All cars have their histories, but few are as involved as the three-in-one saga of the Trianon Bar. It is a story which typifies the complexities of the Pullman operation let alone tracing the case histories of individual cars.

In 17 years there were three Trianons  (schedule Nos 250, 68 and 310). The first was a conversion in April, 1946 at Preston Park from the eight wheeled 1928 kitchen car Diamond (250). The second was the 12 wheeled third class kitchen car No 5 (schedule No 68) built in 1917 at Longhedge and converted at Preston Park early in 1946.
It was a showpiece, for the interior was entirely fitted out by Wareite, a unit of Bakelite Ltd, in grey, pink and cream coloured laminated plastic. The whole car was a bar, there were no supplement seats and it was put in the Golden Arrow just in time for a press trip two days before the re-inauguration of the service on 15 April 1946.

On the down trip it disgraced itself by developing a hot axle box. The car was replaced for the regular Arrow service by Trianon Bar alias Diamond (250).
Bar car No 5 (68) was then named (renamed) New Century Bar and placed in the London Victoria-Dover Ostend service. However, this car was always intended for the Arrow so in July 1946 it was taken out of the Ostend train, named again Trianon Bar, and put back into the Arrow service.

Trianon Bar alias Diamond (250), half bar car and with 12 first class supplement seats was renamed One Hundred and then New Century Bar and put back into the Ostend service where it remained until 1952. Diamond (250) and No 5 (68) had thus changed places and running names. New Century Bar (250) was refurbished in 1955 renamed Diamond, Daffodil Bar and placed in the Paddington-based South Wales Pullman.

When this train was replaced by a Blue Pullman service the bar car went to Eastern Region as a spare for Hadrian Bar in the Tees-Tyne Pullman. In 1964 it was transferred to the London Midland Region and placed in a Euston-Glasgow sleeper but was condemned at York in the following year. With the introduction in 1951 of a new Golden Arrow train set the Trianon Bar (68) was replaced by Pegasus (schedule No 310) which contained the bar plus 14 first class supplement seats. Trianon Bar (68) reverted to its original number 5, as a buffet car and ended its days as a camping coach.

Hadrian Bar was converted in 1948 from 1928 car No 59 and entered service on the Tees-Tyne Pullman. Hadrian Bar also ran on the Master Cutler from 15 September 1958 between King’s Cross and Sheffield before being replaced by the new bar car in 1960.

So in effect there were two Hadrian Bars and three Trianon Bars. The latter versions both served on the Golden Arrow service from 1963 to 1965.

Source :
Pullman by Julian Morrel