35005 Canadian Pacific

Is Belmond going to be as strong a brand in the future..

Its history is based on selling itself as the VSOE.
However once SNCF put their VSOE offering together, the focus will shift away from Belmond onto the real VSOE and this will just be an expensive train, that has to compete for space with the Brighton Belle and the real VSOE..

However hopefully SNCF will see steam appeal and look for operators for it's trains ?.. though sadly I doubt it, nor do I expect them to do it in the UK.

in short unless they resurrect another famous train brand from the past, the market for British Pullman will probably shrink once the VSOE labels have been peeled away and re-badged elsewhere.

Look at it from the paying customer perspective... for example:
The Blue Train in Johannesburg... is what is it.. world renown and covered in history.. should the carriages be re-badged the "Belmond Train" and someone else start running a "Blue train"... which are you going to be looking for ?

 

Agreed - Belmond seems a distinctly unexciting name for such a superb product. Perhaps if the market for the British Pullman in its present form shrinks as you suggest then the carriages might be of interest to someone like Mr Hosking to add to his empire. After all, he already has two MNs in his stable

 

Pullmania.

You're welcome.

Simon

 

Spoke to a lovely chap at the gala who was working on the CanPac sales stand at Ropley on Saturday and who said there was lots of interest and donations for the beast, so just a big thank you to those who contributed towards CanPacs restoration costs.


PS You can now buy a very nice CanPac mug from Ropley shop which is highly recommended and currently drinking from mine as I type this. Profit raised from the sales will go towards its restoration cost.

 

Her blue livery is now a thing of the past. The last of the top side paint was removed from the frames today when the final layers of Green, Blue and Black paint were needle gunned off. There is now more BR express blue paint in my hair now then on Canadian Pacific.


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Thanks Simon for the update.....Do you have any photos of this?

 

Will be posting a blog post in the next couple of days. Stay tuned.. Safe to say lots of progress.

We have also received a couple of Bulleid coach bogies to strip down as well. The only minor issue we have at the moment is the boiler is on a well wagon in Eastleigh Yard as the boiler shop doesn't have any room for it yet.


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Excuse my ignorance - But why the stripping down of a couple of Bulleid Coach bogies?? And what are they from?

 

They'll most likely be from the 2nd Bulleid coach being restored at Ropley, the number of which escapes me, though work has started in earnest!

 

The railway has 3 Bulleid coaches, they own one which has been nearly completely restored and 2 we have a 25 year loan from the Bluebell. The 2 bluebell Bulleid coaches are part of the heritage lottery bid we applied for. The reason we have them at Eastleigh now is becasue we have a good team working on CanPac(some of us are unable to get to Ropley) and we are quickly running out of jobs to do on the beast as we cant actually do any restoration on her until the lottery bid is decided one way or another. This way we can countine working whilst hopefully the Heritage Lottery decides in our favour and us younger chaps (myself included) can keep learning new skills.

 

99 years? I thought it was only 25!

"In 2012 the carriage was placed on a 25 year loan to the Mid Hants Railway. This is on the basis that we do not think we'll get round to overhauling it in the next 25 years (given that we have another 4 Bulleids, 4279, 1481, 2515, and 4227, all awaiting major attention), but wish to retain a fourth (and our only original SR) Bulleid open third for the long term, since we consider we are likely to want it for Bluebell service as part of our collection over the very long term time-scale. The MHR were looking for a third vehicle to go with their two Bulleid brakes, and now have the retoration facilities to be able to undertake this sort of work. It is clearly also in the best interests of the coach that it be overhauled and used, rather than sitting unused on our sidings for 25 years. A win-win-win situation for both railways, and the carriage itself."

From http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/1456.html

Tom

 

Whilst the information is excellent and its great to see hard work going on at the MHR outpost Eastleigh… I do believe the 99 year lease to be incorrect as I believe them to be on a 25 year loan with the payment being restoration.

 

I stand corrected ;-) Most things on the railway seemed to be 99 years I assumed this was the same Thats great news for me in 25 years I might be able to blag free entry into the Bluebell

 

Siquelme as previously mentioned you should by now be entitled to a MHR volunteer pass, which would give several benefits such as free travel on the MHR. However a real bonus is the reciprocal arrangement with several other major railways for free entry including the Bluebell.

 

I'm finally got around to working on that thanks for the info

 

You can probably travel free on the gwsr too Simon, I get free travel on the mhr, yet to be used though.

 

Going slightly OT - I must admit that when I travel on other lines (such as the MHR) I tend to pay rather than use any reciprocal travel arrangement, simply because I feel that the railway probably needs the money more than I do, so it feels like a donation!

Tom

 

If I'm travelling for free then I'm far more likely to buy food out than if I pay for the journey in which case it's a flask and a packed lunch, so swings and roundabouts!