InterCity 125 HST memories; past, current and future trips on HSTs

Hello. I feel its only right that in a separate thread we discuss past memories, current trips and future planned trips on the iconic HST's (or InterCity 125's if you like).

I'm 99.9% sure my first ever train trip was on one nearly 25 years ago from Oxford on a CrossCountry service heading towards Blackpool North. Either that or an air-conditioned Mark 2. But it's the first train I remember anyway. The first big station I came across was Birmingham New Street on an HST as well around the same time.

The HST was also the first GWR (when FGW) train I went on from Didcot Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads (14:05 service with Mum on the way to Plymouth on a Sunday in the summer holidays in 2003). I'm 26 now. Since that trip, I've really become interested in trains.

Long story short this next bit but Mum and I caught one from Plymouth, 05:30 Paddington service, straight through to Didcot Parkway one morning around August / September. I remember the service being written on a white board at Plymouth around 4:30 that morning when we arrived there. Platform 6 it went from - I could actually see the train ! I experienced my first trip through Weston-super-Mare then by train nearly 13 years later on the way to Taunton from Didcot Parkway on the Torbay Express HST.

My first trip to Bournemouth I'm quite sure was on an HST - from Didcot Parkway this was in around mid-August 2001 early in the morning on a Virgin XC service with Mum and my sister, Michelle.

I had my first Quiet Coach experience on this service - quite a while ago, I realised that I was sat next to the Paxman Valenta power car !

One trip from Plymouth on a Friday, 12th March I think, in 2004, Mum and I were catching the 17:58 from Plymouth to Reading, changing there for Didcot Parkway. We thought it was a Virgin Trains service (I dreaded even spending 30 minutes on a Voyager until late 2004 when I travelled better on them)!

I went to a ticket office at Plymouth and asked if the 17:58 was Virgin or Great Western - imagine my relief when I was told Great Western. I thought that was my first sighting of Reading station but a while ago (as of the 20/05/19) I remembered this was on the Virgin XC train in 2001.

I remember on one HST trip the seat moquette was blue in the Standard Class coach Mum and I were in - 08:12 from Didcot Parkway to Plymouth on Friday 2nd December 2005. A transfer from then Midland Mainline perhaps? I remember Mum and I being around 55 minutes late due to signalling problems at Swindon. It took around 75 minutes from Didcot to Swindon. We didn't bother with compensation that time. We couldn't decide til the day to be honest.

To save this being any longer I've had fantastic memories on the HST's!

Personally, I only really remember recent journeys on the HSTs, but I remember going to my local station and seeing these amazing engines haul the Mk3 coaches along. I can't believe that we are in a post-HST world.

-Peter

EDIT: A very good idea for a thread!

One of my recent memories (from Saturday, actually):
I managed to ride on the last ever HST to Hereford (as far as Kingham from Oxford) and what a journey that was. The group of enthusiasts all at the end of the platform as we left Oxford was just so amazing. The horn going for the length of the platform and fence beyond it - what a sound! The people and guards were also amazing on the train; everyone loved being on the train and even a dog made it onboard!
I'll never forget the man who wished me "all the best mate" as he poked his head out of the window at Kingham; just shows the "community spirit" onboard that service! And all for "just a train" as Joe public would say!

-Peter

My late dad worked at BR headquarters at Marylebone, and he managed to get tickets for my mum and I on the prototype HST for the first passenger service ever from Paddington to Weston Super Mare. I still remember this brand new futuristic train rolling into the platform at Paddington, then climbing on board the new Mk 3 carriages and seeing the automatic internal doors for the first time. I also remember how smooth and fast the journey seemed to a teenage boy.

I later joined the railway myself as a train guard for GNER, and got to work HST’s many times during my career. It always gave me a buzz to hang out of the TGS window having given ‘two’ on the buzzer to the driver, and listen to the banshee scream of the Paxman Valenta as we accelerated out of York or Grantham or somewhere.

On one southbound trip, there were two of us guards on board and the other one worked the doors while I took a cup of tea up to the driver at Doncaster, and then stayed in the cab for a ride until just before Peterborough. The driver advised that I should probably leave the cab just in case a driver manager was lurking at Peterborough station.

