IN the first Midland Transitions article (June issue), we left the steam era on the former Midland Railway’s main line from St Pancras to Leicester at the end of the 1950s with ‘Jubilees’ gamely fighting for survival alongside ‘Royal Scots’ and ‘Britannias’ – but with dieselisation poised to pounce.
The ‘Blue Pullman’ concept was part of that process, in so many ways ahead of its time, but perhaps also ahead of the necessary technology. Traction, track and signalling conspired to impose retention of the existing 90mph speed limit, which was 10mph below cruising speeds that would be commonplace within a decade, and no more than the maximum attainable by Johnson 4-2-2 ‘Spinners’ at the end of the 19th century.
C J Allen recounted an August 1960 trip on the swish new ‘Blue Pullman’ in Trains Illustrated (October 1960) taking 84min 20sec from London to Leicester but, even so, he had been unlucky because sub-83min times were being regularly achieved. On July 20, 1960 Mr H GEllison had forsaken his doubleheaded steam locos of 1956, in the previous Midland Transitions article, for the luxury of the new train. No longer were runs such as his steam 91¼min (net) a cause for wonderment.
The famous gasometers and train shed roof identify this as St Pancras, as a ‘Blue Pullman’ set leaves in this 1960s British Railways publicity shot – the ‘Midland Pullman’ service commencing on July 4, 1960.
A changing world
Table 1 (page 31) shows how the world was changing. 8½min to Hendon was the new standard, 80mph commonplace and maxima at the three summits of 81mph, 76mph and 78mph suddenly unremarkable. True, the mainly 1-in-200 descent from Harlington to Bedford ‘galloping ground’ (which Rous-Marten had christened and C JAllen perpetuated) produced nothing more than 86mph, but without any more effort than the push of a handle. Anything over 90mph and contemporary accounts say that the ‘Blue Pullman’ ride became uncomfortable.
Guiness World Record: Longest-running railway series, established in 1901
LMS-designed Co-Co diesel No. 10000, which entered service at the end of 1947 just before Nationalisation, and its twin No. 10001 were first put to work on the Midland Main Line before moving to the West Coast Main Line the following year. Here No. 10000 heads the 12.05pm Derby to St Pancras at Harper Lane cutting, south of St Albans, in what looks like spring or early summer 1948.
EDBRUTON