Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:29 pm Post subject: The Blue Train
South Essex's c2c rail line was the setting for a nostalgic trip this week aboard a luxurious old Blue Pullman train.
The upmarket Sixties train, now restored and privately run by Hertfordshire Rail Tours, reportedly made two trips along the Fenchurch Street line on Wednesday, carrying a full compliment of paying guests.
Both the lunch and dinner excursions each £50 a head, including silver service meal were more or less fully booked, with enthusiasts keen to enjoy the landscape between Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness. Travellers looked forward to settling into super-comfortable seat, as they watched the Docklands skyline disappear to be replaced with views of the Thames, Hadleigh Castle and the cockle sheds at Leigh. Their return journey was booked to take them via Tilbury.
Chairman of Southend Rail Travellers' Association, Peter Slattery, was one of the lucky ones expected to have been on board. He had said: "I'm really looking forward to it. It's to mark the 150th anniversary of the line to Southend. The Pullman is a big part of the history of the railways. It has first-class dining cars a bit like the train in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, but British. I've never been on one, so when I got the invitation, I was really honoured."
Alan Pitt, tour manager, said before the trip: "It makes it a bit nostalgic and it is different from the normal, run-of-the mill c2c trains. It is all-dining, so people will get a silver service meal really feel pampered."
The upmarket Blue Pullman train was originally built in the Sixties by British Rail for business travellers headed from London to Birmingham or Bristol. It has featured in several films, including the Norman Wisdom comedy, the Early Bird, but was withdrawn from service in the Seventies, when British Rail felt it had become too expensive to maintain or operate.
For more information, visit www.traintrips.co.uk _________________ Once the misery line, but now passed on to another.
See www.bramleyline.org.uk where one day we just might see an Ex-LT&SR Standard 4 steaming along as a Guest loco.
The "Blue Pullman" is a mixed rake of MkII 1st class carrages. Usually it is top and tailed by 47's.
It's currently based at East Ham when it's not out doing railtours. It gets stabled in #1 road. If you are lucky you can see it pull into platform 7 at Barking, where it reverses to get out into the big world
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