The streamlined front end of the ‘Birmingham Pullman’ standing in Platform 7 contrasts with a grubby Stanier ‘8F’.48680 in late 1963. Note the signs for each individual Pullman car and an unusual sign ‘Down’ which has nothing to do with the trains but is an indication to passengers using the stairs to keep to one side for down and the other for up.
The clock is coming up to the 1pm departure time; the train was due in at Paddington at 2.55pm after one stop at Leamington Spa. The Pullmans had very quick turnarounds at both ends of the journey: the unit would have reached at Snow Hill at 12.05pm on the 10.10am from London, with one stop at Leamington Spa. It would have left Wolverhampton that morning at 7.00am calling at Snow Hill, Solihull and Leamington, arriving in London at 9.30am. The 1pm train usually left from Platform 5, where it had arrived from Paddington, since it could be driven equally well from either end as with modern day Inter-City 125 and other fixed formation sets, so possibly the platform was needed for another train on this day.