European Railroad Discussion > "Speed to the West" Forty years of HST trains

Forty years ago, British Railways introduced the "High Speed Diesel Train", more commonly known as the HST or "Intercity 125" on many main line routes.

It featured power cars on each end, electronic braking and dedicated air conditioned BR Mark 3 coaches. Planned as an "evolutionary" rather than revolutionary approach to higher train speeds, the HST proved successful where the APT "Advanced Passenger Train" introduced in the same era never went beyond the prototype stage.

Forty years on, and the HST's are still in revenue service, in a variety of paint schemes and consist configurations.

When introduced, they really caught the attention of the travelling public. One route where they became very popular was on the former Great Western Railway to the west of England and to South Wales.

Facing the buffer stops at Paddington Station in London in September of 1980 were a conventional train behind a Class 47 Brush locomotive and an HST set. The Class 47 will have to be uncoupled from the train it bought in from the west, the HST driver will simply change ends.

Many famous locomotives over the decades faced these same buffer stops, GWR "King" Class 4-6-0's, BR "Warship" and "Western" diesel hydraulics, and many Class 47's, the most successful first generation diesel locomotive on British rails.

Will the new Hitachi train sets finally replace the HST's?  Time will tell.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/16 07:31 by eminence_grise.

I find these trains to be far more comfortable than some of the crap that has replaced them.

I am 54 years old now. I remember when these trains were coming on line when I was a teenager. I've always liked them.

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1 - Around the same time facing the buffer stops at Kings Cross.
2 - At Edinburgh Waverly.

Echoing the above, 40 years on and still running non stop London to York 188 miles in 1hour 50 minutes, day in and day out, I am not looking forward to the day they are replaced by Hitachi sets.

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We have reached the heights of train design excellence as shown with the Deltic, the Class 47 and the HST as just three examples, must not forget the "Westerns" either at about the time you stated. From here on in we are, and have been for some time, on the long, slippery slope to dumbed down train design as exemplified by the latest Japanese offering which is the Class 800 IEP, a bi-mode souped up Javelin if ever there was one. This one has a green set of clothes but we all know what it is, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Just remember the saying "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". A pretender for the designer crown currently worn by the Inter City HST 125, this upstart of a train will fail.

Ironically all the scorn being poured on the 800s was directed, 40 years ago, at the HSTs which were displacing the much loved Westerns and 47s.

One thing you can always rely on railfans is to decry the new whilst lavishing praise on the old.

86235 Wrote:
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> Ironically all the scorn being poured on the 800s
> was directed, 40 years ago, at the HSTs which were
> displacing the much loved Westerns and 47s.
>
> One thing you can always rely on railfans is to
> decry the new whilst lavishing praise on the old.

But the point is the passengers loved them!  No one riding in a Mk 3 carriage could wish for a return of the Mk 1s, (you could still put your head out of the end windows), although I agree with your comment on the earlier 800 post that the present standard class version on the GWR is pretty dumbed down.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/16 02:43 by spflow.

Quite right, Nick. Yesterday I travelled from Yorkshire to London on a HST, returning on a class 91 set. No doubt about it, the return trip was the comfier. Those east coast HSTs are knackered! There is simply no time to keep on top of the maintenace required due to their intensive servive. The class 91 set rode better, was quiter and didn't lurch all over the place when passing another train at 125mph. Chris uk.

spflow Wrote:
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> But the point is the passengers loved them!  No
> one riding in a Mk 3 carriage could wish for a
> return of the Mk 1s, (you could still put your
> head out of the end windows), although I agree
> with your comment on the earlier 800 post that the
> present standard class version on the GWR is
> pretty dumbed down.

I think you've missed my point, I didn't say passengers didn't like them, I said railfans didn't, Today we wax lyrically about the Mk 3, but back then the standard class was criticised for introducing the curse of uneven window / seat spacings in second class (9 seating bays, eight windows). 

And here is a view of an HST unit (now class 43) and its train on the same track at Paddington some 40 years later (March 12, 2016 to be exact). Other than the livery the biggest difference in the photo appears to be the major construction work currently underway at paddington

WP17



eminence_grise Wrote (in part):
-------------------------------------------------------
> Forty years ago, British Railways introduced the
> "High Speed Diesel Train", more commonly known as
> the HST or "Intercity 125" on many main line
> routes.
>
> ........
>
> Forty years on, and the HST's are still in revenue
> service, in a variety of paint schemes and consist
> configurations.
>
> ...........



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/16 17:24 by WP17.

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Here's a GWR HST set leaving Truro (Cornwall) Saturday morning on a Penzance - Paddington service.

Dave

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