HST 40th Celebration

[andrew e]

The venerable "Age of the train" as championed by J.Savillie esq has reached a heady 40 years old! Yup the class 43 has reached middle age, yet is still a TRAIN MILF. To celebrate my old arch enemy First Great Western had an Ace up its sleeve with a depot open day in Bristol Temple Meads. Despite having more creepy old men per square metre than anywhere else in the south west, FGW rolled out this bad boy, somehow not altering the accountants.

 

So check it out - part paint, part wrap ALL STYLE:

 

 

Check out Kenneth Grange - 86 and bouncing about like a lamb!

 

 

 

Some bonus old rammell clogging up Bristol Temple Meads sidings:

 

 

 

 

A personal favourite: 1C99 the Cornish Rivera sleeper train, hearing this thunder past the window meant my shift was half done!

 

 

 

Sorry about the snaps - iPhone in the rain!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36188805

[Craig the Princess]

Wow at the original livery power car. A shame the DDA got in the way of a full rake being painted but that looks ace.

[bigstraight6]

Nice pair of Hoovers, I still don't like HST's though as these certainly played a part in the demise of the glorious 50's......

[Richard]

HST by RichardB5, on Flickr

[andrew e]

That's fabulous Richard!

[Pillock]

I love HSTs. I was properly into trains just as the 91s were being phased in on the ECML and there was always an element of excitement when you heard and felt a HST set approaching at full chat before seeing it.

 

Or just standing on the platform, before anyone on a platform without a ticket was deemed a terrorist, waiting for MAX VALENTA HOONAGE.

 

[MarvinsMom]

125's are an unsung sucess, and are ace in their own way.

 

ok, not Deltic running flat out ace, but still really, really cool.

 

and they were another class replaced by yhe HST....

[For Fiats Sake]

They haven't done bad for a stop gap replacement until the APT was perfected!

 

I was 8 when they came out and remember my first trip on one.  Dad asked a driver if I could look in the cab and was told "no".  Being a shy nipper I was all a bit embarrassed but appreciate what he tried to do for me now.

 

A few years ago when off sick I recreated a layout featuring an all BR liveried fleet of diesels, including 2 HST's.

 

Will be a sad day for me when they go out of service.

[Richard]

Do the Grand Central and the Banana still have Valenta power?

[Vin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGBQxWwMbIA

 

Overture One-Two-Five...

 

[Tayne]

HST by RichardB5, on Flickr

I'm struggling to see if that's an old photo of you or a recent photo of Robin?

 

And if it is Robin, did he ask if he could drive it?

[forddeliveryboy]

 

Do the Grand Central and the Banana still have Valenta power?

 

 

 

 

I think only the prototype has a 'Screamer' fitted. I still miss the sound of the Paxman units, but they weren't operating as designed.

 

We should have had this in the 1980s, though:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oSMSSdL2yeo#t=463

 

 

Instead, we lost faith, sold all the engineering and now buy it from French Alstom. As do the Germans, Italians, Poles, Spanish, Swiss, Portuguese, Slovenians, Czechs and Finns. What a typically British thing to do - develop something before the public is ready for it, get it 95% there, then lose heart and sell to someone else who finishes it off and makes a mint.

[catsinthewelder]

Bits of it lived on in the 225s though,  the 91 is basically an APT power car with cabs and the whole train was built to tilt profile just in case they wanted to retro fit tilting gear in the future.

[davidfowler2000]

Not wanting to sound like the complete train vegetablist I'm turning out to be but the IC125 lost of lot of it's charm when the original Paxman engines went by the way side.

 

That said. It had to be done. The engines were utterly cunted and even when they were in fine fettle the emmisions didn't exactly keep the polar bears happy. As much as the MTU engine is a bit naff sounding and less powerful it has kept a venerable piece of machinery going which is still very good at what it does even to this day. So much so, ScotRail have decided they want GWR's cast offs in 2018 when their new electric stock comes online. It's a train I've only once travelled on and not had much desire to. I'd rather travel / drive the 225 but then again the 125 is much more noisier which makes it rather moar gooder from a bystander point of view.

 

I think only the prototype has a 'Screamer' fitted. I still miss the sound of the Paxman units, but they weren't operating as designed.

 

Aye. And it's completely fucked for maximum effect! Notwork Fail's flying banana has been re-engined to MTU as has all of Grand Central's sets.

 

At least Stagecoach re-engined the East Midlands fleet with the VP185 which, as far as I'm aware shares the same engine block with the Valenta but with updated pistons, cylinder heads and 4 truck turbos instead of a single turbo. SO although you don't get the full on scream, they still have that immense diesel knock sound. Keeps an air of authenticity about it all...

