Brighton Belle

All this football on TV at the moment with the World Cup in progress has reminded me of my student days and that famous World Cup held in England in 1966. It was a hot and rather sticky summer's day and I was doing a 'holiday job' cleaning at Gatwick Airport. The entire world seemed to come to a standstill for the England - Germany final and we clustered around 'trannie radios' to listen to the game where we could (TV's just didn't exist at the airport in those distant days). And of course the whole place was in uproar when we heard that famous line - "They think it's all over - it is now!"

I mention this because almost at that exact moment the 'Brighton Belle' was hurrying past the airport station. So my most vivid memory of football is also of a Pullman train.

The 'Brighton Belle' used to travel I think four times a day from London (Victoria) to Brighton on the south coast. It's only 60 miles and the train took an hour non-stop. It began as a steam service but from 1933 the Brighton line was elecrified at 750 volts third rail and three new EMU trains were built - the '5-Bels' 2051, 2052 and 2053. They were a familiar sight for me as a teenager on this line but I never got to travel on the train itself.

Eventually the train was withdrawn in 1972 but almost all the fifteen 5-Bel coaches have survived in some guise - many are used now on the 'Venice Simplon Orient Express' excusions.

I still rememeber that old electric train speeding through the Sussex countryside in her brown and cream livery - beautiful! The photo is of one of the 'Belle' Pullmans from unit 2052, Doris. Now she is preserved on the Bluebell Railway.