43002 / 253 001 (InterCity liveried HST)

I am far too young to have seen an HST in a 'classic' livery, and so I was absolutely delighted to hear that First Great Western were going to be applying the original HST livery to powercar 43002. Yesterday was the first time I had seen 43002 (running as 253 001), and I think it looks incredible!

Here she is sat at Reading on the rear of 1A26 Bristol-London Paddington yesterday... both on it's own, and with 43172 'Harry Patch' (working 1D57 London-Oxford).

Now, we've got the original livery for an HST, how about an InterCity Swallow one?!




James

 

Fantastic. They can stop short of recreating the BR ham sandwich tho.

 

Look even better with a fully liveried matching rake behind it.

 

And a screaming Valenta.

 

Led to believe GWR are looking in to repainting another power unit in to Intercity swallow livery. There is also talk of a possibility of painting a complete HST set back in to blue and grey.

 

they should , it's an iconic livery and one of the most important trains ever to run in Britain.

 

Like this??

 

bargain

 

I believe they've looked at it but they can't due to the disability regs so unfortunately we won't be seeing a full blue/grey set on the mainline I'm afraid.

 

From what I understand the doors must be in a different colour. With any luck they can find a colour that doesn't over detract the blue and grey livery. On a possative note let's hope they repaint another power car in to intercity swallow livery. Gets my vote.

 

I remember going on that £1.25 offer on a miserable day in December 1976 - Paddington to Cardiff for a DMU to Barry Island to visit Woodhams yard!

 

I got to Swansea with loads of time to kill so took a DMU west for one station where I waited ages for my return train which turned out to be DMU hauled by a class 37

 

(Not my video)

43185 has now been repainted into InterCity Swallow, it was unveiled officially at the NRM yesterday.

On Saturday, 43185 and 43002 (still in the original InterCity livery) moved from Laira to York.

James

 

Can they have the original lights back too please

 

Never mind the lights, put Valentas back in.

 

My eardrums are twitching in fright at that prospect, having been subjected to assault by turbocharger many a time!

 

Now how about GWR do one in the B.R executive livery (like the Swift (not Swallow, like most people wrongly think it is called) livery on 43185, but with the yellow area and "InterCity 125" lettering on 43002).

 

After seeing 60163 at South Stoke this morning, I waited around for a little while to see 43002 come past on the front of 1C12, the 11:30 PAD-BRI. This is a shot I have wanted to get ever since 43002 was unveiled in InterCity livery and today was the day I got my chance...

I will concede, I may have edited the photo just a bit... I really hate the sight of those overhead wires and their supports, and so have removed them. Not the best edit I'll ever do, but it's a lot better than it looked when I first downloaded it from my camera!



I also saw 43185 in it's InterCity Swallow/Swift livery up close for the first time today and I'm really rather impressed at how it looks. Looking forward to seeing these two again soon!

James

 

Just like to say what a cracking photo I think the above one is, that's pretty decent squire!