Belle of the ball

In 1881, the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway introduced the Brighton Pullman Limited, the first all-Pullman train in Britain.

Connecting London and the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton, the train was an immediate success. In 1888, brand-new all-Pullman stock was imported from the US to operate the service, and this became the first electrically-lit rolling stock in the UK. In 1908 this service was renamed the Southern Belle.

The real transformation came in 1933 when the Southern Railway electrified the entire line. Using the third rail system, London-Brighton became one of the world's first electrified inter-city railways.

At the same time, brand new rolling-stock was introduced: 5-car electric multiple units, and the service was again renamed: the Brighton Belle.

These all-Pullman EMUs -- the only ones ever operated -- were a publicity coup for the Southern, and the fashionable people who lived in Brighton and commuted to London (including significant numbers of well-established actors) provided a glamour for the route.

In truth, the ride quality, particularly in the end motor cars, was pretty dismal, but the service remained popular.

In British Rail days the umber and cream cars survived until the Rail Blue era when a decision had to be taken about reliverying the fleet. For reasons I can't begin to fathom, BR -- which everywhere else was rigorously Modern in its approach to graphic design -- foisted an appalling Olde Worlde livery on the Belle, with mock wooden panels painted above and below each window and a dreadful typeface.

It was probably the single worst application of Rail Blue livery anywhere on BR.

This approach is all the more mysterious when compared to the very clean Pullman livery adopted everywhere else -- essentially a reversal of the standard blue/grey:

And here on the electrically-hauled Manchester Pullman:

By the early 1970s the EMUs had reached the end of their lives. BR faced a decision: should it build a brand-new run of all-Pullman EMUs, or should it end the Brighton Belle? In those cash-strapped times the decision was almost inevitable, and the final Brighton Belle operated in 1972 (despite a mass protest by luvvies including Lord Olivier and, um, Thora Hird). A number of carriages have been preserved and there are currently plans to restore a 4-car EMU to operational standards.

In one of the worst-kept secrets in the railway modelling world (as if that world needed any secrets), model train manufacturer Hornby will shortly announce that they are to produce an 00 gauge model of the Brighton Belle. It's been modelled before, of course, but to nothing like modern standards of fidelity.

The sudden gush of EMUs into a market which has traditionally had none (following Bachmann's unexpected and very successful 4CEP of 2008) is both surprising and welcome.

So strong was demand that Bachmann almost immediately followed-up with the announcement of the delightful workhorse, the 2EPB (which is now due shortly and can be seen below, looking magnificent), and Hornby's belated response was to announce a 4VEP (that's been delayed until late spring 2011).

The Brighton Belle is a smart move from Hornby, which tends to favour more glamorous and prestigious trains, and may enable them to both grow this market and capture a larger share of it. I'm not a huge fan of the Belle, but I'm hoping it will be a bridge to production of a 2BIL or a similar pre-War EMU. Fingers crossed.