So, we came to an arrangement that the driver would coast for ten seconds with the engines throttled down while I walked back though the engine compartment. Unfortunately, I snagged my pager on something in the engine room and had to hunt around for quite a while before finding it. Meanwhile, the driver thinks I’ve gone through and throttles back up to line speed. The sound of a Valenta screaming just a few inches beside me had me clutching my hands over my ears to drown out the scream. Plus, I got buffeted by the hurricane style wind as I staggered past the open side vent in the power car. I managed to make it back into the vestible of the first class coach, my ears ringing and my hair sticking up from the blast of wind. It was better than any theme park ride and I was laughing out loud as we pulled into Peterborough. Ah, happy days.

Just wish I’d known that the HST’s were ending at Paddington, otherwise I would have done my best to get a ticket on that service to Taunton, so I could boast that I’d been on the first and last ever HST service from Paddington.

citycat said:

My late dad worked at BR headquarters at Marylebone, and he managed to get tickets for my mum and I on the prototype HST for the first passenger service ever from Paddington to Weston Super Mare. I still remember this brand new futuristic train rolling into the platform at Paddington, then climbing on board the new Mk 3 carriages and seeing the automatic internal doors for the first time. I also remember how smooth and fast the journey seemed to a teenage boy.
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great post!

My first journey on a HST was in May 2009, when me and my parents went from Reading to Penzance, for a bank holiday break.

My second journey was in April 2012, again with my parents, this time traveling to Bristol for a weekend break. I was older and wiser, and I remember the HST well.
My god I was so impressed with the train, I guess that's why I like the GWR HSTs so much

I've had many journeys on them ever since, to many places, including Carmarthen, Pembroke Dock, Paignton, Weston-super-Mare, Cheltenham, Hereford and Plymouth

Mitchell Hurd said:

I'm not sure how but I've used the 'Trip Planning and reports' by mistake. I meant to put it either in the 'Traction and rolling stock' or 'UK Railway Discussion' section. Would someone be able to put this in the relevant thread please?

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I think personally you should have only titled this thread as “tributes”, especially given where it’s been moved to.

There are numerous other threads about the present, eg use with Scotrail and with the GWR GTi fleet, and I may be mistaken but I think that “XC extra HST speculation” is well covered...

Hi
I remember the wife and I going from Barnsley to St Pancras on the HST in the early 80s

It's worth recalling that when first introduced to public service from 1976 the HSTs were not welcomed by enthusiasts of the day, not at all. Hardly surprising when you consider that they saw off the last of the Westerns and later killed off the Deltics. I well remember a line in the then Rail Enthusiast magazine (today's Rail) when editor Peter Kelly described them as sounding like "turbo-charged bacon-slicers"! And for many years I made every effort to avoid them though for some journeys this was either unrealistic or impossible.

But over time I came to accept them and eventually to enjoy them especially as the variety of mainline diesels reduced. Indeed by the early 2000s I was eagerly travelling on them over all sorts of routes that nobody could have imagined at their introduction: most unexpected was their use between Blackpool and places like Euston, Portsmouth and Edinburgh or the Eurostar-link service from Manchester via Birmingham to Waterloo. In fact in the last pre-Voyager days of VXC the HSTs were, for me at least, a better bet than the 47/8-hauled services as the coaches were in better condition and the power units less likely to fail.

What I find rather sad about the ending of their time on front-line long distance services is that their replacements still rely so much on diesel power. The HSTs were originally built as stop-gaps when the APT project ran in to trouble but at the time it was confidently expected that in due course we would electrify all our long-distance routes and produce fully electric successors as has largely happened in Europe.

It's also ironic that so many younger railfans have come to appreciate them when the real "presence" they had was lost when the original Valenta power units were replaced by the rather more reliable but boring MTUs. The sound of a screaming Valenta being opened up as a HST left a station or that distinctive series of whooshes as one passed your train on the opposite line are already somewhat distant memories. As such I have already mourned their loss and am less bothered by more recent events than many others on here.

My first and only journey on a HST to date was in GNER days when I travelled from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Childhood family trips were always to Glasgow and changes were avoided so I never got to travel on them. I had an aunt that lived right next to the ECML in Musselburgh, and I loved watching them whizzing past. Maybe there was an increase in linespeed there, because I vividly recall the engine note increasing in pitch and that Valenta scream as they passed through the station.
More recently I've been spending more time at my dad's house which backs onto the Inverness - Aberdeen line, and it's very pleasing to hear them passing. Since the line was upgraded with CWR, lineside life has been much quieter (not necessarily a bad thing for local residents), but with the introduction of the Scotrail HST sets it's nice to be able to hear trains coming again, even though they have "boring" MTU engines.