 

 

Excuse me while I indulge myself a bit...

 

[martybabes]

Deltic - amazing sound

HST Valenta - amazing sound

 

F A C T

[BorniteIdentity]

I know nothing about trains other than they allow me to travel and sleep at the same time.

 

But these look handsome AF.  Well done everyone.

[holbeck]

I've done a fair few miles in the cab of HST's (not driving - usually route refreshing). I've always found it to be rather like being in a Reliant Robin, what with the sloping windscreen and single wiper.

 

ISTR that someone actually painted a Robin to look like the front of a Virgin Trains HST, but T'internet won't let me find it.

[Inspector Morose]

The second train is what we should have been getting instead of the HST.

https://youtu.be/p9rBcSZb3bE?list=PLF9617311849AFFFC

[Felly Magic]

Jesus wept, that Wansford vid of the prototype, clagging as bad as a fucked Deltic! Valentas hate idling, used to see the East Midlands sets black smoke like a bastard when pulling away from Sheffield

[Inspector Morose]

They had to fit extractors on platform 11 at New Street for HSTs. They were banned from using any other platform other than that one.

[rml2345]

Watching a Valenta departure was always an occasion. Drama, noise and occasionally a bit of flame.

Derided at the time as plastic nonsense and sneered at by the APT boffins, the proper train boys at Derby knew exactly what they were doing. Which is why they're still here at 40, nothing does what a HST set can do as well as it does.

[Felly Magic]

When the prototype was stuffed and mounted inside the NRM, who knew what was to become of this old beast when I took this shot over a decade ago. 

 

 

And here's a shot of an EMT car inside Neville Hill, Leeds 

 

[CortinaDave]

These are the Shiz. I hate the "updated " headlight arrangement which just looks like a boy racer with one of those godawful cheap headlight mod kits. They looked much better as they were.

[Felly Magic]

It's a shame these were never allocated to the East Anglia network, but the line max is 100 around here

[Eddie Honda]

ISTR that someone actually painted a Robin Rialto to look like the front of a Virgin Trains HST, but T'internet won't let me find it.

Try here:

 

https://youtu.be/FnkO6dSsXas?t=13m56s

 

Reliant Rialto Virgin Livery by E Honda, on Flickr

[MarvinsMom]

 

i cannot believe we've not mentioned these, the HST's Australian cousin, the Intercity XPT.  this is the current livery, though i think the original red looked better.

licence built in Australia, these were re-engined as the UK ones have been from Valletta's to VP185's.

 

Based on the HST, though much modified to cope with the heat, dust and less than perfect track, these have served for 30 years, though i understand there are moved to replace them in the near future.

 

watching the youtube vids of 41001 running just makes me appreciate the skills these groups have in not only maintaining the likes of a Deltic or Hoover, but also in bringing them back to life and restoring them to mainline standards, usually after the machines have spent some time part stripped or parked in the scrap line. its a shame that 41002 wasn't preserved too.

[Roverageous]

Surely the automotive equivalent to the HST is an original shape Ford Galaxy?

[robinmasters]

Surely the automotive equivalent to the HST is an original shape Ford Galaxy?

Only when fitted with Morette headlights.

[RichL]

Hoping to see 41001 at Ruddington this year, that Valenta does sound well and truly fucked though doesn't it!

 

Being an 80's child my family and I did a fair few miles across the country on HST's, and I don't think we will ever see such comfortable, powerful (and pretty reliable...) well built set ever again. We were lucky enough to go on some special private charter's during the 1990's, on Sunday's when there was a spare set available.

 

All were Valenta powered then, the most notable day trip was to Penzance and back from Nottingham. It was an early start and we only got an hour or so in Penzance but man did that thing fly. Valenta's were only ever happy flat out.

 

More could, and should, have been built. 

 

Any one know why only EMT used the VP185? It's a shame there aren't more, although I guess the MTU is cleaner and more efficient.

[Six-cylinder]

Mrs Cyl loves the Class 43. She thinks they look Art Deco in their design. She has fond memories of travelling on the early HSTs between her childhood home in west Wales and London, when the Guard used to make an announcement to passengers when it was doing 125mph so that everyone knew. It was so smooth riding that they didn't realise it was going that fast. HSTs were quite something back then. We did a railtour in one from Paddington to Barnstaple a few weeks ago and clocked it at 127.5mph with the GPS speedo on the way back. They are still quite something!