The 3 Queens

[Vonk]

Now before you worry this isn't about anything that may be classed as controversial.
Today has been CHAOS near where I live. You may have seen (in the UK) on the news that the 3 Cunard Queens (Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria & Queen Elizabeth) have been celebrating the 175th anniversary of Cunard today by sailing in formation down the Mersey and "bowing" to the 3 Graces and then lining up in the middle on the river to accept a fly past by the Red Arrows.




Now I was interested in this but when the council have just announced that over 1million people came to see this on both sides of the river I can understand why it took me half an hour to travel what is normally a 5 minute journey and on the radio the merseyside police + Wirral council announced that all car parking areas for the event were full and that the trains were too busy so were turning people away to get buses. Now bear in mind this line which normally runs 3 car EMU's was running double capacity so 6 car I can only imagine how hectic it must have been to work there today. Below picture is the queues outside of Liverpool lime street waiting for trains (bear in mind this is a large terminus station not some little country branch line!).



Below pic shows the 3 queens with red arrows and I think shows just how small the river is to deal with such a large event.



Anyway I thought some of you may be interested in this if you haven't heard about it as I know a lot of us enjoy travel, engineering and just general geekery
PS I could try and take credit for my amazing photos but I suppose I will have to admit I "borrowed" them from various websites but at least show a bit of what is going on.

[Geoff]

I think I had the best view at home watching it on the TV, another great event that Liverpool has given the nation, I wonder what will be the next big event, would be nice to see the overhead railway being planned but doubt that will happen, yes it must of been a nightmare as the Cunard spokes man said there was about 1.5 million people watching that event from the riverside.

Well done

[Vonk]

I am on birkenhead side of the river so have a nice view and am able to see the queen victoria as i type this from my room I tried to get close enough to the river to see what was going on without actually getting out of the car and it was mayhem. If you are able to get the BBC north west channel at all there is a programme on friday night showing highlights etc but as always these days there is some good stuff available online already.

I may be biased but I do think Liverpool is one of the top cities to live in/near in the UK. They talked about bringing back the tram network but that fell to pieces and I really do doubt the dockers umbrella will ever come back properly. On another note I do enjoy going to our museum that has and old carriage from the overhead railway in but also the original Lion which then prompts me to watch titfield thunderbolt of course as there is still damage to it from the filming.

[DJM Dave]

I was on the Wirral for this and although it was nice to see the ships, I was ultimately disappointed.

The Reds 'joining the fun' ( as announced in Saturday's Echo) was a cross water , west to east, 1500ft pass on their way to Bkackpool.

Blink and you'd miss it.
Most around me assumed, as did I, that they would fly down the river not across it.

Queen Mary then made a slow plod to the docks at the North end and I caught her nicely in the bright sunshine.

But other than that it took 2 hours to get from Seacombe town hall to the tunnel entrance. mayhem, but at least if wont be repeated for a good few years.

Cheers
Dave

[joe cassidy]

Thanks for the impressive photos, but where did these 3 queens come from ?

I thought that that cruise ships had gone the way of steam locos, and that Queen Mary and the QE2 had been turned into casinos, or floating hotels.

Best regards,


Joe

[Vonk]

Thanks for the impressive photos, but where did these 3 queens come from ?

I thought that that cruise ships had gone the way of steam locos, and that Queen Mary and the QE2 had been turned into casinos, or floating hotels.

The original Queen Mary is sat in long beach california as a hotel and last I heard QE2 is in Dubai waiting its fate still unsure and may yet be scrapped. These 3 are more recent QM2 was the largest cruise ship when built and is still the only "ocean liner" (apparently different to a cruise ship) launched in 2003, Queen Victoria launched 2007 and the Queen Elizabeth launched 2010. Basically they are the top level of luxury in the world of cruising working on an old fashioned british feeling.

[joe cassidy]

Nice to see ships like these are still being built.

Best regards,


Joe

[Agrippa]

I thought that that cruise ships had gone the way of steam locos, and that Queen Mary and the QE2 had been turned into casinos, or floating hotels.

Best regards,
Joe

Cruising is big business, most of the cruise ships are big floating
boozers, the QM2 was built so as to be able to do Atlantic
crossings and is about 50% heavier than the other Cunard ships.

A curious thing is passengers are not called 1st , 2nd or 3rd class,
instead you are graded by the grill room in which  you are entitled
to dine, no riffraff in the Queens Grill !

[Malc]

I am a little disappointed as I didn't realise that this was a topic about cruise ships.😀

[joe cassidy]

Hope we can look forward to an N Gauge model of one of these Queens !

It would be a good excuse for a model of (part of) Southampton docks.

Best regards,


Joe

[Agrippa]

In N gauge they would be about 6ft long, also you would
have to paint about  2,000 figures to represent the passengers
waving goodbye........

[joe cassidy]

I'm sure someone on this forum will rise to the challenge !

Good luck to him/her !


Joe

[Vonk]

In N gauge they would be about 6ft long, also you would
have to paint about  2,000 figures to represent the passengers
waving goodbye........

Imagine trying to do the 1million that were in merseyside to welcome them over the weekend if you were doing an imaginary layout of a modern interpretation of the overhead railway. Scary!

[Vonk]

I am a little disappointed as I didn't realise that this was a topic about cruise ships.😀

Is this more to your taste Malc?

[joe cassidy]

Vonk,

How did you get a photo of our office party ?

Best regards,

Joe