annual schedule meant commuting between the royal residences of Buckingham Palace, Sandringham (a palace he disliked, but from it, he could go to Newmarket for the races), Balmoral, and Windsor. In between, he attended shooting parties in Scotland, supper parties and the theatre in London, all interspersed with romantic rendezvous. For example, he made several rail trips to Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire, not because its garden was where George Frederick Handel had composed the music for the Messiah but to meet with Lillie Langtry, a popular actress of the period and his mistress.
Then there was also holidaying on the Continent by train in the summer. As Prince of Wales, he travelled across Europe to advise his nephew the Kaiser or to discuss the Entente Cordiale with the French or to visit the spa at Marienbad to cure his obesity. Once he went as far as Bad Ischl near Salzburg, to speak to the aged Emperor Franz Josef.
For travelling over the European railroads, Edward VII also owned and maintained a royal saloon, a twelve-wheeler that was the longest in use then, which was kept in the same shed at Calais with his mother’s. At a time when every royal family, from the grand dukes of the Russian court to Indian maharajahs, maintained their own trains in Europe, this was not unusual. Edward’s saloons would be hitched to the famed Orient Express, and his portly figure (travelling as the Duke of Lancaster) was commonly seen in the company of one of the beauties of the day. The Prince of Wales journeyed on occasion with Princess Alexandra, in three private coaches, all built for comfort with enormous armchairs, thick pile carpets, toilets, and spacious cupboards for the luggage. His Royal Highness’s personal compartment was furnished in the style of a gentleman’s smoking room — leather armchairs, card tables, books, newspapers, drinks, and cigars. The King took with him thirty servants and his fox terrier, Caesar, who, the staff knew, could do no wrong. In his rail travels, His Majesty made the Baie des Anges at Nice, with its palm trees and ornate hotels, so fashionable that the French renamed it the Promenade des Anglais. On April 4, 1900, the royal saloon would be the scene of an attempted assassination of the Prince of Wales when the train was leaving Nord Station, Brussels.6
In contrast with Edward’s own Canadian railway tour of 1860, when his son and daughter-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) arrived in September 1901, the Canadian Pacific Railway had grown into a multi-modal transportation giant, operating trains, ocean liners, banks, telegraph companies, hotels, and ferries across the world. A royal train was assembled to take the Duke and Duchess across Canada from Quebec City to Vancouver and back to Saint John, New Brunswick, and Halifax. It was conducted by Andrew Rainie of Saint John, the oldest conductor on the Intercolonial Railway, and the carriages were provided by the rival Canadian Pacific Railway.
Each of the nine cars was 730 feet long, lit by electricity and equipped with electric bells, telephones, and facilities for hot and cold water. “Cornwall,” the day coach, had an expansive observation platform at the rear, and its glass door opened into a reception area and an apartment decorated in Louis XV style. The entire room, except the framing and half the sidewalls, was constructed of plate glass to give the royal party an unobstructed view. From the reception area, a winding corridor led to the Duchess’s boudoir, which was upholstered in silk, its walls hung with original oils. The dining room walls were panelled and adorned with a number of armorial bearings, including those of His Majesty the King and of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess, as well as the coat of arms of the Dominion of Canada. Entered through a vestibule with soft green plush curtains, the night coach, “York,” contained the bedrooms and bathrooms of the Duke (in grey and crimson), the Duchess (in blue), the ladies and gentlemen-in-waiting, and the servants. “Canada,” the third coach, was a compartment car with five staterooms, a dressing room, lavatory and shower bath, and parlour. The remainder of the train consisted of “Sandringham,” the staff dining car, and the sleepers “Australia,” “India,” and “South Africa,” which held the secretaries’ office and medical dispensary. The royal train was always preceded by the viceregal train carrying the Governor General and his staff, the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and members of Parliament, and the premier of whichever province it was then in.
British Railways Board
The Britannia Class 4-4-0 locomotive that hauled King Edward’s VII’s royal train in 1902.
Between 1914 and 1941, no new royal saloons were built and, with some modifications, the existing royal trains served both Edward VIII and George V. Queen Victoria’s old saloon would be used as the hearse coach for both her funeral and that of her son, Edward VII. The period of opulence had ended with the Great War, and with hard financial times, railway companies were reluctant to spend on decor in the hope of attracting royalty. Also, the motor car was usurping the train for short Royal Tours.
PA-38861
The Prince of Wales (centre) standing next to a Canadian National Railways passenger car, Ottawa, Ontario, 1924.
King George V and Queen Mary made extensive use of various carriages owned by the LNWR, GWR, and the LBSC. Of the many industrial areas they visited by train — the pair loved to press switches and unveil plaques — particularly historic was their trip to the huge railway yards at Crewe on April 21, 1913: no member of the royal family had until then ever been to a rail yard. During the First World War, Their Majesties continued their inspection trips by train, but now to munitions factories and hospitals. Because they did not wish to stay overnight at homes of friends (for one thing, all the domestic staff in the big houses were now in uniform), they slept more and more on board the royal train and even bathed on it — so much so that, in 1915, two bathtubs, silver plated and encased in mahogany, were installed in the dressing rooms of the saloons used by Their Majesties. On April 28, 1924, the King personally drove a Castle class locomotive, number 4082, appropriately named “Windsor Castle,” from the Swindon Works to Swindon Station.7 Plaques were mounted on the side of the cab to commemorate the occasion.
Through his short eleven-month reign, Edward VIII never warmed to the royal trains — they represented the formality of his father’s era. His Majesty preferred instead fast cars (preferably Canadian) and aircraft. But his dislike did not extend to those trains he used overseas. On his first visit to Canada in 1919, accompanied by Captain Alan Lascelles (later to be Governor General Lord Bessborough’s secretary), the handsome, unattached, twenty-six-year-old Prince Edward set out on a two-month rail tour across Canada. “I progressed westwards in a magnificent special train provided by the Canadian Pacific Railway. My quarters were in the rear car, which had an observation platform. This last . . . while providing me with a continuous view of the varied Canadian landscape had however the drawback of making me vulnerable to demands for ad lib speeches from the crowds gathered at every stop,” he remembered. “Getting off the train to stretch my legs, I would start up conversations with farmers, section hands, miners, small town editors or newly arrived immigrants from Europe. It was the first time that a Prince had ever stumped a Dominion.” In 1923, he came back for a seven-week tour, and even tried his hand as driver at the controls of a Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 locomotive. The Prince returned to visit his Alberta ranch several times, including in 1927 to celebrate the country’s Diamond Jubilee of Confederation.
His Royal Highness was not as fortunate with rail travel in Western Australia when on tour there in 1920: as his train entered Bridgetown, it derailed. Only by luck did the heir to the throne escape unhurt. But when he returned home on HMS Renown and stepped ashore at Portsmouth on October 11, the royal train was waiting to take him to Victoria Station, the front of the 4-4-0 locomotive decorated with the Prince of Wales’s feathers. It was a mark of respect well meant by the railway but wholly unappreciated by the Prince.
On the Continent the Prince of Wales made frequent trips to Vienna, preferring the anonymity of the
