The ''Manchester Pullman'' was a first-class-only Pullman passenger train operated by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

, targeted at business travellers. The service began in 1966, operating between and , and offered an at-seat restaurant service to all passengers. It was hauled by 25 kV AC electric locomotives between the

British Rail Class 81 The British Rail Class 81 is a class of AC electric locomotives that formerly operated on the West Coast Main Line of the London Midland Region of British Rail. Originally designated AL1, it was the first type of AC electric locomotive to be de ...

and

British Rail Class 86 The British Rail Class 86 is a class of electric locomotives built during the 1960s. Developed as a 'standard' electric locomotive from earlier prototype models, one hundred of these locomotives were built from 1965 to 1966 to haul trains on t ...

range. The rolling stock had several peculiarities, one being it had the

vacuum brake The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum bra ...

system, so it could not be hauled by the

British Rail Class 87 The British Rail Class 87 is a type of electric locomotive designed and built by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) between 1973 and 1975. A total of thirty-six locomotives were constructed, to work passenger and freight services over the ...

when they were introduced during the later life of the train as they were air brake only locomotives. It replaced the ''

Midland Pullman The ''Midland Pullman'' was the name given to a former express passenger train service operating on British Railways' old Midland Main Line between and via and Millers Dale. The train completed the journey in 3 hours 15 minutes. This servi ...

'' (operated by the diesel Blue Pullman units) upon completion of the electrification of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. There was also a less successful 'sister' ''

Liverpool Pullman The ''Liverpool Pullman'' was a British Pullman train operated by the London Midland Region of British Railways. It ran twice daily from to and return, calling only at and . It was introduced in 1966 upon the electrification of the West ...

'' service that ran between London Euston and . The train consisted of purpose-built

British Rail Mark 2 The Mark 2 family of railway carriages are British Rail's second design of carriages. They were built by British Rail workshops (from 1969 British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL)) between 1964 and 1975. They were of steel construction. Introduc ...

carriages in a special Pullman livery, pearl grey with blue window surrounds (a reversal of the normal British Rail

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at ma ...

livery of the period). Some of the other peculiarities included that the coaches featured inward opening doors, to avoid inadvertently opening during the journey, they were fitted with internal locks for additional safety. There were two sets (rakes) of trains, a London and Manchester based train, the London being a slightly longer formation than the Manchester-based one. Each train operated an outward journey in the morning and a return in the evening, thus being at its base each night and weekend. The trains were occasionally used at weekends for premium charter services. London to Manchester trains can be routed via

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

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, the Pullmans served , and , so were all routed via Crewe. Another peculiarity for inter-city trains of that time was that some of the Pullmans were routed via the Styal Line thus precluding a Stockport station stop. For a while in the late 1970s, the ''Manchester Pullman'' was the only remaining regular Pullman service in Britain. The rolling stock eventually came to be seen as dated, and in its later life could not be hauled by Class 87 locomotives because the rolling stock had no air-braking. In May 1985 it was therefore replaced with

Mark 3 Mark 3 is the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It relates a conflict over healing on the Sabbath, the commissioning of the Twelve Apostles, a conflict with scribes and a meeting of Jesus with ...

stock, when non-Pullman standard-class coaches were also added. This was part of a revival of the Pullman brand by InterCity, with Merseyside and Yorkshire services being launched on the same day. After the withdrawal of the

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Pullman trains, the ''Manchester Pullman'' once again remained as the only Pullman train on British Rail. The West Coast Main Line InterCity services were taken over by

Virgin Trains Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 9 ...

in 1997 and the ''Manchester Pullman'' name was dropped.

References

Further reading