Crowning achievement for British railways

Saturday (6 May) saw Britain’s King Charles attend the most bling-worthy hat fitting in the world. The last time London faced up to the prospect of a ceremonial coronation, the successor of the Coronation Scot was still steaming into London Euston in clouds of actual steam. Five-year old Prince Charles was less interested in crowns, and more interested in chasing Highland cows around the grounds of Balmoral Castle which, at that time, was just eight, not forty-eight, miles from a railway connection (13 versus 77 kilometres). The railway line along Royal Deeside is long gone, but the royal lineage lives on, even if the Coronation Scot has long since puffed its last too.