10/09/2023 – By Frédéric de Kemmeter – Railway signalling and freelance copywriter – Suscribe my blog
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From our series: Rail history
In the years following the end of the Second World War, it was clear that the newly nationalised British Rail was in serious trouble. Lines and locomotives needed modernising and the advent of the motorway system posed a serious threat to the freight service. British Rail (BR), nationalised under this name in 1948, soon suffered major losses in passenger traffic as the private car gradually became the norm.
By 1970, passenger traffic was already only about half of what it had been before the Second World War, partly as a result of the disastrous Beeching plan, halted a little late by the Transport Act of 1968, which finally stabilised the rail network.
In a virtually bankrupt Britain, the governments of the day were unwilling to finance new railway lines, so the British Transport Commission turned its attention to the rolling stock and vehicles that ran on the lines. The train rather than the infrastructure, an evil that has plagued the whole of Europe and for which we are paying a high price today…
The forerunner Blue Pullman
Despite the difficulties, in 1960 BR built five trainsets called Blue Pullman, two six-car trainsets and three 8-car trainsets, all first class and flanked by an elegant special Nanking blue and cream livery. Among the services initially operated were two new trains: the Midland Pullman (Manchester Central to London St Pancras) and the Birmingham Pullman (Wolverhampton Low Level to London Paddington), which offered business travellers alternatives to West Coast Main Line services at a time when this route was subject to frequent disruption due to electrification works. The well-appointed interiors were reminiscent of the Trans-Europ-Express on the Continent. This service did not last long: from 1960 to 1967 on the London-Midland Region and from 1967 to 1973 on the Western. The most striking feature was the design of a 6 or 8-car trainset flanked by two diesel engines, a design that would be carried over to subsequent rolling stock.
This policy of block trains quickly became the guiding principle for British Rail’s mainline services. It is often forgotten, but it was the British who launched the « Intercity » concept in 1967, well before the Germans. It was the East Coast line (ECML) that had the privilege of inaugurating an intensive but standardised operating system, using diesel traction at the time, before the same policy was applied to the other main line, the West Coast line (WCML). Of course, speed and frequency could only be achieved by sacrificing certain « habits », in particular the trains that dropped – or picked up – direct carriages every 50 kilometres between London and various seaside resorts in Devon and Cornwall. A practice that the SNCF in France was determined to keep, even today…
As elsewhere in Europe, British Rail had calculated that every 1.5% increase in speed would generate 1% more passengers. BR set about designing a modern train that would turn its back on the past. While the Derby research centre was busy with its daring Avanced Passenger Train (APT) programme and its radical technologies, British Rail, at the instigation of Terry Miller, Chief Engineer (Traction & Rolling Stock), turned to more conventional and more economical techniques for achieving higher speeds quickly. Groups of engineers proposed building diesel-powered trainsets with no inclination, capable of speeds of up to 200 kph and running anywhere on the network. The aim was not to use too many disruptive technologies and to avoid works on the infrastructure as little as possible.
The HSDT prototype
At the end of the 1960s, studies therefore focused on a trainset of two diesel engines framed by cars, to form a block trainset. The decision to retain a design with two framing engines had been taken at the start of the project by the need to have 3,355 kW to reach 125 mph (201 km/h) on the routes for which they were designed (Great Western Main Line, Midland Main Line and the Cross Country Route). Another factor was that two locomotives operating in push-pull formation would cause less wear and tear on the rails than a single locomotive. A first prototype of seven cars and two locomotives was delivered in August 1972 and began trials on the main line in the autumn.
It is important at this point to recall the policy of ‘dieselisation’ of the British railways, whereas on the Continent the ‘speed’ criterion required electrification and track straightening. There were many reasons why the electrification promised in Great Britain was delayed or even cancelled, including major budget overruns in the 1960s on the West Coast line, known as the WCML. In addition, as Britain was itself a North Sea oil producer, there was a belief that fossil fuels would be cheap and infinite. All this delayed the electrification programmes and led to the massive purchase of HST (High Speed Train) trainsets, after successful trials and a record speed of 230km/h for the 252 001 prototype trainset.
In October 1973, BR received authorisation to order two series of HST125s, as they would be called:
- an initial fleet of 27 trainsets for services between London and Bristol as well as Cardiff;
- a second fleet of 42 trainsets for the East Coast line to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
The first production trainset, numbered 43002, was delivered at the end of 1975 with a different appearance to the prototype. The traction coupling was hidden under a bonnet, and the front window of the single cab was much larger than that of the prototype, with the side windows included. This new appearance of the train was the work from British designer Kenneth Grange who had been approached primarily to design the livery. But under his own impetus, he decided to redesign the body in collaboration with aerodynamic engineers, testing models of his new design in a wind tunnel – an innovative process for the rail industry at the time. With its central driving position, the HST 125 was clearly designed for a single driver. The unions quickly blacklisted the new train because they wanted two members of staff in the cab. Progress and those who fight it…
Kenneth Grange also asked Terry Miller question about the need of buffers (a feature of virtually all British trains). For the HST 125, the answer was that they were useless. The train set was not designed to pull extra carriages, nor to be operated in multiple units, nor to be regularly towed by another locomotive. The buffers disappeared from the original design.
