ONE of the world's most exclusive trains has introduced a new hand-built, £750,000 cabin to take its passengers around Scotland's most scenic spots.
The Royal Scotsman, with ticket prices ranging from £2350 for two nights to £6990 for seven, offers a five-star luxury journey through the Highlands.
Built by engineer Nigel Woolford, the train's new addition, called Swift, is an Edwardian-style pantry dining carriage. It carries a team of top chefs.
Mr Woolford said: "It's been an incredible project to be involved with and a proud achievement for us. Seeing Swift completed and working as part of one of the finest trains in the world is really something.
"The challenge of building new railway carriages for luxury trains does not come along every day. This is the first new carriage built for the Royal Scotsman since 1996.
"We've done plenty of tweaks and tidy-ups and maintenance over the years. But this has been totally hand-built from the shell up and we managed to do it all on time and on budget."
The Royal Scotsman has been running since 1985 and was bought by the world-renowned Orient Express group in 2005.
The train takes just 36 passengers across its nine carriages, which include an observation car with open verandah, two dining cars, a library and a wine store.
Mr Woolford's engineering business, Dunsyre, South Lanarkshire-based Assenta Ltd, has the maintenance contract for the rolling stock and has kept the train running for the past 20 years, maintaining the carriages to the same standards as five-star hotels.
The latest project came about because the previous dining carriage was timber-framed and proving increasingly difficult to maintain. The carriage, called Victory, was exchanged for a Pullman carriage, named Swift, which was part of a series of carriages named after birds including others already in service– Snipe, Finch and Raven.
It was then refitted by East Lothian-based interior fitout specialists Peter Craig.
Mr Woolford said: "I can do many of the engineering aspects of the work, but what I can't do personally I source other experts to work to my designs.
"I try wherever possible to use Scottish-based companies both for manufacturing and interior fittings."
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