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Pullman Car Company Kitchen First "Fingall"

Pullman Car "Fingall", built in 1924, and seen in August 1993, just a year after returning to service (Richard Salmon)

This coach, a standard `K' type Pullman, was built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. for the Yorkshire Pullman. However it was put to use on the "White Pullman" which, in 1929, was named the Golden Arrow. After the war it saw further use on the Southern Region, including the Bournemouth Belle.

Right: Example of the marquetry panelling in Fingall. Each Pullman car had unique patterns of Marquetry. Fingall's is amongst the finest of any surviving.

On withdrawal it was sold to Lord Montagu, forming, with the Locomotive "Stowe" and two other Pullmans, a static exhibit at his motor museum at Beaulieu. When no longer required here in 1972, it was sold to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, where it was used for a number of years as a static catering facility. For many years the Bluebell had been looking for a suitable "Flagship" Pullman vehicle, and so Fingall became the first of our four Pullmans to arrive.

Its restoration was started by the volunteers of the Horsted Keynes Pullman Car Group in 1985. Much money was raised by the group to progress the work, partly through the volunteer-operated Bluebell Cutler dining train. Three years later the Railway itself took over responsibility for the project.

The comprehensive nature of the work, involving complete renewal of the vestibules at each end as well as two sections of bodyside and the complete re-construction of the interior. With the completion of the kitchen to the very latest hygiene standards (which absorbed much of the estimated £200,000 cost of the project) we finally saw a coach emerge in 1992 which was equipped for service and sound of body for (hopefully) decades to come.

After two decades in service, a heavy intermediate overhaul saw the carriage receive a new roof, and further structural repairs to the sides. Fingall is now to be seen pretty much twice every week running in our Golden Arrow Pullman Dining Train, and all the food served on the train is prepared in its kitchen.

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Type: Pullman Kitchen First
Built: (Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co.) 1924
Pullman Schedule No: 175
Seating: 22 1st class
Length: 63' 10"
Weight: 40 Tons
Withdrawn: 1962
Preserved: 1963
To Bluebell: 27/6/1979

Photo, Right: Pullman Car Fingall outside the carriage works in 1996 (Richard Salmon)

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