Deeside's royal reputation was recently given a boost with the arrival of an authentic reproduction of Queen Victoria's railway carriage into Ballater Tourist Information Centre, following a suggestion made by her great, great grandson, HRH Prince Charles.

The carriage, the original of which used to take Queen Victoria from Windsor to Ballater in the late 1800s, was craned into the Tourist Information Centre on Wednesday 30 January 2008, and will undergo further work by a team of experts over the coming weeks, who will add the finishing touches to the carriage, prior to a public opening planned for Easter.

HRH Prince Charles suggested the idea when he opened the refurbished Tourist Information Centre back in 2001, to give the public a chance to see at first hand the extraordinary beauty and detail of his ancestor's personal favourite form of travel.