• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Trains in Scotland

Status
Not open for further replies.

CollyTheTank

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2019
Messages
8
Location
Glasgow
Relatively new to the train world so apologies if this has been covered before.

Curious as to what models of trains are operational in Scotland.

From Glasgow I’m heading to Perth on Sat, Galashiels in Jan, and Fort William in May. Eyeing up Inverness too.

Would also like to get a train to the new Robroyston station.

Is it primarily the same type of trains on most of these lines. What about the rest of the country in general terms?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

roadierway77

Member
Joined
23 Jun 2019
Messages
356
Location
Edinburgh
We've got a fair mix up in Scotland, lines have their regular classes of unit but most have more than one class operating.

Glasgow and Strathclyde - mostly electrics but a few diesels in there. Class 156, 158, 170, 380, 320, 318, 385, 334 are common Scotrail units, while 390/221s and 185s/350s are operated by Avanti and Transpennine respectively. CrossCountry also operate their Voyagers from Glasgow Central.

Perth - all diesel. 43/HSTs, 170s and 158s are what you'll mostly see.

Galashiels - as far as I know exclusively 158 and 170 diesels.

Fort William - almost all of the traffic is 156 diesels, if you're up pretty early/late you'll see the Caledonian Sleeper come in, which can be 73 and 92 locomotives. If you're lucky you'll catch the Jacobite which runs steam locomotives occasionally.

Inverness is similar to Fort William - sleeper comes in relatively early and leaves relatively late, with 156s, 158s and 170s most common, I believe a few HSTs are making it up to Inverness now too. LNER's Azumas come up twice a day.

Going from Glasgow to Robroyston you'll be on one of the fairly new Class 385 electric trains.
 

CollyTheTank

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2019
Messages
8
Location
Glasgow
We've got a fair mix up in Scotland, lines have their regular classes of unit but most have more than one class operating.

Glasgow and Strathclyde - mostly electrics but a few diesels in there. Class 156, 158, 170, 380, 320, 318, 385, 334 are common Scotrail units, while 390/221s and 185s/350s are operated by Avanti and Transpennine respectively. CrossCountry also operate their Voyagers from Glasgow Central.

Perth - all diesel. 43/HSTs, 170s and 158s are what you'll mostly see.

Galashiels - as far as I know exclusively 158 and 170 diesels.

Fort William - almost all of the traffic is 156 diesels, if you're up pretty early/late you'll see the Caledonian Sleeper come in, which can be 73 and 92 locomotives. If you're lucky you'll catch the Jacobite which runs steam locomotives occasionally.

Inverness is similar to Fort William - sleeper comes in relatively early and leaves relatively late, with 156s, 158s and 170s most common, I believe a few HSTs are making it up to Inverness now too. LNER's Azumas come up twice a day.

Going from Glasgow to Robroyston you'll be on one of the fairly new Class 385 electric trains.

I’m genuinely not worthy of such a detailed response.

Silly question, is it apparent perhaps from the front or side of the train as to which model I’ll be on.......please enlighten me also as to the correct terminology as model can’t be right.
 

tomwills98

Member
Joined
18 Feb 2018
Messages
292
Location
Bridgend
All trains will have their number either on the front or side of the train, though I think most of the Scotrail trains you'll see will have them on the front under one of the driver's windows. The first two or three numbers are the class of train, with the following three being the individual unit number. For example, the 11:40 from Fort William to Glasgow today is booked to run as 156445. This is a class 156, unit number 445.
 

CollyTheTank

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2019
Messages
8
Location
Glasgow
Ahhh perfect, was on a Glasgow train recently and noticed the 6 figure number at front but didn’t twig that the first 3 related to the class.
 

