QE2 50 year event 22 September 2017, Clydebank

[Lynda Bradford]

Link removed

We are at the initial stages of planning a conference to celebrate 50 years since the launch of QE2 in Clydebank 1967.  We have made a provisional booking for Clydebank Town Hall on Friday 22 September 2017.  This is a lovely venue and very close to the slipway where QE2 was launched.

We know the planned date is not the date of the launch, but we wanted to hold the event on a Friday, in the hope that as many QE2 Story members as possible would join us for a week-end of celebrations. 

Make sure you get your Golden Ticket and join us in celebrating 50 years of QE2's history

[June Ingram]

Awesome, Rob, absolutely awesome !  What a magnificent event this will be to honour our beloved QE2 !   

[John Drew]

What great news, now this will be an event that I must make and catch up with some old friends or ship mates. John.

[Lynda Bradford]

Thanks John, we will be keeping members updated through this topic and the newsletters.  Once we have more details we will post in the Get together topic.
 
We will be working hard to ensure this is a successful event that is a tribute to QE2.

[cunardqueen]

I wonder what the news will be of QE2 when we meet !

[Peter Mugridge]

Sounds good and probably gives me an excuse to sample the Sleeper trains once again...  Or maybe make a long weekend out of it and add a couple of nights in the Central Hotel...

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Exciting news, and something to look forward to!

Great to receive the news from the very place where it all happened -- and I am sure that the Titan Crane will be on the programme for the week-end.

A date for our future diaries . This is bound to be an unforgettable event.

[June Ingram]

How soon will QM2's Atlantic crossing schedule come out ?  The reason being, it would be awesome to take QM2 eastbound to Southampton and then train to Clydebank or as near by as possible.   

[Lynda Bradford]

How soon will QM2's Atlantic crossing schedule come out ?  The reason being, it would be awesome to take QM2 eastbound to Southampton and then train to Clydebank or as near by as possible.   

June that would be a fantastic experience to travel on QM2 the make your way North for the event and it would be even more special if other forum members from USA were to think about doing the same journey. 

I am not sure when the September 2017 Transatlantic crossings will be available.  The Cunard 2017 World Cruise information is online, which means you can book up to May 2017 but not beyond at this moment in time.  But I would think the schedule would be available by early next year. 

[June Ingram]

Hi Lynda -

Thanks very much for your message and information about QM2's schedule. 

The voyage and subsequent travel to Clydebank would most likely be a once in a lifetime experience and would make an awesome holiday, not only evoking travel on QE2 but also taking "the boat train". 

Perhaps others might be interested in doing the same and if so, we could arrange a QE2 Story group to journey together.  It is certainly something to think about. 

June   

[cunardqueen]

Sounds good and probably gives me an excuse to sample the Sleeper trains once again...  Or maybe make a long weekend out of it and add a couple of nights in the Central Hotel...
   

Peter, The sleeper trains are still the same clapped out wrecks, and given the fact of the new operators there is a mixture of branding, long gone are the days of the little goodnight packs with essentials now you have a bar of superbly engraved  Sleeper soap, ear plugs! and a green eye mask, those in First have the added luxury of a pillow spray, to either promote a good nights sleep or spray it round the cabin to mask the smells...
However some comfort can be taken that the new liveried uniforms the staff are wearing were a £1000 each and your lounge in Inverness is now across the street. The old lounge beside the ticket office where it used to be is now used for storage (and that includes storing the meals and snacks used for that evenings run, they would have been loaded up in London the previous night..) but we are not supposed to know of such things.
However all is not doom and gloom, the onboard food and drink prices in my view do represent astounding value.

And the Central Hotel given the last time l stayed there, l hope, can have only improved...
 
For what its worth, l do relish my journeys on the Caledonia Sleeper, the dream of sipping a Martini in the bar car, a lovely late night snack in comfortable surroundings, awaking to the glorious scenery in London/Inverness with a cooked breakfast . It is replaced with the cold hard facts a luke warm can of Stella (they might ask you also want a glass !) a soggy microwaved to death meal, retiring to the sleeping berth to be gently rocked to sleep and then at some ungodly hour , the tat tat on the door as you are presented with a brown bag containing luke warm water, dip your own t bag,brown sugar sachet and a pastry of some unrecognisable description, and if all the above wasnt enough to bring you to reality, you step down from the sleeper with the horror of all horrors bed hair !!!!!       (But l do still love the Sleeper ! )

[Peter Mugridge]

Ha ha - Myles, I think the way you use the Sleeper is slightly different from me: I tend to go straight to the cabin as soon as boarding opens, get my head down asap have the steward wake me up about 30 minutes before arrival so I have time to properly waken and shave...  I tend to breakfast at hotels nearby after arrival rather than on board as I am partial to a nice unhealthy fry up for breakfast when I am travelling.  I also never have problems getting to sleep on board - must be something to do with the motion even though it is rather different from the motion experienced on board QE2...

I've not stayed in the Central since it was refurbished* ( although I did take breakfast there off the Sleeper a year ago on the Glasgow morning of my big charity challenge** ) and from my point of view as a railway enthusiast, it couldn't be more convenient for the station could it...?

Anyway.... as you may have guessed I'd be likely to combine the QE2 Forum event with a bit of railway stuff...


*Personally I do prefer the older style decors ( deep Regency style colours, dark wood panelling, grand dining rooms and entrance lobbies, that sort of thing ) in hotels rather than the modern ones so i'm not sure what I'm going to make of the Central these days...

**All six UK Sleeper destinations from London - on consecutive nights.  Achieved.

[MiamiCunarder]

 Definitely a date to save and consider. 

[Michael Gallagher]

The 2017 programme will be out in April 2016.

[Clydebuilt1971]

That looks superb Lynda - I am looking forward to our first committee meeting next week - getting the ball rolling for this event.

Gav