Duke of Gloucester visits Nene Valley Railway as ‘92 Squadron’ Battle of Britain class locomotive renamed ‘Royal Auxiliary Airforce’
A royal visitor stepped onto the footplate for the inaugural run of a renamed Battle of Britain class locomotive.
HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the late Queen Eliezabeth II’s cousin, is honorary Air Commodore in Chief of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.
He was invited to Nene Valley Railway in Wansford to board the locomotive ‘92 Squadron’, temporarily renamed ‘Royal Auxiliary Air Force’ to mark 100 years of volunteer reserve service in the RAF.
Known as ‘92 Squadron’ since it came into service in 1948, the loco’s original name came from the Spitfire squadron based at Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain in 1940. It will return to this after the 100-year commemoration of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force ends.
It is one of 47 locomotives carrying names commemorating individuals, RAF stations and squadrons that took part in the Battle of Britain. Others are ‘Sir Winston Churchill’, ‘Tangmere’, ‘Sir Keith Park’, and ‘257 Squadron’, which all became a familiar sight on the Southern Region over the following three decades.
Today there are just nine of these locomotives left, preserved by heritage railway groups. ‘92 Squadron’ resides at the Nene Valley Railway, which runs between Wansford and Peterborough.
The Battle of Britain Locomotive Society was keen to support the Royal Auxiliary Air Force with a temporary name change after learning that 41,000 RAF volunteer reserves were killed in action while serving with the RAF in the Second World War.
Thousands of people continue to give up their spare time to train as RAF reserves and deploy with the RAF on operations all over the world.
In addition to a temporary name plate, the locomotive has been temporarily renumbered from 34081 to 34111.
A fly past by a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight was cancelled following the death of a Spitfire pilot in a crash near RAF Coningsby on Saturday.