The Royal Train

A train carriage that was modified to carry Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin to London went unused.

The carriage was specially altered to be able to act as a hearse, with wide doors and a table that rotates through 90° to manoeuvre a coffin.

The carriage, numbered 2921, was stored at Gemini Rail Group’s Wolverton works near Milton Keynes.

The Royal Train usually consists of nine carriages, with locomotives provided separately. The carriages, which belong to Network Rail, date from 1977-87. They were last used by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for a cross-Britain tour in December 2020.

RAIL Managing Editor Nigel Harris pointed out that the last four monarchs were all carried to their funerals by train.

“Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch since the railways were invented not to have a funeral train. The railway is disappointed that it was not even used from central London to Windsor,” he said.

“I think it puts the skids under the future of a Royal Train. Next time the question arises of ‘should we keep it?’ it will be very hard to justify. If it isn’t used on the biggest state occasion in decades, and for which it has a specialised carriage for carrying a coffin, maintained from public funds, then the chances of keeping it will be greatly reduced.

“One of the reasons the police and other security officials love the Royal Train is that it is very easy to get the Royals in and out of a city centre for an engagement. Self-contained, small, mobile, easy to secure. We would lose that security and the cost of protecting them would rise.”