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Better than your average EMU...
Pictures of the interior of Car 92 after re-furbishment with BR blue mocatta seat coverings. Unfortunately, despite the opulent interiors, the refurbishment did nothing to improve the ride of these units, and it was a case of beware the steward who poured you more than half a cup of coffee! |
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photographs from John Bradshaw
collection |
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| During the last era, the "Blue" era, 5 Bel Nº3051
at Victoria ready to depart for Brighton.
Photograph: Mike Morant collection |
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The date is 30th April 1972 and the Brighton Belle is in
Brighton station preparing for the very last up run, once again with unit
Nº3051.
Photograph by Trevor Tupper |
| This photograph depicts both the old (right) and the new
(left) liveries carried by the Brighton Belle, captured in winter sunshine near
Purley.
photograph from John Bradshaw collection |
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| Note that in the above photograph the unit in the original Pullman livery has the name/number of the car in a decorative panel on its side, whereas the newer blue/grey unit carries the legend "Brighton Belle" on the side of each car and the car numbers carried at each end on each side of the vehicles. The umber unit has a small yellow rectangle on the front of the driving cab whereas, as can be seen below, the repainted cabs have completely yellow ends with the legend "Brighton Belle" in blue. |
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Left: Unit 3052 in Preston Park Pullman works on 21 October 1961,
long before the advent of yellow warning panels.
Right: Unit 3053 on the second RCTS "Brighton Belle Commemorative Railtour" at Chichester on 8th April 1972. photographs by Trevor Tupper |
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| Pullman Schedule Numbers All Pullman cars were given a schedule number by the Pullman Car Co. and those for the Brighton Belle were:
Until their final overhaul, and repainting in BR "Corporate" blue and grey, the cars only carried the last two of their schedule numbers, as shown above. However, following these last overhauls they carried the numbers in full. For 3051 this was from February 1969, for 3052 from December 1968 and for 3053 from May 1969. |
| The Belle arrived and departed from platform 12 or 13 at
Victoria. In later years the 2:00pm departure became the 14:00, but the train
was the same. Many household names of the theatrical and Fleet Street worlds
lived in Brighton and, flushed with success from an earlier campaign to restore
cooked breakfasts to the train, led a big campaign to "Save the Brighton
Belle" following the announcement of its impending withdrawal - but all to
no avail this time.
photograph from the John Bradshaw collection |
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Near Balcombe towards the end of the Belle's days.
photograph by Mike Morant |
| 5 Bel Nº3052 outside the Pullman works at Preston Park.
photograph: Mike Morant collection |
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Not what it seems!
What appears to be unit 3052 is, in actual fact, 5 of the 6 Brighton Belle Motor Coaches stored in Montpelier sidings, Brighton. They are, from the camera, 291, 290 (Unit 3052), 288 (unit 3051), 293 and 292 (unit 3053) following withdrawal from service. No self-respecting Brighton Belle would have carried headcode 17, theirs was the prestigious Nº4, Victoria to Brighton non-stop! (Although there was for a short period after WWII, up to 1957, a Sundays Only, Eastbourne Pullman using a spare 5-Bel.) Photograph taken 14 April 1972. photograph by Glen Woods |
All photographs are copyright
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This page was last updated 15 December 2010
