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Farewell to HST125
Farewell to the HST125 on the LNER - December
The 21st December marked the last day that one of the recent stalwarts of travel on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) said goodbye; at least from regular service on the ECML. I refer to the iconic and much used High Speed Train the HST125 train sets which have graced the tracks throughout Britain since their introduction to service on October 4th 1976; that time on the Great Western Region (GWR). That train ran a service from London Paddington to Bristol and started 40 plus years of providing travel to millions of passengers and, continues to do so, despite its demise on the ECML, with a number of other service providers including our own local company East Midland Railways (EMR)
The event that Ben and I attended at Newark Northgate station was to witness this last official train to be operated by the LNER, the London and North Eastern Railway (as such) as the set makes its way to London Kings Cross Station. A number of lucky ticket holders having paid 220pounds first class or 125pounds standard will join the service at Newark. We eagerly awaited the arrival of the train along with a number of other like minded individuals to witness this event. I managed to get a number of pictures, jostling with other keen photographers but, sadly, my video attempts failed miserably. Further pictures were taken by Jacob and Liam who, having risen even earlier than Ben and had travelled from their base in York to Leeds station, the trains starting point.
The immaculately turned out HST125 in its British Rail Inter-City blue livery.
The promotional logo used by the LNER to promote the event. Thanks to Jacob and Liam I have been able to obtain an original "Lets go round again" poster which now adorns the wall in the signal box.
Hopefully someone or some group will purchase the set that we witnessed at Newark so that it can continue to operate as a preserved example. One of the original power cars officially named after the designer "Sir Kenneth Grange" is preseved and currently abides in the National Railway Museum at York. On the question of preservation, who would have the means to purchase, yet alone store a set this size and then continue to maintain. Single diesels alone are problematic, so two motor units and several carriages present an even bigger problem?