On delivery, all the trains were painted in the new blue and grey livery, while the power cars carried the new « Inter-City 125 » logo. The power cars were also given a yellow tint for visibility reasons.
On 4 October 1976, a partial service of HST 125s began operating on the very straight Western line between London and Bristol. By the May 1977 summer timetable, all 27 trainsets still classed as 253 (253001-253027) were in service on the Bristol and South Wales routes, replacing locomotive hauled trains. The radical update to the standard BR livery on these trainsets was complemented by the iconic « Inter-City 125 » branding which appeared on timetables and promotional literature. British Rail was entering a new era…
The HST 125s were an opportunity to renew the fleet of cars, which until then had been operated by a fleet of 1,870 Mark II vehicles from the years 63-64. The Mark IIIs that followed were built between 1975 and 1988. Before that, in 1972, the first ten cars were built for the HST 252 prototype described above. All vehicles were monocoque, mounted on BT10 bogies with air suspension and axles fitted with disc brakes. Sheet metal was fully welded with a higher-strength steel. Auxiliaries, such as electrical and air-conditioning equipment, were grouped together in discrete modules housed behind an aerodynamic plinth between the bogies.
723 Mark III cars were originally assigned to the HST 125 alone, in 6 distinct groups, the largest of which, classified as « TS », represented 339 units. A further 463 Mark IIIa vehicles were built on the same basis between 1975 and 1984, but for hauled trains, notably the West Coast Intercity. A further 93 Mark IIIb vehicles were built between 1985 and 1988, making a total of 1,279 cars, excluding prototypes.
With these vehicles, as with the previous Mark IIs, the British confirmed the other facet of the « Intercity » concept: the coach car with a central corridor, signifying the end of the good compartment that had lasted for almost 130 years. A concept that would be taken up again in Germany and France (Corail cars from SNCF).
The seating layout is based on the tried-and-tested standard with:
- in first class, a 2+1 seats layout;
- in second class, a 2+2 seats layout.
The HST train set originally comprised four distinctions for only… 7 cars on Western services to Bristol and Cardiff :
- Trailer First (TF) – first class car;
- Trailer Restaurant Unclassified Kitchen (TRUK);
- Trailer Second (TS) – second class car;
- Trailer Buffet Second (TRSB).
This gave the following composition for the HST 125 between the two traction vehicles: TF-TF -TRUK-TS-TRSB-TS-TS. The attendant had his own cab in one of the two traction vehicles, but this led to complaints about noise. As a result, a fifth type was created in 1980 in the form of a modified TS called Trailer Guard Second (TGS), where a room was fitted out. The Western HSTs were numbered 253. Subsequently, the HSTs assigned to London-Wales services changed to a 2+8 configuration with the addition of a further Mk III SO car.
On the East Coast routes (to York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) and to Scotland, the HST 125s had 8 cars and were classified 254 TF-TF-TRUK-TS-TS-TRSB-TS-TS. The TRUK cars were quickly replaced by a TS on the Western and then from 1978 TRUB (Trailer Restaurant Unclassified Buffet) cars were built to replace the TRUK cars, which were themselves reclassified as TRFB (Trailer Restaurant First Buffet) from 1985 in the East and Midland areas of London. Subsequently, the HSTs assigned to London-Edinburgh were upgraded to a 2+9 configuration with the addition of a further Mk III SO car.
Observers at the time noted the « great leap forward » in terms of buffet cars, because before the HST 125s, the first Intercity trains were made up of poorly suspended, noisy restaurant cars from the 1950s, which present a poor image on a service that was supposed to be innovative at that time.
The London-Bristol route, which was the first to be fitted with HST 253 trains, had 113 kilometres of track capable of 200 km/h from the London suburbs to Swindon, except for a 129 km/h limit through Reading. This was followed by another section accessible at 200 km/h, reminiscent of the French Paris-Orléans-Tours line. In Wales itself and on the final stretch to Bristol, the line was – and still is – limited to 145 km/h. At the time, the frequency could have been dreamt of: three HSTs per hour between London and Bristol, all day long, i.e. 90 frequencies, to which BR added services during rush hour. From 1979-80, HTS 125s were also introduced on the London-Plymouth-Penzance route, but the sinuosity of the route limited its potential. The Western service then required a fleet of 40 trains operated intensively. It should be noted that this Western line is currently the subject of controversy because the planned electrification is not expected to take place in full.
Also in 1979, the 8-car Class 254 took over the northbound lines, particularly the East Coast line, which had not yet been electrified as far as Edinburgh. The BRs ran an 18-frequency return service from the iconic London-King Cross station, requiring 32 trainsets to cover the 431 kilometres from London to Newcastle in 3 hours 13 minutes, including intermediate stops. As explains before, as Mark III cars were delivered, an additional car was added to the « 254s », in a 2+9 configuration. The line was finally electrified in several stages, starting in London in 1976, but over a distance of around forty kilometres. Electrification continued in the 1980s, reaching Leeds in 1988, Newcastle in 1989 and finally Edinburgh in 1991. Although IC225s were introduced, this did not prevent some services from continuing to run on HST 125s.
