Swanage signalman Malcolm crafts two special Platinum Jubilee headboards... in just one week!
A DEDICATED Swanage Railway volunteer crafted two special headboards marking The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – carried on the front of the line’s trains between June 2 and 5.
Malcolm Munro, a member for more than 40 years and a volunteer signalman, took a week to make the silver and red wooden headboards.
At the age of 16, Malcolm rode on the last BR train from Wareham to Swanage on the evening of January 1, 1972.
As the branch’s tracks were being torn up for scrap that summer, Malcolm made the decision to join the Swanage Railway Society.
He said: “The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is an event of national importance and I wanted to do something to help the Swanage Railway mark the rare occasion in an appropriate, memorable, and special way.
“The jubilee is a major milestone in the history of this country and the royal family in particular, because The Queen is the longest-reigning monarch we have ever had.
“The Queen stands for one element of stability that this country needs at the moment. After the challenges and trials of the Covid pandemic, it’s important that we all celebrate and enjoy what we are lucky to have in this country – freedom that the people of the Ukraine are fighting for.”
Headboards denoting that trains were a special working, or a special service, were common in the days of steam – the ‘Bournemouth Belle’ and ‘Royal Wessex’ being two Dorset trains that carried such headboards on the front of the steam locomotives.
Stations along the railway were decorated with plumcoloured bunting and banners marking the jubilee.