Met-Camm’s stylish 1960s DEMU set is announced for a 2011 release.
AT ITS TRADE open day today, July 25th, Bachmann Europe announced that it is to produce an all new six-car Midland Region ‘Blue Pullman’ diesel-electric multiple unit as part of its highly regarded Branchline ‘OO’ scale range. Metropolitan Cammell built two of these iconic luxury trains in 1959 for use on the Midland Main line between London St. Pancras and Manchester Central during peak business travel times, which entered service exactly 50 years ago.
Following completion of the West Coast Main Line electrification scheme the two ‘Midland Pullman’ units moved to the Western Region to complement the similar three WR sets which were eight-car units. There were differences between the two types. After carrying the Pullman grey/blue (the reversed corporate blue/grey colour scheme) for a period they were withdrawn from service in May 1973.
The ‘Blue Pullman’ has been a much-requested model and Bachmann was due to announce this project in March 2011. Graham Hubbard, Bachmann’s Managing Director said today “we are aware of others announcing the possibility of producing this unit. We have been working on it for several months and in order to bring clarity to the situation we have made our plans public ”.
Graham continued “we first looked at this famous train some years ago and at the time we did not consider it viable. However the market has changed considerably over the past two years and we felt the time was right to dust off our plans. We had decided to do so long before the recent announcement from a retailer”.
Each six-car unit will comprise 2x Power cars, 2x Kitchen Cars (Type 4) and 2x Parlour Cars (Type 6) and will be sold as a six-car unit.
The new model will incorporate today’s leading edge technologies and will include the following features:
• Drive system in power car
• New style close coupling concept
• Central coach ceiling and table lamp lighting
• Directional lighting
• Cab lights
• Sound prepared
• Etched fan grilles
• DCC socket
The full six-car set (Catalogue No 31-255) is expected to retail at around £300. All four livery variations will be produced at some stage (Midland Nanking blue, Midland Nanking blue w/ half yellow ends, Western Nanking blue w/ full yellow ends and reversed BR grey/blue), while Bachmann also intends to look at DCC Sound options at a future stage.
RAIL EXPRESS Modeller 
great news at £300 at first it might seam a bit steap bot at works out at £50 a car and some coaches are near that now,heljan are doing one for a model shop who are asking for deposits what happens now to them ,anyway it looks to be good, a grey/blue one for me,time to save up.
Hi,
I agree with M-A above, great news indeed. An iconic set and I remember it well on the WR; showing my age now aren’t I!!
It’s been in the high echelons of the annual “wish list” contenders for some years now and I’m sure that the Bachmann version will be far superior to the Danish version … and probably cheaper.
My piggy bank definitely needs fattening up now as STROLEY INTERNATIONAL will be visited regularly by at least one of these sets.
Well done (and thanks) Bachmann.
STEVIE B.
But will Bachmann be selling as single units???? Heljan, through the model shop that commissioned it, are!
Wow! This the best news this year, I’m afraid I am old enough to have travelled on this a good few times from Manchester. What an experiance. Looking forward to the release.
Rather pleased with this news, I had a hunch Bachmann would choose to do the “Blue Pullman”, and as long as these do sell well, will make the choice of the Western Region 8-car sets a possibility, PLEASE!! Reverse grey/blue 8-car for me. Nanking blue 6-car set very nice for now though. Plenty of time to save aswell. The specification looks good too, ceiling and table lights!! Venetian window blinds anyone?? It`s an iconic train from our “Rich” railway heritage, the forerunner of future passenger train ideas and deserves to be a HOT seller. Thank you very much Bachmann.
I would hope that representations of the blinds would be incorporated in the windows of such an expensive model, as it was a major feature along with the double-glazing they were put in the middle of, though I wouldn’t expect them to be working! A variety of positions would suffice.
I forgot to add that window blinds should be no problem these days as I remember having a Dinky or Corgy model car in the early 1960s with a venetian blind in the rear window.