My first journey on one, was also my first proper InterCity journey (not counting Gatwick Express) from St Pancras to Loughborough for a University open day in the mid 1990's. It was probably the most exciting time of life for all sorts of reasons, not just the discovery of a world beyond Charing Cross.

On one occasion, having been staying with a friend in Leeds with a view to moving there in the late 90's, I spent too long in the pub and having missed the last electric train to Kings Cross, I had to change at Doncaster to the HST from Scotland, which at the time had a very sombre, brown interior. I remember thinking it could have been much brightened up with a bit of trojan moquette.

Since then I've had many enjoyable trips on them to far flung places such as Inverness, and they've been my holiday train to Penzance for the last ten years or so, but my abiding memory will be of many enjoyable, comfortable trips between St Pancras and Yorkshire in their first class armchairs. It's the comfort that I will miss the most.

GusB said:

My first and only journey on a HST to date was in GNER days when I travelled from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Childhood family trips were always to Glasgow and changes were avoided so I never got to travel on them. I had an aunt that lived right next to the ECML in Musselburgh, and I loved watching them whizzing past. Maybe there was an increase in linespeed there, because I vividly recall the engine note increasing in pitch and that Valenta scream as they passed through the station.
More recently I've been spending more time at my dad's house which backs onto the Inverness - Aberdeen line, and it's very pleasing to hear them passing. Since the line was upgraded with CWR, lineside life has been much quieter (not necessarily a bad thing for local residents), but with the introduction of the Scotrail HST sets it's nice to be able to hear trains coming again, even though they have "boring" MTU engines.

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Plenty of chance now to get on one with Scotrail sets .
GNER HSTs did make it to Glasgow on Occasion .

My main memory of HSTs is how in the 1980s, my fellow rail enthusiasts didnt like them because they werent proper locomotive trains.

Then when I came back to the hobby a few years later, suddenly everyone loved them because they were close to being proper locomotive trains.....

My first run in an HST was westwards from Reading, towards Swindon and beyond, around 1980. I can recall it being a somewhat underwhelming experience - it didn't seem like 125mph at all - most likely because of the soundproofing and non-opening windows, which we weren't used to back then.

But from the outside it was a different matter. At this time I was already familiar with the sound of the Valenta power units at Reading station - they just sounded so 'space age' and futuristic.

Personally, I think it started to go wrong when BR rolled out HSTs on 90/100mph lines in the early 1980s. I can appreciate that there would have been sound commercial reasons for this, but to me it devalued the brand. Today, with livery, seating and engine changes, I find it difficult to equate them with the state-of-the-art trains operating on the GWML and ECML which so impressed me as a kid.

My first trip was in October or November 1976, from Slough to Reading and back. My dad timed us doing 132mph by the mileposts. It was a big day out, as we also went to Heathrow to see Concorde. It seemed to this impressionable 4 year old that everything fast had a pointy nose.

mrcheek said:

My main memory of HSTs is how in the 1980s, my fellow rail enthusiasts didnt like them because they werent proper locomotive trains.

Then when I came back to the hobby a few years later, suddenly everyone loved them because they were close to being proper locomotive trains.....

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The bashing circle of life! Same with class 47s. Trust me, when they are finally withdrawn, people will also be clamouring to ride Voyagers and bemoaning the „rancid plastic rubbish“ that replaces them.

My own best HST memories are of annual trips from Stevenage to York and the NRM when I was a child in the eighties. I will forever associate the yellow plastic vestibules with the excitement of those days out. These days I sometimes see the yellow plastic exposed under paint scratches in Mk3 stock and it all comes flooding back!

Hopefully at least one yellow vestibule is eventually restored to the original look.

I managed my first trip, from Bath to Didcot, one evening in summer 1975, I presume after attending a wedding in the city. IIRC there was an 1830 Temple Meads-Paddington semi-fast which was part of the diagram.
I sampled the newfangled microwaved food from the buffet and was rewarded with a rock solid steak pie (whether the crew hadn't got the hang of the oven or the oven was faulty I don't know, I got a refund as by then we were nearly at Didcot).

