Brighton Belle

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The "Brighton Belle" 1964 at Purley Oaks

The Brighton Belle pullman suit operated between London and Brighton from 1933 to 1972 . As the only Pullman suit in the world, it was operated with specially procured, particularly comfortably equipped electric multiple units. The train connection had several predecessors. From 1875 the first Pullman cars were used in trains between London and Brighton . The first train between the two cities, consisting exclusively of Pullman cars, ran in 1881. From 1908 the connection was known as the "Southern Belle".

history

prehistory

Brighton had become a popular seaside resort for wealthy Londoners ever since the later King George IV spent the summer season there at the end of the 18th century and had the Royal Pavilion built. Since 1841 there was a railway connection between the two cities. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB & SCR) as the operator of the Brighton Main Line soon saw an increasing need for particularly comfortable trains. Wealthy businesspeople, in particular, began buying coastal residences early, commuting between Brighton and their offices in London. Since 1875, LB & SCR has been using Pullman cars from the British branch of the Pullman Palace Car Company in their trains for these customers .

From December 1881, LB & SCR offered with the "Brighton Pullman Limited" two express train pairs consisting entirely of Pullman cars per day between London Victoria Station and Brighton station without intermediate stops with a travel time of the fastest train of 75 minutes, but not on Sundays for the first few years. Sunday pleasure trips were often viewed as reprehensible in the Victorian era , so the LB & SCR had to end a first attempt in 1881 after a few weeks. The train set of the "Brighton Pullman Limited" was one of the first trains in the world to receive electrical interior lighting from the start. From 1894 the trains managed a travel time of just over an hour. It was not until 1898 that Pullman suits were also available on Sundays.

The top train of LB & SCR on the route was the “Southern Belle” pullman suit introduced in 1908. Davison Dalziel , who had acquired the British pullman company from the American parent company in 1906, pursued the strategy of using the success of the pullman suits at LB & SCR to create incentives for the introduction of pullman suits and wagons at other railway companies. Equipped with new, six-axle Pullman cars, the company advertised the train, which runs twice a day in each direction, as “the most luxurious train in the world”. It was exclusively equipped with 1st  carriage class . The Pullman wagons were also given a new color scheme in chocolate brown and ivory that was adapted to the chocolate brown painted locomotives of LB & SCR. The success of the train meant that this color scheme was retained for all British Pullman cars procured since then. The First World War did not interrupt the operation of the Pullman suits, but from 1915 the "Southern Belle" also got 3rd class Pullman cars. Two years later, LB & SCR had to stop the train on January 1, 1917. After the end of the war, operations were resumed in 1919. In 1923, the LB & SCR went on as a result of the Railways Act 1921 in the Southern Railway (SR), which continued to operate the Pullman trains together with the Pullman Car Company, which is now in British ownership . The travel time had now dropped to one hour thanks to more powerful locomotives. In contrast to Victorian times, three pairs of trains now ran on Sundays and only two on weekdays.

The Southern Railway and its predecessor companies had lost more and more passengers to trams and omnibuses in the London suburbs in the years since the beginning of the 20th century . Passengers preferred these clean means of transport to the railroad, which is characterized by the soot of steam locomotives . Sir  Herbert Walker , the general manager of the Southern Railway, decided to recapture the lost ground. Means for this were the further electrification of the extensive London suburb network of the SR as well as the main routes between London and the canal as well as a much more comfortable vehicle fleet. SR opted for the 750 volt DC busbar system introduced by one of its predecessor companies, the London and South Western Railway . Some lines already electrified by LB & SCR with overhead lines and alternating current were converted to power rails, including a section of the line to Brighton. The expansion was financed by abolishing a tax on tickets for first class while maintaining the previous prices. The then Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill had arranged this under the proviso that the railroad companies invested the additional income to create additional jobs. In 1932 the remainder of the section to Brighton was electrified and electrical operation began on January 1, 1933. For the popular Pullman suits between London and Brighton, the Pullman company procured three sets of new special electric multiple units with particularly luxurious interiors. In addition, the remaining six-car railcar units each received a Pullman car for the express trains between Brighton and London, which are now offered every hour . Like the Pullman cars in use since 1908, the vehicles were given the chocolate brown-ivory color scheme that is typical of British Pullman cars.

