How a Yorkshire businessman missed the luxury train he owns by seconds

A Yorkshire businessman travelled to London for a slap-up champagne Christmas lunch aboard the luxury Pullman train he owns... and missed it by seconds.
Fed-up David Pitts has a drink in a London pub before catching the train back to Wakefield.Fed-up David Pitts has a drink in a London pub before catching the train back to Wakefield.
Fed-up David Pitts has a drink in a London pub before catching the train back to Wakefield.

The gleaming 1930s-style Northern Belle was pulling slowly out of Platform One at Victoria station as David Pitts and his son Declan dashed on to the station.

Railway staff had been unable to delay the departure for fear of upsetting the tightly-organised schedule through Kent to Dover and back to London.

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Northern Belle.Northern Belle.
Northern Belle.
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A disappointed Mr Pitts said: “I was absolutely gutted. All I could do was wave goodbye to the 200 passengers on board as they sipped their champagne.”

The problem started after the 8.58am LNER train from Wakefield to London on Friday was delayed by almost an hour because of a fire.

It had been due to arrive at King’s Cross station at 11.01am but didn’t pull in until 12.10pm – leaving the pair just 20 minutes to cross the busy capital to Victoria.

Mr Pitts said: “We fought our way through a throng of passengers and dashed straight off to catch the Tube.

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“Then we phoned staff on the Northern Belle warning them we were running late.

“But they couldn’t delay it because they had to stick to schedule for the round trip through Kent.

“We knew it was touch and go and we needed every second if we were going to make it in time.

“And it was heartbreaking to see the train starting to inch out of the platform just as we arrived.

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“All Declan and I could do was wave goodbye to all the passengers and especially friends we had been looking forward to travelling with.

“We did investigate the possibility of catching a fast train down to Dover to catch up with the Northern Belle there, but in the end that proved impossible.

“So we had to miss out on our Christmas lunch and get another train back home to Yorkshire.

“Declan, known as 16BitDec in the online world, had planned to broasdcast a live stream from the train.”

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Mr Pitts, nicknamed The Ad Man in Wakefield where he runs DP Publicity, bought the Northern Belle from the iconic Orient Express group in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.

Earlier this year it featured on Channel 5’s “The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys” when actor Bill Nighy described it as “the Grand Duchess of luxury train travel”.

One of the seven carefully-renovated umber and cream carriages, called “Duart”, used to form part of the Queen’s Royal Train.

And Mr Pitts should have joined his special VIP guests there to tuck into a seven-course Christmas lunch starting with canapes, salmon, and parsnip soup, before a main course of turkey and Gressingham duck roulade prepared by onboard chef Matthew Green.

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One guest said: “We were stunned as we pulled out of Victoria to see an out-of-breath David and Declan waving to us from the platform.

“Then one of the train staff explained what had happened.

“It was disappointing they couldn’t join us. But we raised a glass of Champagne to them anyway – before tucking into our delicious lunch.

“I suppose it’s a bit Christmas crackers to miss your own train. However, it seems that while the Northern Belle ran exactly to time, David’s train from Wakefield couldn’t.”

The Northern Belle will be doing a final £289-a-head Christmas lunch trip from Huddersfield on Tuesday (Dec 21).

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Mr Pitts said: “There are still a few seats left. Unfortunately, Declan won’t be able to make it but my wife Helen and I will see if we can squeeze aboard that – but we will make sure we arrive at the station in plenty of time!”

The train is also scheduled to make several trips from Yorkshire next year - including several steam-hauled journeys.

For more details phone (01270) 899681 or visit: northernbelle.co.uk .

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