the area when the preservation society started work to reopen a section of track from Milton of Crathes, near Banchory, for short trips.
But the group was left picking up the pieces last month after rocks were hurled through the reinforced windows of one of its old carriages and used to damage a nearby engine. Around a dozen windows on the Mark II British Rail coach were smashed on August 10.
Prince Charles, who takes the title the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland, is on his summer visit to Balmoral and has made a gift towards restoration works through his charitable foundation.
A Clarence House spokesman said the Duke had been disappointed to hear of the damage to the historic carriage and engine and was keen to help the work done by the ‘wonderful volunteers’.
‘He has therefore arranged for the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation to make a donation towards repairing the carriage and engine.’
Railway society secretary Bill Halliday said: ‘We are greatly honoured. It was a bit out of the blue.
‘I know he is really interested in heritage and community issues. It was a shock but a nice shock to have his interest.’
The railway society volunteers take passengers on a 20-minute trip along the mile-long section of track through Royal Deeside.
But the engines at the Milton of Crathes Station have been damaged several times i n recent months. Police Scotland say an investigation into the vandalism is ‘ongoing’.