• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Armed Forces to the Coronation by Train

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

MadCommuter

Member
Joined
4 Oct 2010
Messages
630
The BBC are reporting the biggest military movement of armed forces by train in 60 years. It's hard to provide a link as its in a BBC live page.

"The dawn chorus is in full cry here at Tring station in Hertfordshire, and a very unusual commute into London is under way.
Click to expand...

Hundreds of RAF personnel are boarding a train taking them into the capital for the Coronation procession.
Click to expand...

They’ve spent the past few weeks at nearby RAF Halton brushing up on their marching and rifle drill for today’s spectacle.
Click to expand...

The procession will consist of 6,000 UK armed forces personnel, with a contingent of 949 from the Royal Air Force as part of what will be the largest military ceremonial operation for almost 60 years.
Click to expand...

These servicemen and women will be arriving at Waterloo, from where they will make their way to watch the ceremony, then form part of the procession thereafter. "
Click to expand...



The photo looks to show LSL MK II stock.
 

Attachments

  • e2aa6b12-8eb7-4566-a3c8-159c589ac8cd.jpg
    e2aa6b12-8eb7-4566-a3c8-159c589ac8cd.jpg
    34.1 KB · Views: 702
Last edited:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

J

JonathanH

Veteran Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
18,832
fairysdad said:
Nothing showing on RTT - shame, but not necessarily surprising!
Click to expand...
Maps showing various 1Zxx trains in platforms 14-19 at Waterloo.

More than 5,000 armed forces personnel march through Waterloo

Thousands of soldiers and members of the armed forces jumped off trains at Waterloo this morning before marching off to take part in the coronation.
metro.co.uk
More than 5,000 armed forces personnel march through Waterloo

Liam Coleman
Saturday 6 May 2023 7:22 am

Thousands of soldiers and members of the armed forces jumped off trains at Waterloo this morning before marching off to take part in the coronation.

More than 5,000 personnel travelled by train to the capital this morning, in what is believed to be the biggest movement of military staff on Britain’s railways since Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965.

Members of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Commonwealth forces travelled on board seven South Western Railway trains and two chartered West Coast Railways trains.

The soldiers, sailors and aviators arrived to the sound of a special announcement recorded by the King and Queen, which is being played at stations across Britain this weekend.

After leaving Waterloo, they marched over Westminster Bridge to assemble ahead of the coronation.

They headed across the bridge and onto Birdcage Walk.

The military personnel are leading processions accompanying the King and Queen to and from Westminster Abbey.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
deltic

deltic

Established Member
Joined
8 Feb 2010
Messages
3,224
Realtime trains are showing the movements this afternoon at 15.35 and 16.05 from Waterloo to Milton Keynes
 
R

railfan99

Established Member
Joined
14 Jun 2020
Messages
1,325
Location
Victoria, Australia
Even 'The Australian' in my distant country (we are nine hours ahead of UK at this time of year) has a photo and a story with the same (syndicated) photo.
 
Last edited:
DerekC

DerekC

Established Member
Joined
26 Oct 2015
Messages
2,119
Location
Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
fairysdad said:
Nothing showing on RTT - shame, but not necessarily surprising!

(Slightly disappointed that I'm not in work today as Waterloo is my commute - but it'd be absolute (but organised) chaos I expect!)
Click to expand...
via Willesden Junction and the West London Line, I guess - or might they go via the North London Line to New Kew Junction?
 
W

winks

Member
Joined
11 Jun 2009
Messages
484
who now owns these Riviera Mark 2f sets and what are they used for normally ?
 
Z

zwk500

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Jan 2020
Messages
13,418
Location
Bristol
RailWonderer said:
I wonder why they aren't just using Euston to go to MK, and run a couple of chartered Pendolinos or 350s.
Click to expand...
Getting that many soldiers safely and discreetly from Euston Road to the Mall would be an interesting exercise. From Waterloo they can march over Waterloo bridge, turn left onto the Strand and down to Admiralty arch, or march down the side of the station to Westminster bridge.
 
A

adc82140

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2008
Messages
2,935
43066 said:
So long as they remember to break step when crossing the actual bridge!
Click to expand...
If they'd gone in to Victoria they wouldn't have to worry :p

They must have their reasons for choosing Waterloo. It's more spacious than Victoria certainly.
 
12LDA28C

12LDA28C

Established Member
Joined
14 Oct 2022
Messages
3,225
Location
The back of beyond
fairysdad said:
Nothing showing on RTT - shame, but not necessarily surprising!

(Slightly disappointed that I'm not in work today as Waterloo is my commute - but it'd be absolute (but organised) chaos I expect!)
Click to expand...

Both morning trains were certainly shown on RTT yesterday, even mentioned on this forum although it appears they have been removed since.

MadCommuter said:
The BBC are reporting the biggest military movement of armed forces by train in 60 years. It's hard to provide a link as its in a BBC live page.













The photo looks to show LSL MK II stock.
Click to expand...

LSL don't have blue and grey MkIIs.

RAF staff boarding at Tring as it's the nearest main line station to RAF Halton, from which these trains could depart. Troop trains used to be a regular thing on the railways, pretty rare these days however.
 
Last edited:
T

TEW

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2008
Messages
5,852
adc82140 said:
If they'd gone in to Victoria they wouldn't have to worry :p

They must have their reasons for choosing Waterloo. It's more spacious than Victoria certainly.
Click to expand...
The majority of trains were being operated by SWR so Waterloo made sense. The 47+MK2s only accounted for a few of the trains. Makes sense to concentrate them all on one London terminus.
 
30907

30907

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Sep 2012
Messages
18,074
Location
Airedale
fairysdad said:
Nothing showing on RTT - shame, but not necessarily surprising!

(Slightly disappointed that I'm not in work today as Waterloo is my commute - but it'd be absolute (but organised) chaos I expect!)
Click to expand...
Though the ECS out to Clapham are there - consistently 15 or so late!
No sign of return workings .
 
David Goddard

David Goddard

Established Member
Joined
8 Aug 2011
Messages
1,503
Location
Reading
Surprised these are running back as 1M as opposed to 1Z, maybe that's to stop them standing out.
 
Z

zwk500

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Jan 2020
Messages
13,418
Location
Bristol
David Goddard said:
Surprised these are running back as 1M as opposed to 1Z, maybe that's to stop them standing out.
Click to expand...
It may be that SWR are running a lot of 1Z additionals, both for the Forces trains to Portsmouth and Aldershot and for the public wishing to travel in so 1M is used to remind signallers they need to route them to the West london Line.

The trains that ran for the practice run also ran with O headcodes for the southbound move and M headcodes for the northbound.
 
J

JonathanH

Veteran Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
18,832
David Goddard said:
Surprised these are running back as 1M as opposed to 1Z, maybe that's to stop them standing out.
Click to expand...
The SWR ones are running as 1Z. The 1M headcodes will still 'stand out' as the only other 1Mxx headcodes on the Southern WCML are IIRC southbound Anglo-Scottish trains.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top