Introducing the Brighton Belle

From January 1, 1933, the new Pullman railcars ran between Brighton and London. With the three sets that were procured, three pairs of trains were offered daily, which were arranged in the hourly intervals of the express trains. Trains from London Victoria left at 11am, 4pm and 7pm and in the opposite direction from Brighton at 1:25pm, 3:25 pm and 9:25 pm. Your scheduled travel time was set at sixty minutes. Although this was hardly a step forward compared to steam operation and faster travel times would have been technically easily achievable, the SR waived this in order to make operations on the route with its very high train density stable. Like the rest of the trains on the newly electrified line to Brighton, the Pullman trains became a quick hit and fare revenue rose 19% in the first year.

After the introduction of the Bournemouth Belle , another Pullman suit to the English south coast, the Southern renamed the Pullman connection to Brighton from June 29, 1934 to “Brighton Belle” to avoid confusion. At the beginning of the Second World War , the trains were briefly stopped, but operated again from January 1, 1940. One of the three train sets was badly damaged on October 9, 1940 in a night air raid on London in Victoria station. The other two sets continued to serve the “Brighton Belle” pairs of trains until May 22, 1942. All three trains were then safely parked in the Crystal Palace (High Level) station.

Development after the Second World War

In 1958 the “Brighton Belle” overtook a suburban train en route to London at Three Bridges station

From October 7, 1946, the "Brighton Belle" operated again between London Victoria and Brighton, initially as a single railcar unit reinforced with six cars. After its repair, the damaged train set increased the number of operations again from 1947. The nationalization of the four major British railway companies under the Transport Act 1947 and the establishment of British Railways had no effect on day-to-day operations. Three pairs of journeys were offered on weekdays and two pairs of journeys on Sundays, later also three pairs of trains on Sundays. In connection with the relocation of the trains to Brighton, a fourth pair of trains was inserted from 1963, consisting of an early journey from Brighton to London and a late evening return train. This was popular with theater-goers in London. Regular customers also included celebrities living in and around Brighton such as Dame Flora Robson and Sir  Laurence Olivier . For Sir Laurence, the train was even delayed on a trip in 1970 in order to stock up on his favorite kippers (smoked herring) in the kitchen before departure . The following timetable was offered from 1963 to 1972:

Brighton from  9:25 13:25 17:25 20:25
London Victoria on 10:25 14:25 18:25 21:25
London Victoria from 11:00 15:00 19:00 23:00
Brighton on 12:00 16:00 20:00 24:00

The trains continued to run without stopping, only the last train in the evening from London Victoria also stopped at Haywards Heath .

The bogies , designed according to the Dutch model, but not suitable for the Southern routes, led to poor running quality, and associated damage to the superstructure and massive passenger complaints . British Railways therefore equipped the train sets with new bogies in 1955, which, however, only had slightly better running characteristics. Regular passengers therefore avoided ordering soup. In 1969, the railcars lost their Pullman colors and were given the new British Rail colors in blue-light gray, which had been introduced company-wide at the time. The age of the vehicles finally led to the discontinuation of the "Brighton Belle" in 1972. Despite considerable public protests, the last pairs of trains ran between London Victoria and Brighton on April 30, 1972.

vehicles

Two cars of the later BR class 403 before their restoration from 2009
The intermediate car "Vera" in use for the VSOE operator Belmond

For the "Brighton Belle" the Pullman Company procured three special train sets from Metropolitan Cammell in 1932 , which were classified as SR class 5-BEL with the numbers 2051-2053 (from 1937 3051-3053). The electrical equipment for the railcars came from English Electric . For the first time, Pullman vehicles were designed as all-steel cars without wooden car bodies . The train sets each consisted of five cars, two of which had a driver's cab and three non-powered intermediate cars . Both railcars and one of the intermediate cars were designed for 3rd class, in the railcars with 48 seats and in the intermediate car with 56 seats. The other two intermediate cars each had 20 1st class seats and a kitchen. This enabled the at-the-seat service typical of European Pullman suits to be offered throughout the train. There was a bell button at every seat, with which the passengers could call the attendants . The menu in the kitchen was based on the time of day and offered multi-course menus for lunch and dinner, as well as “full breakfast” in the early trains from 1963 onwards . In total, the sets offered 40 places in the first and 152 places in the third class (from 1956 onwards, after the Europe-wide class reform, referred to as second class). While third-class Pullman cars were only given numbers, the first-class cars were traditionally given additional names by the British Pullman company. The cars for the “Brighton Belle” were no exception, the six intermediate cars for 1st class were named “Hazel”, “Audrey”, “Gwen”, “Doris”, “Vera” and “Mona”. Structurally, apart from the necessary control lines, the intermediate cars are largely comparable to the other Pullman cars used in locomotive-hauled trains. All vehicles were given individually designed furnishings in Art Deco style with wood paneling and inlays made from precious wood . In first class there were upholstered individual armchairs , in third class there were upholstered two-seater benches at tables. The upholstery fabrics also differed depending on the car.

