Industry | Rail transport |
---|---|
Founded | 1979 |
Founder | John Farrow |
Defunct | 2008 |
Headquarters | England |
Owner | Stobart Group |
Hertfordshire Rail Tours was a company that operated charter trains in the United Kingdom. Founded in Hertfordshire by John Farrow, most of its trains started from London Terminals. [1] The company was purchased by FM Rail in September 2005. [2] FM Rail went into liquidation in December 2006, and the Hertfordshire Rail Tours business passed to Victa Westlink Rail, a joint venture between Victa Railfreight and Westlink. [3]
In August 2007 the Hertfordshire Rail Tours business was sold to the Stobart Group and renamed Stobart Rail Tours. [4] [5] The tour programme was scaled back and relaunched as the Stobart Pullman , using Direct Rail Services Class 47s and Mark 3 carriages. [6] It ceased in July 2008. [7]
With the market for charter trains appearing buoyant and the company wishing to develop into more lucrative fields, FM Rail decided to re-introduce a Blue Pullman from the beginning of 2006, reminiscent of the Blue Pullman diesel multiple units that operated between London Paddington and Bristol during the 1960s.
With none of the original stock preserved, it had to provide a new fleet, which consisted of a rake of air-conditioned Mark 2 carriages fitted with Pullman style lighting, topped and tailed by Class 47 diesel locomotives. As no Mark 2 kitchen cars were built, two Mark 1 carriages were included in the set. The Mark 2s were painted in the original livery of nanking blue with a white band around the windows, but, as the Mark 1s had much larger windows, they were simply painted in plain blue. [8]
The first outing of the Blue Pullman was a dining excursion from Kings Cross and back via Ely and Peterborough on 12 January 2006. [9]
The service, although normally worked by two Class 47s also painted in the dedicated blue livery, would be hauled by a GB Railfreight Class 87 if the entire working was due to be under the wires. The Blue Pullman carriages passed to Cotswold Rail, which re-launched the service in February 2007. [10]
Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain, and is one of the publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom.
The British Rail Class 57 is a type of diesel locomotive that was remanufactured from Class 47s by Brush Traction of Loughborough between 1998 and 2004.
InterCity was a brand name introduced by British Rail in 1966 for its long-haul express passenger services.
Cotswold Rail was an English company, based in Gloucester, which arranged the spot-hire of shunting and mainline locomotives.
FM Rail was a railway charter company based in Derby, England. The company was formed when spot hire company Fragonset Railways and charter operator Merlin Rail merged. It went into administration in 2006.
Riviera Trains Limited is a railway spot-hire company based at Burton-on-Trent and Eastleigh in England.
The British Rail Class 73 is a British electro-diesel locomotive. This type is unusual in that it can operate on the Southern Region's 650 / 750 V DC third rail power supply, or an onboard diesel engine to allow it to be used on non-electrified routes. This makes it very versatile, although the diesel engine produces less power than is available from the third-rail power supply, so the locomotives are rarely used outside of the former Southern Region of British Rail. It is one of the first bi-mode locomotives ever built. Following the withdrawal and scrapping of the more powerful Class 74 bi-mode locomotives in 1977, the Class 73 was unique on the British railway network until the introduction of the Class 88 bi-mode locomotives in 2017. Ten locomotives have been scrapped.
The Class 66 is a type of six-axle diesel-electric freight locomotive developed in part from the Class 59, for use on UK railways. Since its introduction the class has been successful and has been sold to British and other European railway companies. In Continental Europe it is marketed as the EMD Class 66 (JT42CWR).
The Blue Pullmans were luxury trains used from 1960 to 1973 by British Rail. They were the first Pullman diesel multiple units, incorporating several novel features.
The Mark 2 family of railway carriages are British Rail's second design of carriages. They were built by British Rail workshops between 1964 and 1975 and were of steel construction.
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 West Coast Main Line (WCML).
The Class 67 locomotives are a class of Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotives that were built for the English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) between 1999 and 2000 by Alstom at Meinfesa in Valencia, Spain with drive components from General Motors' Electro-Motive Division.
Caledonian Sleeper is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two currently operating sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom, the other being the Night Riviera which runs between London and Penzance.
Pullman trains in Great Britain were mainline luxury railway services that operated with first-class coaches and a steward service, provided by the British Pullman Car Company (PCC) from 1874 until 1962, and then by British Railways from 1962 until 1972. Many named mainline service trains have subsequently used the word 'Pullman' in their titles, but most of these have been normal trains with increased first-class accommodation. Since 1982 however, some railtours have been operated by companies using Pullman coaches dating from the 1920s to 1950s to recreate the ambience of the heyday of Pullman travel.
GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital, itself a subsidiary of M&G plc, a UK investment group.
The Stobart Pullman was a railtour operator in the United Kingdom, operating pullman type charter trains, as Stobart Rail Tours. The company was a subsidiary of Eddie Stobart Ltd. and was operated by Stobart's rail partner, Direct Rail Services (DRS). On 16 July 2008, the company released a statement on its website that "train operations have been suspended".
The history of British Rail's corporate liveries is quite complex. Although the organisation was associated with Rail Blue from the mid-1960s to the 1980s, a number of other schemes were also used, especially when it was split into operating units in the mid-1980s.
Nemesis Rail is a railway maintenance and spot-hire company. It is presently based in a depot on Derby Road, Burton upon Trent, that was formerly a British Rail wagon works that had been closed in the 1990s.
Eddie Stobart Limited is a British multimodal logistics company, with interests in road haulage, rail freight, deep sea and inland waterway transport systems and deep sea port, inland port and rail connected storage facilities, along with transport, handling and warehousing facilities in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium.
Stobart Rail Freight Ltd was a railway freight service operator in the United Kingdom. It came under the Rail division of Eddie Stobart Logistics, and carried intermodal freight for the group.