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STAR LETTER
Royal Train charter deja vu
YOUR star letter from Dave Richardson in the November issue ends with a suggestion that the Royal Train (RT) being made available for the luxury charter market is most timely.
25 years ago, in November 1997, I was the national passenger marketing manager for Railtrack, a grand title for an interesting job looking after non-franchised open access services, including main line steam.
Earlier that year, the Royal Yacht Britannia had been decommissioned and murmurings were being made in upper echelons of Railtrack about the only train it owned, the RT. I was summoned by a very senior Railtrack commercial executive and asked to investigate, in essence, how to monetise the RT to reduce costs or get rid of it.
A visit to the RT foreman Chris Hillyard at Wolverton Works was arranged for November 21, 1997. I drove there in my 1955 split screen Morris Minor, coincidentally carrying the same livery as the Royal Train.
Mr Hillyard was clearly nervous about a suited and booted Railtrack manager visiting with an RT privatisation agenda to deal with. As we shook hands, I assured him that the RT would not be sold or laid up, so nothing to worry about. He responded by suggesting a Royal Coat of Arms on the side of the Morris as a Royal Train support vehicle!
I was given a private