My one and only trip was on the East Coast Mainline. I can only assume from Edinburgh. It was that long ago. However as I live adjacent to the MML I see and hear them evey day.

yorksrob said:

My first journey on one, was also my first proper InterCity journey (not counting Gatwick Express) from St Pancras to Loughborough for a University open day in the mid 1990's. It was probably the most exciting time of life for all sorts of reasons, not just the discovery of a world beyond Charing Cross.

I had to change at Doncaster to the HST from Scotland, which at the time had a very sombre, brown interior. I remember thinking it could have been much brightened up with a bit of trojan moquette.

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GNER's 1st HST refurb I think this was, now you remind me of it - it did seem a less 'quality' approach to interior refurbs than GNER generally managed, as much of what they did exuded quality and style in general terms. I recall their china and galssware in restaurant nicely liveried monogrammed for example - I have 2 place settings at home!

My first memory is waiting for a 225 at York in 2005 and a Valenta 125 screaming away from the other platform.

Ever since then I've loved the damn' things!

First one I remember was 1977 riding it from Weston Super Mare to Bristol TM. Next time I remember one was going to Cheltenham Station to pick up my sister and grandparents to find a late arrival and the HST was hauled by a Peak! Never bothered with them when I initially got interested in railways but was always impressed by the look, was just spot on especially in the original blue/grey livery, just looked the business. Still remember noting my first haulage of 43009 and 43170 at Paignton, then had 50039 to Newton Abbot where 43091 appeared, must have been on a wander from the Eastern Region at the time. Slowly whittled them down until last one (think was 43108) appeared on a cross country turn around 1998 so had to go out and ride it, class cleared!! Remember the Mirrlees engined ones (any decent youtube videos of these, only found one?) and think 43169 (may have been 43168, memory loss over the years) was the last, always used to ride it if it was about. Lost a bit of interest with the MTU 4000 engines (never found these engines gave much excitement in Germany in the 218s and they seemed less silenced) and the FGW reseated mark IIIs also detracted from originals, although the EMT VP185s were more interesting. They've given younger enthusiasts something to get excited about in the way we used to follow 45s/50s or whatever you chosen class was so no bad thing. Keep people interested! Would love to see an entire blue/grey rake again but that may be wishful thinking....

Richard Scott said:

First one I remember was 1977 riding it from Weston Super Mare to Bristol TM. Next time I remember one was going to Cheltenham Station to pick up my sister and grandparents to find a late arrival and the HST was hauled by a Peak! Never bothered with them when I initially got interested in railways but was always impressed by the look, was just spot on especially in the original blue/grey livery, just looked the business. Still remember noting my first haulage of 43009 and 43170 at Paignton, then had 50039 to Newton Abbot where 43091 appeared, must have been on a wander from the Eastern Region at the time. Slowly whittled them down until last one (think was 43108) appeared on a cross country turn around 1998 so had to go out and ride it, class cleared!! Remember the Mirrlees engined ones (any decent youtube videos of these, only found one?) and think 43169 (may have been 43168, memory loss over the years) was the last, always used to ride it if it was about. Lost a bit of interest with the MTU 4000 engines (never found these engines gave much excitement in Germany in the 218s and they seemed less silenced) and the FGW reseated mark IIIs also detracted from originals, although the EMT VP185s were more interesting. They've given younger enthusiasts something to get excited about in the way we used to follow 45s/50s or whatever you chosen class was so no bad thing. Keep people interested! Would love to see an entire blue/grey rake again but that may be wishful thinking....

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surely we can look forward to a full blue grey rake when the 125 group get on to the task as I'm sure they will.

HSTs have been part of my life since they were introduced, I was born and grew up in Reading and saw them introduced on the GWML, used them for day trips to London, lived in Bristol and used them to travel to Reading, then moved to Nottingham in 1985 just after they took over on the MML, and I'm still using them regularly on the MML and XC. It's possible the MML will be the last line running 'classic' (i.e. slam door) HST sets; the XC sliding door sets just don't seem right!
Before the smoking ban you'd find me most weekends in coach H (1st class smoker) on the Nottingham/St. Pancras fast service, puffing away with my wife, alas like the smoking carriages, my wife has passed on so my journeys are solo these days.

