Prince William swaps helicopter controls for train cab before visiting Rolls Royce factory and confessing to being a Bake Off fan in action-packed day

THE DUKE of Cambridge proved anything’s possible if you put your mind to it as he attended not one or two, but FOUR engagements on Wednesday.

Prince William swapped his helicopter controls to have a go at driving a train during his first job for the day — a visit to one of Britain’s biggest carriage works.

His stint using the joystick was described as “smooth, fast – and his braking was sharp” as he cranked up the speed of the train to 30mph during the tour.

The busy Prince also met apprentices, staff and chiefs at the Bombardier Works during his first official visit to Derby.

He next took a look at the London Crossrail assembly lines and discussed its progress with the engineers and apprentices tasked with the job of delivering the first orders to Transport for London by May next year.

After talking the Prince through the process “from flat-pack to build”, team leader and former apprentice Jordan Mason said of William: "He's a really nice guy.

"He was really pleased at the human involvement we have here, rather than robotics-led manufacture.

"I think he likes a British company building British trains."

Prince William also met apprentice paint-sprayer Danielle Bancroft during the visit.

The 20-year-old admitted she was so excited at the prospect of shaking hands with the Duke of Cambridge that she told her “mum, grandma and boyfriend” about it.

Next on the agenda, Prince William met volunteers and clients at the Padley Development Centre for people with complex needs.

While at the centre, he made a rainmaker instrument and joked away with patients.

He then visited the Rolls Royce factory in Derbyshire, where he met with apprentices and other engineers, and was given a guided tour of the build line for the multi-million-dollar Trent XWB engine.

At the end of his visit, he was presented with a cake modelled on one of the aerospace giant’s engines by Bake Off finalist Andrew Smyth, who works at the centre as an Aerospace Engineer.

Admiring the cake while chatting with Andrew, Prince William let slip he is a fan of Great British Bake Off.

He said: “You should have won! That's amazing.

“I'm gonna have a word with Mary, you should have won.”

Inspecting the cake, which took Andrew eight hours to make, he went on: “I was wondering if this was actually a cake and it actually is.

“The problem is when you make something as good as this you don't want to eat it. I don't want to break that apart.”

Speaking after meeting the Duke, Andrew explained how he decided on the type of cake he should make for Wills: “I was asked to bake the cake a couple of weeks ago.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to do a really elaborately-decorated cake.

“But then I thought I've got to come back to my roots - engineering and baking. That's what I did on the show.

“William was going to visit the XWB build line today so I thought what better opportunity than to try and make the cake version of what he's there to see.

“The rotating fan was the kind of cherry on top. I was really keen to make that work and so relieved that it came off on the day - and he seemed to like that as well - a bit of a showpiece.”

After a jam-packed day, the Prince also attended the Tusk Conservation Awards at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Guests included Sir David Attenborough.

Prince William met with finalists at the event, along with Tusk supporters and sponsors, before presenting the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa.

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