The original Midland Blue Pullman trains entered service on 4th July 1960 between Manchester and London St Pancras and they were withdrawn on 15th July 1966 following the completion of the electrification of the WCML route from London Euston to Manchester. They were then transferred to join the Western Region sets where they continued in service until May 1973. I remember seeing the Midland Pullman calling at Loughborough station one day and I have a somewhat blurred black and white photograph I took on my first box camera of it passing through the station one evening at full speed.
The Triang model, pictured here on the right, was based on the Western power cars (2nd class seating) and a first class parlour car which was common to both Western and Midland sets. The vehicles are shorter than scale length but not so as to be really noticeable.
Rosebud Kitmaster produced kits of the three Midland Pullman vehicle types and these occasionally come up for sale on eBay, most often made-up but occasionally unmade examples are offered. The Kitmaster motor-bogies are also available from time to time. Here is a rather tired half-set that passed through my hands, the parlour car seems to have grown an extra something on its roof!
With a deal of patience it would have been possible to collect a complete set but I decided that that was not the route to follow. Much of the value of an unmade kit is as a collector’s item and they attract serious money, built examples are often badly made or “play worn” or “just tired” and would need work to bring them up to a reasonable standard. I did see a complete but unmotorised six-car set offered on eBay in December 2009 which sold for £147 despite needing restoration work, and another better looking set went for £155 in January 2010.
I was amazed to see this set offered on the US eBay site in November 2010. At first glance it seems to be a factory-made 6-car boxed set and the seller advertised it as such. But look closely at the intermediate cars, especially the “kitchen car” in the middle row, right. It is made up of two power car bodies spliced together end-to-end to give an impression of something different.
But the real work of art is the box. This has been wonderfully created by hand by a previous owner and even has a portion of Triang’s original set box label affixed to the lid to give an aura of authenticity. It also had a hobby store label stuck on the back, so it must have an interesting history.
It sold for US$291.
A complete train set would have to be either all Triang or all Kitmaster, it would not be acceptable to mix and match. I decided to base my set on the Triang vehicles which I bought on eBay in late 2008 and into 2009. I needed to convert the power cars to first class seating and a pair of parlour cars to kitchen cars to make a complete six-car Midland set.
In July 2010, Bachmann announced that they would be introducing a six-car Midland Pullman set towards the end of 2011, described as DCC fitted complete with lighting and “prepared for sound” whatever that means. Hattons priced this at £290 for pre-ordering, which would put it beyond my budget. After many delays and newly announced dates, the Railway Modeller published a review of a finished set in their November 2012 issue. It appears to be a lovely model, beautifully detailed throughout.
I had always expected that my Midland Pullman would be running long before Bachmann released theirs but life got in the way. However, decided to carry on when time permitted. Time passed with little progress and then, in December 2023, I spotted a Bachmann set on eBay in the original all-blue livery for a very reasonable price. So I succumbed!
• More here on my original conversion work.