PaxVobiscum

Established Member
Joined
4 Feb 2012
Messages
2,395
Location
Glasgow
Welcome to railforumsuk.
I have seen many posts on here that were not worthy of a detailed response ;) but yours wasn’t one of them :lol:

Further to what tomwills98 said above here’s a photo of a 385 and a 170 together at Queen Street which shows where the numbers are on the front/back of these two units.
1ED00605-1822-4C65-B8C8-06C1095E7C49.jpeg
Not sure why you would want to go to Robroyston unless you are a fan of windswept car parks. It’s perhaps not an ideal place to hang about because it’s unstaffed and there’s not much too see apart from 185s in each direction every half hour.
 

CollyTheTank

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2019
Messages
8
Location
Glasgow
Welcome to railforumsuk.
I have seen many posts on here that were not worthy of a detailed response ;) but yours wasn’t one of them :lol:

Further to what tomwills98 said above here’s a photo of a 385 and a 170 together at Queen Street which shows where the numbers are on the front/back of these two units.
View attachment 72031
Not sure why you would want to go to Robroyston unless you are a fan of windswept car parks. It’s perhaps not an ideal place to hang about because it’s unstaffed and there’s not much too see apart from 185s in each direction every half hour.


Thanks lol.

Re Robroyston, it was more the novelty thing of a new station. As a Kirky boy I can ditch the car there and get train into Glasgow. But yeah, not exactly the bonniest of places.
 
Last edited:

Esker-pades

Established Member
Joined
23 Jul 2015
Messages
3,766
Location
Beds, Bucks, or somewhere else
Not sure why you would want to go to Robroyston unless you are a fan of windswept car parks. It’s perhaps not an ideal place to hang about because it’s unstaffed and there’s not much too see apart from 185s in each direction every half hour.
A 185 would have to be really lost to end up in Robroyston!

Yes, I know it's a typo. I'm being silly.
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,595
156s only operate WHL and services to the SW of Glasgow now along with EK.
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,595
We've got a fair mix up in Scotland, lines have their regular classes of unit but most have more than one class operating.

Glasgow and Strathclyde - mostly electrics but a few diesels in there. Class 156, 158, 170, 380, 320, 318, 385, 334 are common Scotrail units, while 390/221s and 185s/350s are operated by Avanti and Transpennine respectively. CrossCountry also operate their Voyagers from Glasgow Central.

Perth - all diesel. 43/HSTs, 170s and 158s are what you'll mostly see.

Galashiels - as far as I know exclusively 158 and 170 diesels.

Fort William - almost all of the traffic is 156 diesels, if you're up pretty early/late you'll see the Caledonian Sleeper come in, which can be 73 and 92 locomotives. If you're lucky you'll catch the Jacobite which runs steam locomotives occasionally.

Inverness is similar to Fort William - sleeper comes in relatively early and leaves relatively late, with 156s, 158s and 170s most common, I believe a few HSTs are making it up to Inverness now too. LNER's Azumas come up twice a day.

Going from Glasgow to Robroyston you'll be on one of the fairly new Class 385 electric trains.

No 156s at Inverness.
 

Entertexthere

Member
Joined
15 Sep 2018
Messages
189
Location
WIthin L&Y territory
We've got a fair mix up in Scotland, lines have their regular classes of unit but most have more than one class operating.

Glasgow and Strathclyde - mostly electrics but a few diesels in there. Class 156, 158, 170, 380, 320, 318, 385, 334 are common Scotrail units, while 390/221s and 185s/350s are operated by Avanti and Transpennine respectively. CrossCountry also operate their Voyagers from Glasgow Central.

Perth - all diesel. 43/HSTs, 170s and 158s are what you'll mostly see.

Galashiels - as far as I know exclusively 158 and 170 diesels.

Fort William - almost all of the traffic is 156 diesels, if you're up pretty early/late you'll see the Caledonian Sleeper come in, which can be 73 and 92 locomotives. If you're lucky you'll catch the Jacobite which runs steam locomotives occasionally.

Inverness is similar to Fort William - sleeper comes in relatively early and leaves relatively late, with 156s, 158s and 170s most common, I believe a few HSTs are making it up to Inverness now too. LNER's Azumas come up twice a day.