In regular operation, a train consisted of two sets, the three daily pairs of trains were positioned in such a way that the schedule could be served with this double set. The third set served as a reserve. The vehicles were operated by the Southern Railway, but they were owned by the Pullman company, which also carried out the major repairs and general inspections. Together with the Pullman company, the vehicles were owned by British Railways in 1954. They were used almost exclusively as "Brighton Belle", only between 1948 and 1957 the reserve unit drove over several timetable periods on Sundays as "Eastbourne Pullman", a pair of trains between London and Eastbourne . After the war, British Railways repeatedly used the trains for special trips and for trips by members of the British royal family . The further expanded electrical network in southern England made it possible to travel far away from the regular route. The future Queen Elizabeth II drove with a train from London Waterloo Station to Portsmouth in 1948 . In 1953, after her coronation, she and her entire family used one of the sets to attend the Royal Navy parade in Portsmouth. In 1954, their children Charles and Anne drove the same route from Portsmouth on the "Britannia" to meet their parents after their several months' journey to Australia and New Zealand in the Mediterranean . In 1970 there were special trips for visitors to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera .

From 1932 to 1969 the vehicles were painted brown-cream, the colors of the Pullman company. Then they received the Einheitsfarbgebung of British Rail in blue and light gray, the top ends of the railcars were previously the mid-1960s, as with all recent British locomotives painted yellow in accordance with the statutory provisions. The interior design remained largely unchanged during the period of use, only the color of the upholstery was adapted by British Rail at the end of the 1960s to the seats of its other railcars and passenger cars. Shortly before the trains were discontinued, British Rail renumbered the three train sets to class 403 due to the new designation scheme required after the introduction of TOPS . Before that, British Rail had retained the old name of the Southern Railway since nationalization in 1948. After the "Brighton Belle" was discontinued, British Rail decommissioned the three trains in 1972. They were then sold as single cars to various subsequent owners who used them as stationary restaurants, for example. Other vehicles came to museum railways such as the Bluebell Railway . The electrical equipment of the railcars was previously removed and sold as scrap.

With the exception of a railcar that was destroyed by a fire in 1991, all individual wagons have been preserved and are now mostly used again as railroad vehicles. Belmond Ltd. , the operating company of the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) uses three intermediate cars in the feeder train to the VSOE between London and Dover or for various special trips, another four vehicles are owned by Belmond, but not in regular use. A complete train set consisting of five vehicles - two multiple units, two first class intermediate cars and one third class intermediate car - is owned by the 5-BEL Trust , which has been restoring a train set since 2009. The set, however, consists of different vehicles from the three original units. The trust originally pursued the goal of having the entire set operational again in 2015. A particular challenge is the replacement of the scrapped electrical equipment and the fulfillment of the current safety requirements of the Office of Rail Regulation . Due to the installation of new headlamps, the British supervisory authorities agreed to dispense with the otherwise mandatory yellow color on the end of the railcars, which corresponds better to the historical condition. The restart was initially postponed to 2016, in the meantime the 5-BEL Trust has named August 2020 for the start of the first public trips.

Trivia

The British rock group Supertramp shows the performance of their ballad "Rudy" both at concerts and in video, the journey of the Brighton Belle from London Victoria to Brighton - from opening the platform barrier to departure in normal time, the journey through the maze of London tracks and through all the stations through in time lapse . "Rudy" was released in 1974 when the Brighton Belle had already been discontinued.

literature

Web links

Commons : Brighton Belle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 6
  2. ↑ Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 8
  3. ↑ a b Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 16
  4. ↑ Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 36
  5. ^ Southern Named Trains: 5 Bel - "The Brighton Belle" , accessed January 13, 2015
  6. ↑ Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 47
  7. ↑ Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 45
  8. ↑ a b 5BEL Trust: Bringing back the Brighton Belle, News , accessed April 3, 2016
  9. ↑ Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 48
  10. ↑ Stephen Grant, Simon Jeffs: The Brighton Belle . Capital Transport Publishing, Second Edition 2012, p. 59
  11. ↑ rail.co.uk: Brighton Belle to run in 2015? Published 22nd March 2014 , accessed January 13, 2015
  12. ^ 5-BEL-Trust: Brighton Belle: When will it re-enter service? , accessed on February 18, 2020