Blue Pullman

After Service

Set 60094 / 60644 / 60734 / 60744 / 60745 / 60735 / 60645 / 60090 ended up at Old Oak Common, they had worked the last down morning and up evening South Wales Pullman on the 4th May and then the farewell tour on the 5th.

Set 60096 / 60647 / 60737 / 60747 / 60743 / 60742 / 60731 / 60093 ended up at Bristol, they had worked the last down evening Bristol Pullman.

Set 60098 / 60648 / 60738 / 60748 / 60749 / 60739 / 60649 / 60092 ended up at Cardiff Canton, they had worked the last down evening South Wales Pullman.

The other vehicles seem to have been at Old Oak Common.

At the time of the vehicles withdrawal there was the threat of strike action during industrial disputes involving the power and coal industries in Dec '73. As a precaution some auxiliary power cars (which were fitted with three phase alternators) were stabled in stations as standby emergency generators - 60731 was at Bristol Temple Meads and 60648/9 at Cardiff. In Jan '74 60093 and 60731 were also noted at Bristol Bath Road whilst 60096 and 60647 were at Bristol Temple Meads platform 4, they remained there until Jul '74. The driving cars will have remained with the auxiliary power cars as barrier vehicles because of the non-standard couplings.

The Yugoslav railways expressed an interested in purchasing all 36 vehicles, but the plan fell through.

Preservation

Unfortunately, none of these vehicles were preserved.

Some enthusiast stock books listed vehicles as being preserved at 'location unknown', but this was sadly just a plan which fell through. Railway Magazine, July 1975 reported:- "Ten Blue Pullman carriages, withdrawn from service by the Western Region in May 1973, have been saved from scrap by a private group with the principle intention of making a train of six or more of them available for charter over British Railways. They comprise of the first two (and the last surviving) of the diesel-electric motor brake firsts Nos. 60090/1; two kitchen firsts 60731/3; and six parlour seconds 60644-9. All are to be towed to BRE Glasgow workshops for complete renovation and repainting in the “Nanking Blue” livery carried when they were supplied by Metropolitan-Cammell in 1960. Because the number of drivers experienced in their operation is limited, initially operations will be limited to the WR, probably from sidings rented from BR, but they could eventually be accommodated at a preservation centre when not on main line charter work. To assist in maintenance, the Blue Pullman Group is seeking official drawings, circuit diagrams, running manuals and so forth which might now be in the hands of collectors."

In the end the three businessmen behind the scheme felt that the restrictions to only initially use it on the WR was unacceptable given the expenditure that would be required, vastly restricting the return on the investment, and the idea was dropped.

Parts were salvaged as souvenirs from the withdrawn sets, inlcuding seats. A discussion on www.national-preservation.com details some of the items known to exist.