| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by grahame at 19:55, 30th April 2025 |     |
Nearly 3 years since anything posted on this thread - I understand that we are getting near(er) to having a 4BEL unit running - all be it really the old passenger accommodation of the generation of trains that the 5BEL belonged to with railway equipment from the following generation. I still look forward to a ride some time.
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by onthecushions at 00:03, 21st July 2022 | |
The Belle project of returning a Pullman EMU to main line operation created some heritage questions. These included how much should one alter historic artefacts for modern use. This is usually answered by the reversibilty criterion - can it largely be put back? In the Belle's case a very large number of changes were applied, more or less grafting much of a CIG unit onto each set in a very final manner.
It might have been simpler, kinder, quicker and a better business proposition simply to fit a CIG unit (or two) out with Pullman interiors, central locking and retention toilets.
OTC
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by RichardB at 11:59, 20th July 2022 | |
Bit concerning that there seems to have been no further update since November last year.
They have a Twitter account but the person who ran that can no longer be involved as the last tweet was in 2017 https://twitter.com/5BELTrust
Hope things are going well behind the scenes following Covid and that we'll hear more before long.
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by broadgage at 18:03, 23rd January 2022 | |
My main concern is that if they cant run this on the main line as intended, reasonably soon, that the restored train will be ruled "non compliant" by the health and safety industry.
A great deal of money and effort has been expended to bring the restored train up to modern standards, but will the standards of say 2008 still be acceptable in say 2025 ?
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by grahame at 17:26, 23rd January 2022 | |
The "Brighton Belle" electric trains were always an interesting change to see at Victoria in my youth ... retired many years ago the carriages ended up in diverse and non-operational uses, but of late some of the carriages have been coming together and a massive amount of work is being done to get one set main line operational. Having said which, it has gone "awful quiet" the last year or so, and I took a look around as a side-research thing today to bring an update here. To my surprise, we don't seem to have had a previous thead - at least in the last three years.
http://brightonbelle.com/history
The Brighton Belle electric Pullman train was the new Southern Railway’s tour de force, to modernise its stylish but steam hauled Southern Belle Pullman service when the Brighton Main Line was electrified in 1932.
http://brightonbelle.com/429-2
27 November 2021
A recent visit to the Brighton Belle four cars under restoration at Locomotive services at Crewe (Cars 88 – Beryl, 85 Gravetye Manor, Doris 82 and 91 Mabel) now reveals substantial progress since their arrival from Shirebrook. There have been major problems affecting the work: firstly managing through the restrictions imposed by Covid, and secondly the need to rectify the extremely complex installation of the electrical equipment needed to make a 1930s build, electric multiple unit fit to run on today’s modern rail network, with all the safety systems demanded
[snip]
We shall not forecast and date for the completion of the work at either Crewe or Eastleigh, as we have been too optimistic in the past, leading to high hopes, that have then had to be dashed with subsequent disappointment.
A recent visit to the Brighton Belle four cars under restoration at Locomotive services at Crewe (Cars 88 – Beryl, 85 Gravetye Manor, Doris 82 and 91 Mabel) now reveals substantial progress since their arrival from Shirebrook. There have been major problems affecting the work: firstly managing through the restrictions imposed by Covid, and secondly the need to rectify the extremely complex installation of the electrical equipment needed to make a 1930s build, electric multiple unit fit to run on today’s modern rail network, with all the safety systems demanded
[snip]
We shall not forecast and date for the completion of the work at either Crewe or Eastleigh, as we have been too optimistic in the past, leading to high hopes, that have then had to be dashed with subsequent disappointment.
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by Chris125 at 14:44, 27th January 2019 | |
Yellow warning panels? I hope not..
Tbh I wouldn't have been bothered by a yellow panel, they did carry them for a period, but they've decided to change the 'face' to accommodate modern lights and so won't need one.
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by Umberleigh at 17:04, 6th January 2019 | |
Be great to see this train back in service, I was born near Hosted Keynes and my father used to catch this Pullman from Haywards Heath during its final years.
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by Oberon at 23:14, 14th December 2018 | |
Yellow warning panels? I hope not..
| Re: Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by SandTEngineer at 16:13, 14th December 2018 | |
Really looking forward to the success of this. Travelled on it to stay on holiday at Butlins in Brighton in, must have been 1964ish. Quite an experience one never forgets, the train that is...
| Brighton Belle - merged topics Posted by grahame at 13:57, 14th December 2018 | |
http://brightonbelle.com/future
When will it re-enter service?
The latest expectation is for testing on the rails in spring 2019. When the systems and their wiring are all in place and static testing yields perfect results (don’t forget we are replacing all the electrical ‘go’ gear on a 1930s train with reliable stuff from a later train), and when the interior fit is complete, the train will go off to Eastleigh for testing on the third rail. This process might take three months or more, so the earliest any public runs could be offered would be summer 2019.
After some commercial test running, charter and public runs will start. This could be August 2019
The latest expectation is for testing on the rails in spring 2019. When the systems and their wiring are all in place and static testing yields perfect results (don’t forget we are replacing all the electrical ‘go’ gear on a 1930s train with reliable stuff from a later train), and when the interior fit is complete, the train will go off to Eastleigh for testing on the third rail. This process might take three months or more, so the earliest any public runs could be offered would be summer 2019.
After some commercial test running, charter and public runs will start. This could be August 2019
