Otto Kuhler told me a story that he was looking at one of these Lackawanna engines, and made a big show of putting his head up under the shrouding and peering around until some Lackawanna guy asked him what he saw. He said something like “I was looking for the mechanism that made the wings flap.”
The response he got was something akin to Vicky’s famous “We are NOT amused…”
To this day I have not seen anything but the phrase ‘wing mirror’ to describe fender-mounted mirrors in British automobile reviews.
Yes, Queen Victoria could be quite stately when expressing disgust.
And, there is the account of a time that Prince Albert was unhappy with her and retired to his room. She went to his door and almost demanded, as the Queen, that he open the door. Only when she identified herself as “your own Little Vicky” did he let her in.
Queen Victoria has this reputation as a staid, somewhat prude stone wall of a Monarch, but it should be noted that before his untimely death her marriage to Prince Albert produced nine children.
Hope that bedroom had very thick walls and doors!
Prince Albert was also her first cousin, but I guess such a relationship was considered ok back in those days.
Wishing you all the joy and happiness that a happy retirement can bring, Peter. [Y]
Little Vicky probably never said that, but obviously the royal couple was not easily amused in front of the camera, unlike her mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in many of her portraits in her twenties.
Queen Victoria’s Palace on Wheels – courtesy of the National Rail Museum
I’m not surprised Victoria and Albert don’t look amused in those photographs. Considering the slow exposure times of 1850’s cameras most people couldn’t hold a smile very long.
Victorias private railcar looks fabulous! Lucius Beebe would have killed for a car like that!
Here’s Lucius’ ride, the “Virginia City.”