European Railroad Discussion > Inter City 125 HST

Reading the latest issue of Trains magazine there are several very good articles about British Rail as the magazine celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington.

Mention is made of the Inter City 125 HST trains.  I know these are past there prime but they proved to be a very successful passenger train in the UK.  I wish I could have ridden one in its prime.

My question is, would that type of trainset worked here in the US?  I know there would have to be allowances for steps, but on the MW and West Coast lines, this type of equipment would seem to be a good fit.  Instead we got stuck with Venture cars and Charger locomotives that still do not operate as planned, or have yet to be deployed (Venture Cafe cars).  I know the timeline is not comparable (1970's vs. the 2000's) but could the 125 HST's been modified to run in the states?

These HST may be the trainsets now running on the Yucatan penninsula in Mexico. Most likely they do not meet USA crash standards.

fulham Wrote:
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>  I know the timeline is not
> comparable (1970's vs. the 2000's) but could the
> 125 HST's been modified to run in the states?

I think the answer to that is, yes. After all the design was sold to New Soutb Wales in Australia who modified them to meet local conditions, and where they are still running today.

I was in Oz in 2014, and saw a few HSTs, which they named XPT 2000s.  Here's one at Picton. chris uk

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fulham Wrote:
>
>
> .........My question is, would that type of trainset worked
> here in the US?  I know there would have to be
> allowances for steps, but on the MW and West Coast
> lines, this type of equipment would seem to be a
> good fit.  ........

Well we know it was investigated.  The May 1984 issue of Modern Railways [ the British one ] had this snippet:  "BREL is discussing with two United States companies in transport engineering the possibility of offering an HST-based corridor transport system.  The route identified for this venture is the Chicago-Detroit corridor."

"HST-based" gives a lot of latitude.  But a saner approach would have been EMD's Amtrak 125, a pair of streamlined 645-powered units bracketing standard Amfleet cars -- a concept quite similar to the original HST idea and prototype [ HSDT ] than what -- unfortunately, in my opinion -- became the production HST's.

Best regards, SZ

I can't remember what year, but it wasn't too many years ago that we were on one these trains that frequently ran at 125 mph.  At one point we slowed to 70 mph to change tracks.  As we went through the points there was barely a ripple in my Sauvignon Blanc.