GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - British Railways Period Locomotives: gwrbsh1295

Ex-GWR 2-6-2T 51xx No 5184 is seen working hard as it passes through Snow Hill alongside the 12 10pm Blue Pullman service from Paddington on 23rd February 1961. Built at Swindon works to Lot 259 in March 1931 No 5184 was to remain in service until October 1964 when it was withdrawn from Horton Road shed in Gloucester to be scrapped during April 1965 by the Steel Supply Company of Jersey Marine in Swansea'. The Blue Pullman were obviously named after their custom blue livery, the trains were conceived under the railway 1954 Modernisation Plan, to create new luxury first-class diesel express trains, to compete with the motor car and the emerging domestic air travel market.

In all, five complete Blue Pullman train sets were built by Metro Cammell in Birmingham, formed from a total of 36 vehicles. Designed by the British Transport Commission's subsidiary British Railways, they were initially operated by the luxury train operator the Pullman Car Company, that the BTC had recently acquired. Shortly after their introduction, in 1962, the PCC was fully nationalised, and operation of the Blue Pullmans was incorporated into the British Rail network. Originally given the last PCC vehicle numbers, towards the end of their operational life the trains gained the British Rail TOPS classification of Class 251 (motor cars) and Class 261 (kitchen and parlour cars), although they never carried these numbers.

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