First Intercity 125 on a preserved railway?

On Saturday 14th May East Midlands Trains are running an Intercity 125 from St Pancras to the Mid-Norfolk Railway at Dereham in aid of the Railway Children charity. East Midlands Trains are providing the train free of charge, with UK Railtours acting as ticketing agents also at no cost.

Would this be the first time that a 125 has been on a preserved railway? I seem to recall many years ago Hertfordshire Railtours taking one to Paignton for the preserved railway there but can't recall if it actually went onto to their metals.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the trip, hopefully it will be a good day out.

Details can be found here http://www.ukrailtours.com/tourshow...urfile=110514_THE_MID_NORFOLK_125_SPECIAL.txt

Dave B

 

I'm afraid not by a long chalk, Dave. HSTs have been visiting the Minehead Branch since 1993. The last one in Sep 2010:
http://www.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/gallery8a.cgi?h=Snapshot&p=2010/09/180910_6_lro

My very best wishes for a successful day on 14 May for all involved.

Steve

 

Cheers for that Steve, hadn't realised the Minehead branch had such regular HST visits. Are they all charters?

Dave B

 

An HST has run through to Bridgnorth at least once as well.

Hertfordshire Railtours ran lots of HST charters some years ago. Some of those may have run through onto preserved railways. They certainly ran through to what are now the Weardale and Wensleydale Railways, although they werem't preserved lines at that time.

 

I believe many go there simply as the WSR rents out the siding space.

 

There used to be a shortened HST stabled at Minehead c2005, and it certainly ran during a diesel gala in May 2005. I took it from Blue Anchor to Williton, I think. It looked out of place to me, but I expect a couple of sets will be preserved eventually.

 

One's been down to Kingswear too (in the early 90's IIRC):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan69/sets/72157623887273285/with/4339815675/

 

Most are charters altho several were stabled at Minehead for a while, with one set used for normal WSR services a couple of times, inc a Thomas weekend complete with face (don't say a word!).

Several pics of HSTs on the WSR can be seen at:
http://www.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?h=Picture+Search&p=hst

It's great news for the Mid Norfolk - get loads of piccies!

Steve

 

It is rather a strange sight to see them on a preserved line, particularly if they are used on 'normal' service trains during their visit.

 

The HST 2 was tested on the GC a few years ago.

 

Wasn't quite HST2, it was Hitachi and Brush's demonstrator train for hybrid traction i.e. diesel-electric and batteries. It was one of the NR Class 43's converted and named Hayabusa, which means Falcon in Japanese and harks back to the Brush prototype of the same name.

Regards,

Dan

 

What happened to this set? I remember seeing pictures of it at the time but haven't heard anything of it since. I'd have thought with class 43's still out there in such numbers if this method of propulsion worked it would be viable to implement across the fleet.

 

Whilst technically it was very successful, I understand it did not deliver the fuel saving benefits due to the way the NMT was used on the National Network. I also recall that the Class 43 involved back back converted on cessation of the experiment, but I would like ot know more about what happened to it.

Regards,

Dan

 

I think this is the powercar - looking a bit different in November last year, and back with a more "normal" power unit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47309173@N06/5192822746/ (not my photo)

Richard

 

HSTs have worked through to Buckfastleigh on Hertfordshire Railtours.