Churchill's Funeral Train, recreated in model railway form. Hornby R3300

In this video I am going to try and recreate the historic funeral train of Sir Winston Churchill, the war time prime minister of great Britain that helped carry his people to victory, became synonymous with ‘bull dog’ spirit, V for Victory and taking tough decisions.

He may not have been a perfect man, but he was undoubtedly the perfect man for the job of driving back the nazi threat and along with many other heroes bringing the world to safety.

I’ll be using the Hornby R3300 limited edition train pack that I reviewed last year, but I’ll be adding other Pullman coaches to bring the train up to the right length and formation.

As far as possible from research done I have attempted to recreate the route and possible trains the solemn service might have passed on its journey to Handborough in Oxfordshire.

Churchill died on 24 January 1965, aged 90. On the 30th of January 1965 he was given a state funeral as befitting a man of his importance and in recognition of his service to his country.
His body was conveyed by train from Waterloo station.

Bulleid Battle of Britain class No. 34051 had been named ‘Winston Churchill’ by Lord Dowding in September 1947. So this loco was sent from its home shed of Salisbury to Nine Elms in London the week before the funeral to be made ready for the special train.

The train was formed of 34051, Pullman brake 208, special luggage van S2464, Pullman car Carina, Lydia, Perseus and brake car Isle of Thanet.

At about 11:40 that morning the empty train was moved from Clapham Junction sidings to Waterloo with a standard class 4 tank loco on each end of the train.

34051 was driven by a Nine Elms crew: Royal Train Driver A.W. Hurley and Fireman Jim Lester.

The locomotive famously carried a three disc head code representing “V” for Victory.

The loco made its way from the depot to the loco sidings and then to Waterloo where it backed onto the train.

Departing Waterloo at 1:28pm, the train travelled respectfully slowly to Reading where it joined the Western Region line to reach Handborough, via Didcot and Oxford, arriving at 3:23pm.

All along the route crowds had gathered to witness the solemn train pass by.
The loco men remarked at how emotional it was to see many old uniformed soldiers standing crisply to attention and saluting!

Just along the way the 34051 passes an up service hauled by fellow Battle of Britain class Tangmere.

Further along still a 2H DEMU trundles along as our train continues on its way.

Instructions had been issued to run at 20 mph through Oxford station in order that all the bells being tolled in the 'City of Spires' might be heard by those travelling in the funeral train (church bells)

On arrival at Handborough station the funeral party made its way by road to St Martin's church in Bladon where Churchill was laid to rest alongside his family.

The parish of St Martin's includes Blenheim Palace, the family seat of the dukes of Marlborough

34051 then returned back to Nine Elms light engine via Oxford for turning,
Once the private funeral arrangements had been completed the funeral party re-joined the train and at 16:20 returned to London Paddington this time hauled by D1015 Western Champion.
Here my D1023 Western Fusilier stands in.

So there ends an era and an historic train, 34051 and the baggage car have been preserved and can be found at the National rail museum in York.

© Information and credits for this video Are due:
Music: Pride_v002 Soundimage.org Eric Matyas
Death of Kings Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Photos:
V sign, By British Government [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Grave, By Dennis Lloyd (photosubmission@wikimedia.org) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Tim Schofield, 2016 photos.

Audio: BR Diesel web (Western loco)

Recommended videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-NCn4Mxc_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC1WEdgXKEI
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/churchill/11026.shtml
Recommended reading:

http://svsfilm.com/nineelms/wcf.htm

Видео Churchill's Funeral Train, recreated in model railway form. Hornby R3300 канала MikesMovies