Hornby's newly tooled range of OO Gauge BR Bulleid 'Tavern & Buttery Cars' have now arrived in stock - two twin packs available in BR (SR) green or BR crimson/cream!

These fascinating vehicles were one of the many unique ideas created by the eminent Chief Mechanical Engineer, Oliver Bulleid. He envisioned catering facilities with a difference - travelling pubs on wheels! Add these Kitchen and Restaurant coaches to your era 4 rake to create an elegant dining train for your model railway layout. These highly detailed replica coaches are designed in an authentic carmine and cream OR BR Southern Region green liveries, just like the real things.

Hornby have completed new tooling for these models from scratch and they include all the latest features - including many separately fitted parts, detailed interiors, accurate tooling variations, a close coupling mechanism, internal lighting capabilities and more.

In 1949, two pairs of carriages were put into service on BR Southern Region to provide catering facilities with a difference. The idea came from Oliver Bulleid, the former Southern Railway’s Chief Mechanical Engineer, who had a track record of thinking ‘outside the box’ with his unusual air-smoothed ‘Pacifics’, double-deck carriages and cabbed ‘Leader’ locomotives.

Each pair consisted of a Composite Dining Car and a ‘Tavern Coach’. These were allocated to the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ and provided thirsty commuters with a pub-on-wheels for their homeward journey. Internally, each ‘tavern’ was decorated to mimic an olde English pub, with tiled floor, whitewashed walls, ‘oak’ beams and high-backed settles, all illuminated by ‘lanterns’. Externally, the paintwork was divided horizontally, in carmine and cream, but the lower section lined out to represent brickwork. The upper section had ‘half-timber’ relief and a painted pub sign, while the small windows had old-style leaded panes.

The dining cars were unpopular and were quickly re-fitted in 1950, at which point the mock brickwork on the ‘taverns’ was repainted in plain carmine. They lasted in service in their pairs until late 1959 but were repainted in unlined BR(SR) green in 1957. Similar pairs of ‘Tavern Cars’ operated on other BR regions.