R40357 L&MR Coach Pack, ...Queen Adelaide's Coach

[Simon-372339]

Interesting selection, I have been looking into Queen Victoria's (QV) first carriages. Her first carriage was built by/for L&BR c1843 to the eye a shed on wheels. Sources seem to indicate Queen Adelaide's (QA)saloon No.2 was also built for L&BR in 1842.

QV's use of her first carriage appears short lived, in 1844 there was a Royal Visit of Louis Phillipe I King of France. A print of the visit QV and LP at Gosport Terminus.

You will notice the striking resemblance to QA's carriage.

The same carriage....?

A missed opportunity by Hornby to produce an era1 royal train pack?

[What About The Bee]

Hi Simon

Those two carriages do appear to be the same. Some of the finer artifice is missing, possibly scavenged by souvenir hunters. I do find it odd that a royal carriage would not have been preserved inside, out of the elements.

The LBR used Bury locomotives in the 1840s. 1840s Bury locomotives have that distinctive firebox shape. Queen Victoria's Saloon would have been pulled by a Bury 2-2-0. Not by Lion, Tiger or Rocket; Hornby's current array of era 1 locomotives.

Hornby do not have a Bury locomotive in the catalog. I have a suspicion that Hornby would model Bury's Copperknob 0-4-0, instead of a generic Bury 2-2-0; Copperknob being a survivor.

This entire discussion will apply to Queen Adelaide's Saloon, a detail I will ignore in my acquisition of R40357. I pre-ordered R40357 within minutes of Range Release, patiently awaiting any update. No photographs have emerged of engineering or pre production samples.

Bee