New BluePullman

I can not see any merrit in rebuilding a blue pulman set, but i can see a market for a luxury HST reconfigured into an all first with full dining capability repainted into either blue pulman, or pulman umber livery offering lakeland scenic tourer type tours where everything is provided, overnight accomodation in luxury hotels etc .
A HST set has the advantages of being very gaging friendly, and can travel at 125mph enroute, and return where the line speed allows it, i'm actually very surprised that non of the TOC's have trialed an all first luxury rake, HST for their more exclusive long distance services.

 

Which exclusive long distance services?

 

i meant, i thought there would be a market for say a Anglo Scottish Pulman, service say kings cross to Aberdeen or glasgow.
didnt Great northern at one time have a yorkshire pulman titled train, but it of course was never a true pulman service?

 

I'm sure a certain TOC at Carnforth has an eye on something like that for the future

 

It's worth looking at the HST diagrams for the ECML - they're well mixed in with other services. Not to mention that the ECML is now a 400 mile version of Herbert Walker's vision of the clockface timetable.

 

there is absolutely no relationship between the BP and the HST, None at all. Oh and 60 mph average in 1960? Check out the Cheltenham Flyer two decades earlier....than managed over 70 (77 I think in fact)

 

Why paint it anything other than genuine HST livery...the power car they did is stunning. There's no point in making it a fake BP when it could be a genuine HST

 

OK, so if a group wish to reproduce a dormant class of steam, diesel or electric, who are we to say "waste of time, effort & resources etc"? People sneered when it was first suggested buying and restoring a loco from Barry scrapyard. With Tornado, the P2, Baby Deltic and LMS 10000 projects gaps in locomotive history are being filled for which I thank the groups responsible.
What does concern me with all new builds though is that the individuals behind each project may well wish to see a return on their investment. The best way of doing that is to run it on the main line with paying passengers.
There are only so many enthusiasts with only so much disposable income. Worse still there are only so many paths and routes available. For every new build that takes to the tracks, that's one less run for an existing mainline registered loco.

 

While I suppose they are the precursor of the HST, only five sets were built so exactly how important were they to Britains Railway History?

 

Is the LMS 10000 actually making significant progress?

 

See Ivatt Diesel Re-creation Society thread.

 

Sufficient to deserve a page or two in any books about the history of HSTs or the decline and fall of the Pullman empire. That's about it.

 

But the luxury train market isn't interested in "genuine" liveries. Look at the Royal Scotsman etc. They want something to look posh, and better than the usual.

 

The luxury train market is only the excuse for a trainspotters wet dream Blue Pullman recreation. All I'm suggesting is that using a genuine HST , properly restored, would be far more successful than bastardising one into a sort of Blue Pullman lookalike. In reality, it wouldn't matter a fig to the customers what they were riding in so long as the Chablis was the right temperature.

 

Isn't it all about branding? if you want to promote a high end product in travel, then only one word " Pullman" i would say has that air of luxury about it, and then it has to fit the perception of what you would expect from anything befitting the name, for instance linen tablecloths, silver service, and the umber and cream livery of the Pullman coach. company to me the blue pullman would be a bit of a white elephant, i would think that something based on an HST would make better sence, and that there is a market for luxury land tours along with the operational benefits of having something that is well sorted and can be serviced at any depot that takes HST sets, as well as having the ability to run at line speed on the fast main routes . And one last point, if there was a pulman HST rake, i would bet one of the biggest hirers would be the verious TOC'S hiring it to impress possible clients before rebranding first class as Pullman class .

 

Anyone wanting a Return On Investment would be better off steering well clear of New Build rolling stock. Most New Builds are promoted to satisfy the enthusiasts' nostalgic desires, not to provide a ROI. Of course, they need to generate enough income to pay for maintenance.

 

Read what I wrote! I am not writing just about traction development. Consider the significant impact of the Blue Pullmans in terms of their social, economic, and cultural context.

 

I can't believe you wrote that. "in terms of their social, economic, and cultural context.". They were an irrelevance to the vast majority of people, elitist in the extreme and of very little relevance in the context you mention

 

Did they have any impact at all in a social, economic and cultural context? From where we are now they look like a last ditch attempt to keep the concept going, which failed as the only Pullmans still running now are in the charter train market not the regular timetabled one.
As for traction development, apart from the slopey end what did they have in common with the HST which can't otherwise be seen on say a class 207?