Going from Glasgow to Robroyston you'll be on one of the fairly new Class 385 electric trains.
I'd be a bit concerned if there was a 92 at Fort William; not enough juice to power the lights!
 

JohnMcL7

Member
Joined
18 Apr 2018
Messages
861
At Inverness there is regularly an 08 shunter, class 43 HST, class 66 (intermodal every day and some other freight workings), occasional class 70, two 73's for the sleeper (although also had a 66, 67 and 47 helping out there), 158 Express Sprinter, 170 Turbostar and the 802 LNER Azuma.

There's often a pair of 37's visiting with the measuring train although can be difficult to catch.
 

TT-ONR-NRN

Established Member
Joined
30 Dec 2016
Messages
10,413
Location
Farnham
We've got a fair mix up in Scotland, lines have their regular classes of unit but most have more than one class operating.

Glasgow and Strathclyde - mostly electrics but a few diesels in there. Class 156, 158, 170, 380, 320, 318, 385, 334 are common Scotrail units, while 390/221s and 185s/350s are operated by Avanti and Transpennine respectively. CrossCountry also operate their Voyagers from Glasgow Central.

Perth - all diesel. 43/HSTs, 170s and 158s are what you'll mostly see.

Galashiels - as far as I know exclusively 158 and 170 diesels.

Fort William - almost all of the traffic is 156 diesels, if you're up pretty early/late you'll see the Caledonian Sleeper come in, which can be 73 and 92 locomotives. If you're lucky you'll catch the Jacobite which runs steam locomotives occasionally.

Inverness is similar to Fort William - sleeper comes in relatively early and leaves relatively late, with 156s, 158s and 170s most common, I believe a few HSTs are making it up to Inverness now too. LNER's Azumas come up twice a day.

Going from Glasgow to Robroyston you'll be on one of the fairly new Class 385 electric trains.
CrossCountry HSTs and TransPennine Express 397s also work to Glasgow Central, 92s don’t go to Fort William - they only work as far as Glasgow - it’s solely 73 to the Highlands, also there is no booked 156 work for Inverness and the LNER Azuma service is only once per day in each direction. :)
 

roadierway77

Member
Joined
23 Jun 2019
Messages
356
Location
Edinburgh
CrossCountry HSTs and TransPennine Express 397s also work to Glasgow Central, 92s don’t go to Fort William - they only work as far as Glasgow - it’s solely 73 to the Highlands, also there is no booked 156 work for Inverness and the LNER Azuma service is only once per day in each direction. :)

I didn't realise the 397s were in service, I've heard so little about them and have yet to see them at GLC.

I meant that Azumas appear at Inverness twice a day, once in the morning on the way down to London and once in the evening coming back. I worded it poorly.
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,595
Class 800s, GWR, TPE and Hull Trains have the 802s



Somewhat iffy at the moment though, been numerous cancellations of TPE services out of Glasgow recently, so it's not surprising you haven't seen a 397 yet

Yeah , not seen 397 either , i think the 1108 is one but twice its been cancelled when ive been in Central.
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,595
Thanks lol.

Re Robroyston, it was more the novelty thing of a new station. As a Kirky boy I can ditch the car there and get train into Glasgow. But yeah, not exactly the bonniest of places.

What advantages does it have over Lenzie out of interest?
 

CollyTheTank

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2019
Messages
8
Location
Glasgow
None whatsoever, Lenzie much closer so would always use that.

I was more meaning as a one off to see the new station I could drive over and see it and then head onto town that day from there.
 

hexagon789

Veteran Member
Joined
2 Sep 2016
Messages
15,714
Location
Glasgow
There were until ~2004 when the 158s took over.

Was it as late as that? I thought they were cascaded in quite soon after 170s took over the Glasgow/Edinburgh/Aberdeen/Inverness workings?

Yeah , not seen 397 either , i think the 1108 is one but twice its been cancelled when ive been in Central.

Only seen the test runs myself, not an actual passenger working
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top