Another emblematic route is the « Cross Country » link, which is a cross-country rail link in the UK that bypasses London, linking Bristol to York via Birmingham New Street, Derby, Sheffield and Leeds. 18 HST trainsets were used on certain cross-country services with InterCity 125s, but equipped with a single first-class carriage, while the restaurant area was replaced by second-class seats.
Then there’s the Midlands line, which runs from London’s St Pancras station to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield in the north of England.
Intercity era
In 1982, BR divided its entire train service into several sectors (sectorisation). The sector that operated long-distance traffic took on the name InterCity, which had been given to a large number of long-distance trains since 1966. A dark grey livery on the upper part of the body and light beige on the lower part, with two red and white stripes, was applied on a trial basis to two HST trainsets under the name « InterCity Executive » because the trainsets used were intended to provide morning/evening services for businessmen. Although the word « Executive » was dropped in 1985, the livery was applied to all rolling stock operating under the « InterCity » brand. The HST 125s therefore quite logically received this livery, as shown in the photo below.
The privatisation era
In 1996, when British Rail was privatised (which Thatcher opposed but which her own Conservative party insisted on), HST 125s were taken over by the new Rolling Stock Companies, Roscos. It is beyond the scope of this article to detail the breakdown of the fleet between several operators. However, they were acquired by three Roscos: Portebrook, Angel Train and FirstGroup.
In the meantime, the power cars received new Paxman 12VP185 engines or an MTU 6V4000 R41R. The Mark III carriages also had their seats modified according to the wishes of the operators. One of the most emblematic operators, Virgin Trains, hired 57 power cars and 199 Mk III cars to form 24 trainsets of 7 cars and 3 trainsets of 8 cars, capable of speeds of 200 km/h.
On 6 January 1997, 43063 ‘Maiden Voyager‘ and 43068, painted in the company’s bright red livery, began their first Edinburgh – Penzance service, paving the way for ten years of Virgin CrossCountry trains. Bypassing London, they run from Penzance to Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and further north to Aberdeen.
GNER – Great North Eastern Railway – an operator owned by Sea Containers, operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, York, Edinburgh and Scotland from April 1996 to December 2007. It operated a number of HST 125s despite the full electrification of the line. Its HSTs were allocated to Craigentinny depot in Edinburgh while lighter maintenance was carried out at Neville Hill depot in Leeds and Heaton depot in Newcastle.
First Great Western (FGW) was acquired by First Group in 1998. This franchise included services between London-Paddington and Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Penzance and South Wales to Cardiff and Swansea. The franchise involved repainting the HST 125 fleet in First Group’s new ‘Dynamic Lines’ livery for both intercity and commuter services. FGW used 54 HST 125 trainsets to operate most of its long-distance services, some of which were directly owned by FGW. FGW will cease operating its HSTs on 18 May 2019.
CrossCountry is part of the Arriva Group (Deutsche Bahn), and began its UK operations on 11 November 2007, replacing Virgin Rail. The franchise, which is the most extensive in the UK, was due to run until 31 March 2016. HST 125s have been seen travelling all over Great Britain from north to south without passing through London. 10 HST 125 trainsets were still in service on this franchise in 2015.
Let’s finish with the last operator who recently put an end to the career of the HST 125. The 30 trainsets owned by East Midland Trains were maintained by the Neville Hill depot in Leeds, a workshop that was dedicated to the entire career of the HST 125. On 23 May 2021, East Midland Trains ended definitively its use of the « British railway icon ».
In a BBC report the staff at Neville Hill feel a twinge of sadness. Some of the workers have spent most of their careers repairing, improving and maintaining the famous Paxman and, more recently, MTU engines. They are full of praise for this « masterpiece of British railway history ».
Simon Greaves, a 59-year-old maintenance engineer, has worked on HSTs for more than 30 years: « They’ve served the railway wonderfully and they saved British Rail in the 70s and 80s, when BR was in great difficulty (…) It’s a brilliant train, a fantastic icon and a credit to the British engineers who designed and built these trains. So it’s been a pleasure to work on it for 31 years, » he says.
Nigel Yule, fleet engineer: « If you remember it was built as a stopgap, designed in 20 months, it was the pinnacle of British Rail’s engineering expertise (…) They’re probably more reliable now than they’ve ever been in the past (…) It’s a brilliant train. I don’t think there’s a better train in this country even now, but I’m obviously biased, » he says.
There are still a few HSTs on the GWR, the « Castles » in reduced 2+4 composition as well as on the Scotrail network in 2+4 or 2+5 configuration, but they are being used less and less. 🟧
10/09/2023 – By Frédéric de Kemmeter – Railway signalling – Suscribe my blog
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