At a heritage depot in Crewe, Jeremy Hosking has spent years restoring a private train of rare beauty, one that gently evokes the joy of the journey and the experience of travel.
Crewe is not where one expects to find the finest interiors in British travel. Yet behind the gates of Locomotive Services Group’s depot, among steam engines in various states of restoration and carriages stripped back to their frames, sits one of the most accomplished private trains in the world.
The Chairman’s Train is the creation of Jeremy Hosking, the investor and lifelong rail enthusiast who began rescuing locomotives in the late 1990s. What started with a single steam engine has grown into a collection of engines, vintage diesels and historic rolling stock. All of it is maintained in-house by a team of engineers, joiners and apprentices whose skills are increasingly rare. A tour of the depot makes one thing clear, the luxury of the finished train rests entirely on the craftsmanship of the workshop.
Several of the train’s carriages once formed part of the Caledonian Sleeper. Rebuilt and reimagined by interior designer Sara Oliver, they now feel like a well-designed sequence of rooms in a well-loved country house.
The woodwork is exceptional. Bespoke marquetry runs throughout, panels inlaid with animals and scenes, executed to a standard rarely seen outside museum collections. Fittings have been sourced and specified with care, the bathrooms include Drummonds products, finished in marble, and are as high-end luxury as those of any five-star hotel. The bedrooms are calm and beautifully designed, each with a distinct character, culminating in the Emperor Suite, which occupies an entire carriage.
What lifts the train beyond conventional luxury is its sense of playfulness and nostalgia. Certain rooms draw on the great English children’s books, Winnie-the-Pooh and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland among them, rendered in wood and textile with a light, knowing touch. The effect is one of gentle nostalgia, familiar, warming and entirely unexpected. Elsewhere, velvet armchairs, a piano bar, a drawing room lined with books and the Zanzibar observation car complete a train designed for lingering.
The visit concluded with afternoon tea aboard the train, served with the Chairman’s own champagne, a fine and elegant cuvée that suited the setting perfectly. Seated among polished wood and soft lamplight, it was easy to understand the train’s true proposition.
Slow travel has become one of the defining ideas in contemporary luxury, and The Chairman’s Train is perhaps its purest British expression. It is easy to imagine it adventuring through the countryside, along the coast towards the English Riviera, or north into the Highlands, where the journey is as important as the destination.
It is also uniquely private. The train can be chartered in its entirety for between two and sixteen guests, and from 2027 fully bespoke itineraries across the United Kingdom will be available, shaped around each party’s interests, pace and occasion. A smaller restored railbus, Flora, complete with its own wood-burning stove and bar, can accompany the train along quieter branch lines.
In an age of acceleration, Hosking has built something that asks us to slow down. Having seen the care that goes into every carriage, it is an invitation worth accepting.
Private charters on The Chairman’s Train start from £45,000 per day and £25,000 for every day thereafter. All prices are based on full board whether on or off train.
