FOLLOWING a clear-out of surplus rolling stock last year that resulted in several LMS sleeping coaches and a SR post office sorting van being purchased and subsequently scrapped, the Bluebell Railway offered a further four carriages forsaleduringAugustasitlookstofocus its collection and services.
Two of the vehicles advertised are drawn from the railway’s collection of Pullman stock. Steel-sided Kitchen First was built in 1951 and entered service on the prestigious ‘Golden Arrow’ services; during its working life, it was used by the late Queen Elizabeth IIwas also part of the final ‘Bournemouth Belle’ run on July 9, 1967, after which it was withdrawn. then became one of five Pullmans to form the Bulmers’ Cider Train in Hereford before being sold on to the Venice-Simplon Orient Express in 1986. Two years later, it was sold again, this time to the Colne Valley Railway in Essex, where it was used and remained until offered for sale in 2019. Bought by a private owner who first moved it to the South Devon Railway for an internal refurbishment, it arrived on the Bluebell in 2021, initially as part of a 30-year-loan, but was then bought by the railway outright last year.