This is excellent news from Bachmann and I will definitely buy the Nanking Blue (non yellow ends) Midland Pullman. Plenty of time to save up & also no worries about buying coach packs or not being able to get the kitchen cars like the former kits. I don’t really understand why they were scrapped compairing the situation to the HST’s not in use now!
Now how about a Blue Pullman build from scratch in 1:1 scale like Tornado anybody ?
I only hope that this announcement doesn’t put undue financial pressure on the other retailer (Olivia’s Trains?) I understand that there is a lot of concern about how that commission is being organised but they were brave enought to make a public commitment to it, some way before ANY other manufacturers did.
Bachmann has clearly already made a financial commitment to the model, with many of hundreds of hours already sunk in research and development. I’ll take that over an announcement any day.
Having said that, I wish Olivia’s Trains the best of luck in their ventures with Heljan, although I think they’d be wise to concentrate on making the best possible job of just the Class 76 instead.
Olivia’s Trains have cancelled their BP following the announcement by Bachmann. So we may not get the other three coach types and will have to convert them from the others – just hope they make ‘separates’ available. Power car type 2 and the non-motored kitchen car are relatively easy conversions, but the motor Parlour Second will be tricky. The Hornby ones will be under-length if they use the old tooling, and need correct bogies at the very least. The Tri-ang originals were flush-glazed however, even in the sixties.
The Triang “flush glazing” was actually, if I remember correctly, a strip of clear plastic along the sides of the coach with the non-window areas painted in.
Blue Pullman is great news but has the modelling trade gone stupid, several months ago Rails announce 10000 & 10001 from Bachmann. Now Hattons have announced 10000 & 10001 from Dapol, duplcation of some products can work but don’t you think this is getting abit crazy when there are so many locos, wagons & coaches still to be produced.
Couldn’t agree more when we can’t even get a DP2 which should be pretty easy to modify from a Deltic. Oh and what about the LNER electrics 265000 and 265001? Could do them in various liveries as long as the BR-era LNER green is first as that’s how I saw them here in Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Great news indeed. Does anyone know when the Midland 6 car sets transferred to the WR and what livery they carried whn on the WR? I’ve done some brief research but this has eluded me so far. Thanks,
They transferred due to the start of electrified services between London and Manchester in 1966, and moved to the WR the following year. They wore Nanking blue on transfer, but I’m not sure if they had the full yellow end by that point, or if it came a few months later.
Excellent News Indeed. Just found out this awesome grab at the last show from our supplier and we have put our name on the list for the Nanking Blue Pullman. Can’t wait! Worth every penny. Does anyone know if your only getting the one powered car and the other just a dummy? It says above 2x Power Car, and normally it would say 1x powered and 1x dummy. I would assume one would be a dummy.
I do believe it’s actually 2 powered power-cars as it should be at that price (so effectively 2 locos and 4 coaches). Perhaps they’ve taken a leaf out of the Trix 60s catalogue with their 2 power-bogie option which was far ahead of its time, as were the Trix plastic mouldings and all other detail like steam locomotive valve gear (though black lining on LNER green livery was a bit much).
Anyone know where i can buy one?
Long overdue for a complete, and correct set of this forerunner of the HST.
I would certainly like the Midland Pullman set,but at £300 is expensive,a good idea to sell it as a set, but to sell power cars/coaches seperately would mean it would be more affordable,as it could be bought when money was available,and this would boost sales..
I have very fond memories of this train, living in Cheadle Heath as a child,this was its only stop from Manchester to St.Pancras,and return,so I had the chance to see this train up close on its brief stop.
I could never understand why a set was never preserved,and I agree with J.A.,lets see if anyone is prepared to build a set from scratch,it would be very popular,just as is the present BP for tours is, HST power cars with a fibreglass nose,instead of cl 47s and the BP coaches already in use,would be a stop-gap,and be more convincing on apearance..
I have the 3 triang versions of this train,and welcome Bachmann`s decision to produce a correct version,with an additonal coach pack for the WR. sets….but at £300 its out of my reach at present.
Holy Moly, how much!. is the N gauge going to become a pastime of the rich , all the prices are slowly becoming a problem surely and becoming out of reach, after all it is supposed to be a HOBBY.