Victorian Railways Royal Train

[1] For the tour of Elizabeth II and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Royal Train ran over a period of six days in early March in two separate divisions.

The first conveyed the couple, ladies-in-waiting and other dignitaries, and consisted of a combination of six steel and two wooden carriages, all in blue and gold livery, hauled by state-of-the-art diesel-electric locomotives B60 and B85.

It was turned via the Crib Point triangle – a rare piece of track infrastructure on Victorian Railways – and returned to Melbourne.

The train ran empty to Sale to pick up the Queen and the Duke and return them to Melbourne, with a side trip to Yallourn.

The following evening, at 5 pm on 4 March, the train took the royal couple to Goorambat, 132 miles from Melbourne on the Yarrawonga line, north of Benalla.

Here, the couple were picked up, and the train continued to Echuca, reversing there and heading south to Bendigo via the main line.