QUEEN VICTORIA'S TRAIN.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 178, 13 November 1886, Page 8

QUEEN VICTORIA'S TRAIN.

Never were greater precautions taken to secure the safety and comfort of a sovereign •when travelling, aR the follow ing 1 faw details will illustrate. To begin winh, rhe royal train was fitted with -in electrical communication between the comoarf-.ments of each saloon carriage and *he yudrd'e", and telegraph men accompanied the train, with the necessary instruments and appliances for establishing communication in case of necessity. Then a lookeutinan was placed on theengide-tender, with his face toward the rear of the train, so as to be ready to receive and communicate to the driver any signal that might be given; and the guard in the front van had to keep his face constantly towards the rear of the train, on the look-out foi any signal from the guard in the rear, or from any of the attendants accompanying the train Beyond this, surfacemen were stationed at all the level crossings, and no vehicle of any kind was. allowed to pass for half an hour before the royal train was due. The goods traffic, also, on both lines was suspended during the progross of her Majesty, and the speed of the passenger trains proceeding in an opposite direction was reduced m ten miles an hour while the royal train was passing them on the other line. Precious lives must be jealously guarded, wo know. Eut so complicated were the precautions for the Queen's safety that it seems to us a new danger must thereby have been created. The royal train consisted of twelve vehicles, including two royal salonns elegantly fitted up, and the string was so arranged that these carriages were exactly in the middle. Following the engine was a brake-van, next a firstclass carriage for men servants, a carriage for pages and upper servants, one for dressers and ladies' maids, then a carriage containing Lady Westpark and tne Hon. Horatia Stopford ; next came the Queen's saloon, the front part of which was occupied ' by personal servants and dressers and th& private portion of her Majesty and the Princess Beatrice ; then followed a second royal saloon, in which was Prince Henry of Battenberg ; next, a carriage containing Viscount Bridporfc, Sir Henry Ponsonby, Major Edwards and Dr Reid ; two carriages for the directors and officials of the railway companies, the Queen's "fourgan" — a carriage containing the royal plate — and the rear was brought up by another brakevan.

After a Classical Concert. — Mr Brown " 'Igh hart ! 'Ang 'igh hart ! I likeß musio with toons in it. Seiras to me the 'igher the hart, the 'orrider the 'armony."