My 1st travel on an HST was when 1st Introduced from Paddington to Swansea. Having travelled quite often on the West Coast Mk111's the lasting memory i have is of the smell from brakes, very pungent.

My first trip must have been in the mid eighties to London. I liked the Westerns and then the 50's. I wasn't really bothered about HST's. I didn't spot the numbers.
Likewise when I went to see Latics get battered in Cardiff, I lived in West London then, short hop to Paddington, get one of the special "dry" HST's. Only, the one I was on wasn't dry!

I moved to Swindon in 2007. Been on a few from here since. Interest only came back when the XC HST's got diverted via Swindon recently. How cool was it to be able to get on a train here and get off in York? I was going to Newcastle last Summer. I got off at York for a smoke! Sadly, my ride North was just a unit.

Had a few Sunday returns to Bristol on the diverts. Then, had a few "last ever" trips. I went to Swansea a few times. Stroud etc.
Luckily, I was on the last service one from Paddington in May. I came in from Swindon on one set. Left on a different set.

Even better, I was on the Bananer last weekend. All the way from Swindon to Plymouth.

I will miss them, the iet to Reading last Sunday was a hard ride.

I am thinking about doing an East Coast Rover in August, maybe the BH weekend as South of Peterborough is shut isn't it?

If anyone has some tips as the best place to start, day, etc..

Sorry to restart this thread, but...
I have just uploaded a video of the HST Railtour leaving Moreton-in-Marsh on the 1st of June. I'm struggling to believe that it's just over a month ago; it feels as though it was longer than that!

It also seems amazing to me that these engines have lasted 43 years. And they were a stop-gap! If the APT had worked, we probably wouldn't have had these lovely engines hurtling down the GWML at 125mph. They also made 125mph travel on the GWML possible, if I remember correctly. (?)

SN1 19-5 said:

I am thinking about doing an East Coast Rover in August, maybe the BH weekend as South of Peterborough is shut isn't it?

If anyone has some tips as the best place to start, day, etc..

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If this East Coast Rover allows you to go to somewhere like York, go there! The LNER HSTs are now under threat from the IETs - they started running late in June.
I don't know the ECML very well, but I would reccomend finding a small-ish station somewhere so you can see the HSTs speeding past. Peterborough - King's Cross is closed over that weekend.
Starting point depends on your local station; if you live along the ECML north of Peterborough, start at your local station. Ask on the TOPS Requests thread for HST allocations at the stations you go to on the day.

Hope this helps.

-Peter

Restarting this thread is no problem at all !

For a while now (possibly 2 years), I've been keen to know what the "engines" are underneath the Mark 3 coaches used for the HST. There's been some that have had a quiet 12-cylinder sound underneath which is one thing I enjoyed about the HST's.

Mitchell Hurd said:

Restarting this thread is no problem at all !

For a while now (possibly 2 years), I've been keen to know what the "engines" are underneath the Mark 3 coaches used for the HST. There's been some that have had a quiet 12-cylinder sound underneath which is one thing I enjoyed about the HST's.

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Oh - I never knew that there was any kind of engine underneath the floor of the Mk3s!
The one thing I'll miss from the HSTs is the squeaking noises you get whenever they leave a station. All you get with the IETs is a headache when those horrible brakes come on!

-Peter

Mitchell Hurd said:

Restarting this thread is no problem at all !

For a while now (possibly 2 years), I've been keen to know what the "engines" are underneath the Mark 3 coaches used for the HST. There's been some that have had a quiet 12-cylinder sound underneath which is one thing I enjoyed about the HST's.

Click to expand...

Peter C said:

Oh - I never knew that there was any kind of engine underneath the floor of the Mk3s!
The one thing I'll miss from the HSTs is the squeaking noises you get whenever they leave a station. All you get with the IETs is a headache when those horrible brakes come on!

-Peter

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There’s no engines under there! Maybe the aircon system?

Peter C said:

Oh - I never knew that there was any kind of engine underneath the floor of the Mk3s!
The one thing I'll miss from the HSTs is the squeaking noises you get whenever they leave a station. All you get with the IETs is a headache when those horrible brakes come on!

-Peter

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It wasn't an actual diesel engine but it was what sounded like an engine. I think that's why when they were new in 1976, they were first / still now technically classed as DEMU's as the Mark 3 coaches were, in effect, multiple units.