British Rail Classes 251 and 261

The Blue Pullmans were luxury trains used from 1960 to 1973 by British Railways. They were the first Pullman diesel-electric multiple units, incorporating several novel features.
Named after their original Nanking blue livery, the trains were conceived under the 1955 Modernisation Plan to create luxury diesel express trains aimed at competing with the motor car and the emerging domestic air travel market. Although not entirely successful – they were seen as underpowered, unreliable, and ultimately not economically viable – they demonstrated the possibility of fixed-formation multiple-unit inter-city train services, and inspired the development of the Inter City 125, which resembles them in having an integral power car at each end of the train.
There were two versions, built by Metro Cammell in Birmingham: two first-class six-car sets for the London Midland Region (LMR), and three two-class eight-car sets for the Western Region (WR). They were initially operated by the luxury train operator the Pullman Car Company, which the British Transport Commission (BTC) had recently acquired. Shortly after their introduction, in 1962, Pullman was nationalised, and operation was incorporated into the British Railways network. Originally given the last Pullman 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 TOPS numbers.
The WR sets operated from London Paddington to Birmingham and Wolverhampton, and to Bristol, Cardiff, and Swansea. The LMR sets operated the Midland Pullman between London St Pancrasand Manchester Central, a journey it accomplished in a record 3 hours 15 minutes with a maximum speed of 90 mph. The Midland Pullman was withdrawn in 1966 following electrification of the Euston-Manchester line, which brought greatly reduced journey times with which the Midland route could not compete. The LMR sets were then transferred to the WR, where some of the first-class seating was downgraded to form two-class sets.
Category:Diesel trainsets
Category:Diesel locomotives
Category:Built in 1959
Category:British Rail locomotives
Category:Metro-Cammell locomotives
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Unfinished articles
Category:Locomotives
Category:British locomotives
Category:United Kingdom
Category:Passenger locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives
Category:Restored locomotives