European Railroad Discussion > HSTs in their twilight years

Great Western are still using their class 255 Castle Class four car HSTs on local service between Plymouth and Penzance in the far south west of England. All sorts of rumours are circulating about their imminent demise, but the smart money is on GW taking over the Alstom class 175s (most recently in service with Transport for Wales), entering service from the December timetablechange.

But at the moment the HSTs soldier on, with three or four sets in use M-F, two on Sa and none on Su.

Last Wednesday I took myself off on a day's HST hunt around Plymouth and Saltash. Here's what I saw.

1: Crossing Forders Viaduct, below the keep of Trematon Castle, 43042 Tregenna Castle (leading) and 43004 Caerphilly Castle (trailing) on 10:15 Plymouth (PLY) to Penzance (PNZ).

2: Six minutes later in the opposite direction, 2P08 PNZ to PLY with 43093 Berkeley Castle leading 43097 Castle Drogo.

3: The next service from Penzance was 2P09, with 43189 Launceston Castle and 43188 Driver Stan Martin / Driver Brian Cooper.

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4: Launceston Castle and Driver Stan Martin / Driver Brian Cooper return to PNZ on the 12:19 PLY to PNZ, crossing the Viaduct at St Germans.

5: Crossing the Royal Albert Bridge over the Tamar, Caerphilly Castle and Tregenna Castle returning on 2P15 from PNZ.

6: It's not all passenger traffic, there's also the twice weekly china clay tanks from the Imerys works at Parkandillack (west of St Austell). 66101 has eight JIAs in tow as it crosses the Tamar some 87 minutes early.

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Great shots - love the Royal Albert bridge with the sweet suspension bridge in the background!

I like the GWR scheme. Looks great on those classic bridges. Thanks for sharing.

Splendid photos- many thanks for your post! I have fond memories of riding the train from London to Penzance and return in 1991. I rode westbound in a sleeping car, returning by a day train so as to not miss any of the scenic views.Fond memories-

Nice set of photos, Nik. chris uk.

Nick - shot #5 is amazing! 

Very nice shots. I remember seeing a holiday extra crossing the bridge with a pair of Class 25s in the early 1970s