On 2nd October, 1898 the Sunday ‘Pullman Limited Express’ commenced operating, 
consisting of five coaches. The new train left Victoria at 11 a.m. and returned from Brighton 
at 9 p.m. It ran only on Sundays, and not at all during July, August and September, by reason of the difficulty of securing a clear road in the holiday  months. During June the train left Brighton an hour later. Like its predecessor, it was at first called “ The Pullman Limited 
Express.”  In 1899 the name of the train was called ‘Brighton Limited’, began to be used, but not to the exclusion of the earlier one, which retained until 1908, when it was superseded. 

From the outset this train was the first to be timed to run from Victoria to Brighton in n hour, 
and to do the same on the return journey.

At this period the L.B. S.C.R. was anxious to clear itself of its long-standing reputation for 
dilatoriness, caused partly by traffic congestion on the main line north of Redhill, and some 
very fast runs were made with the lightly loaded Pullman Limited on Sundays, when the track was relatively clear. This train was timed to cover the 50 ¾ miles between Victoria and 
Brighton in each direction in exactly sixty minutes, and in the coming years the new engines  
could cut several minutes of the schedule.

On the opening run, hauled by the new B2 class 4-4-0 express no.206, Smeaton, the down 
journey was made in 59 minutes 9 seconds, and the return trip in 58 minutes an 57 seconds. 
The following week the up journey was made by No.213, Bessemer, in 57 minutes 57 seconds. 

These locomotives had been built by Mr. R.J. Billinton who was the successor to William 
Stroudley, to cope with the increasing weight of traffic, and the old Stroudley drivers, who 
were a race apart, took it very hard when they were taken off the fastest main line trans. In 
actual fact the ew engines proved, if anything, to be rather less efficient than their 
predecessors, and in the not uncommon event of a B2 failing under the load there was 
inevitably a good a deal of vigorous back chat flying about when a Stroudley had to come to 
the rescue. Subsequently all the B2 class were rebuilt, but they never quite came up to the best Brighton standards and were scrapped in the 1930s. while the old Stroudley  expresses in Southern livery could still be found working main line excursions and other jobs nearly forty after they had officially been displaced.

THE RAILWAY REVIEW

25TH NOVEMBER 1898

THE PLAINE RAILWAY FAMILY OF BRIGHTON

The Plaine family had a railway connections in Brighton since the 1860s, whereby nearly 
every male member of the Plaine family worked  up until the retirement of Phil Plaine in 
1989.

Arthur W. Plaine, footplate seniority was 23rd May, 1898, left the footplate and transferred to the C.M.E. Department according to the Southern Railway magazine in  Jan/Feb1942 (page 26).

Walter Plaine (William Plaine’s brother) entered the footplate grades at Brighton on the 29th April,1901.

William Charles Plaine (Walter Plaine’s brother) entered the footplate at Brighton on the 
26th October, 1914. From 1937 - 1941, William served has the A.S.L.E.F. Branch Secretary, 
for the Brighton No.1 Branch. In 1949 he transferred to the Motorman’s depot (Brighton/West Worthing) and appears in the A.S.L.E.F. Brighton No.2 Branch subscription book in the March quarter of that year. There is no clear indication of which of the two Motormen’s depots he was at/or which depot/branch he was prior to his transferred. 
It is thought that he had transferred from the Brighton steam depot (A.S.L.E.F. Brighton No. 1 Branch). William remained a member of Brighton No.2 until his retirement in 1962. The last ASLEF contribution was made in the June quarter of 1962 and he therefore retired shortly after this date.

George E. Plaine, footplate seniority was 31st August, 1917 and transferred to as a Fireman 
at Brighton to a Fireman at New Cross along with a large number of fireman on Monday 2nd January, 1933, this would probably have been caused by the electrification of the Brighton main line. He later became a “Passed Man” at New Cross on the 25th September, 1940. 

Philip Plaine (Walter Plaine’s son) entered the fooplate grades at Brighton on the 11th October, 1943, transfers to Brighton Motormen’s depot in c1960 and retired in 1989.

TROCCO PLAINE

I am trying to find out which one of the two senior members of the Plaine family was given this nickname, because when he first started at Brighton as an engine cleaner, he was a regular engine cleaner on  Stoudley’s E-tank No. 118 'Trocadero'. When his son  (either George or William or Walter ) started at Brighton has an engine cleaner, he too was known has ‘ Trocco’. By this time ‘ Trocco Senior’ was already a driver at Brighton.

* Information gathered from 

Neal Cowdrey, Jennifer Chapman (Phil Plane’s daughter) & Fred Rich’s book ‘Yesterday Once More’