GWR operating short 'HSTGTi' sets (see diagrams section for workings)

b.laney · 1 Jul 2019

HST 2+4 stop boards have appeared at Cheltenham Spa over the past week. I assume this means there will be at least one timetabled journey that stops/starts at Cheltenham. Does anyone know anymore about this?

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Mitchell Hurd · 1 Jul 2019

The only thing I can think of is that maybe GWR might want to run one to and from Brighton?

Are Castle HST's cleared for towards Southampton and Brighton from there? It would free up a 158.

Clarence Yard · 1 Jul 2019

No. It's so they can operate local services to Cheltenham, if required, rather than only to Gloucester. It's about flexibility.

There are no plans to clear them for use to Brighton.

pompeyfan · 1 Jul 2019

Mitchell Hurd said:
The only thing I can think of is that maybe GWR might want to run one to and from Brighton?

Are Castle HST's cleared for towards Southampton and Brighton from there? It would free up a 158.

Unfortunately not, if they were they’d likely have been used on the Pompey runs.

2 issues, one is more of a problem than the other. The bogies need to be SSL.

The other issue is there’s a bridge along the Netley line that’s too thin to take a HST power car without major works, there is a diversionary route but you either extend the journey time diverting via Eastleigh with a reverse movement or you skip Southampton all together and lose that passenger flow.

Railperf · 1 Jul 2019

Does anyone know why reliability of the GWR 2+4's is so low at the moment. The latest Modern Railways quotes only 1900 MTIN at the moment - way below the last figures for retired mainline versions. Are the power doors causing greater unreliability? You might have thought less trailer vehicles might improve reliability, plus the lighter loads and less demanding schedules.

Dai Corner · 1 Jul 2019

Railperf said:
Does anyone know why reliability of the GWR 2+4's is so low at the moment. The latest Modern Railways quotes only 1900 MTIN at the moment - way below the last figures for retired mainline versions. Are the power doors causing greater unreliability? You might have thought less trailer vehicles might improve reliability, plus the lighter loads and less demanding schedules.

I'm speculating now, but frequent stops instead of high speed crushing probably doesn't help. Are the drivers and guards new to HSTs? They may not have the experience to resolve minor issues which those who'd worked them for decades did. Has the maintenance regime charged at all?

Railperf · 2 Jul 2019

How many classic and refurbished sets do gwr now have?

mic505 · 2 Jul 2019

AFAIK 5 refurbished and 6 classic. Although Set 5 was just released with only 3 trailers.

nat67 · 3 Jul 2019

mic505 said:
AFAIK 5 refurbished and 6 classic. Although Set 5 was just released with only 3 trailers.

According to post #1409 the fifth set has all 4 coaches on it.

mic505 · 13 Jul 2019

Yes, you are quite right. Also GWR now have 5 refurbished and 9 classic sets.

395004 · 16 Jul 2019

Would anyone know if the HST's will be named after castles cause I see there is a special event with 43002 tomorrow also Thursday and from Thursday for a month there will be some HST castle names being there

b.laney · 16 Jul 2019

I am sure I read somewhere that each rake of coaches would be named rather than the power cars but I may be mistaken.

nat67 · 16 Jul 2019

395004 said:
Would anyone know if the HST's will be named after castles cause I see there is a special event with 43002 tomorrow also Thursday and from Thursday for a month there will be some HST castle names being there

Yes at Steam Museum Swindon. The future Castle class HST nameplates will be on display for one month and Ex-GWR HST nameplates will also be on display.

FGW_DID · 16 Jul 2019

From the Facebook page of STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway:

https://www.facebook.com/178299548869101/posts/2543949772304055?s=538576282&sfns=mo

Steam - Museum of the Great Western Railway is delighted to be hosting a unique exhibition of nameplates which have been carried by Great Western Railway's iconic high-speed trains. The HST Nameplate Display will launch on Thursday, 18 July, and will be available to view for 6 months.

GWR's fleet of the iconic HST trains are no longer operating intercity services from London Paddington, having replaced these with a fleet of 93 new Intercity Express Trains.

For one month only, new Castle Class nameplates will also be on display at STEAM. The new Castles will be a special train set consisting of 4 coaches, mainly operating in the West of England. Each set will have its own vivid red nameplate. See the new Chepstow Castle nameplate below!

Find out more about the history of naming locomotives in this month's #ObjectoftheMonth blog: steammuseum.wordpress.com/2019/07/15/object-of-the-month-july-2019/

My bold.

bnm · 17 Jul 2019

I attended the event at STEAM Museum, Swindon this evening (17th July 2019) where GWR unveiled the Class 255 'Castle' nameplates to an audience of invited guests. Also unveiled were a selection of nameplates that have previously adorned Class 43 power cars in service in the west with BR/GWT/FGW/GWR.

Note. All but one of the Class 255 'Castle' nameplates have been decided upon and they are at Laira depot in Plymouth. Which nameplate goes on which power car has not yet been finalised though.

The event also saw the presentation of a cheque for £30,000 to 'Action for Children', GWR's chosen charity partner. That cheque represented the money raised from the ticket sales, onboard collections, and industry donations in respect of the 'Flying Banana' HST Farewell Railtour held in June.

Bungle158 · 18 Jul 2019

Dai Corner said:
I'm speculating now, but frequent stops instead of high speed crushing probably doesn't help. Are the drivers and guards new to HSTs? They may not have the experience to resolve minor issues which those who'd worked them for decades did. Has the maintenance regime charged at all?

I don't know about maintenance regimes, but HSTs were used for years in Cornwall as what amounted to local services, stopping at almost all stations. Short platforms and inconvenient level crossings made life interesting for guards too

krus_aragon · 18 Jul 2019

Bungle158 said:
I don't know about maintenance regimes, but HSTs were used for years in Cornwall as what amounted to local services, stopping at almost all stations. Short platforms and inconvenient level crossings made life interesting for guards too

I'm guessing that most of those HSTs would then go on a nice long run to London and back to stretch their legs, though.

Railperf · 18 Jul 2019

krus_aragon said:
I'm guessing that most of those HSTs would then go on a nice long run to London and back to stretch their legs, though.

HST's on Cornwall stopping services are only on full power for no more than 80 to 90 seconds to reach the top speed of 70 miles per hour. It is hardly taxing

Mitchell Hurd · 18 Jul 2019

Sorry if I've asked this but does coaches A, B, C and D (refurbished Castle sets) retain the same seating layout as their previous 8-coach formations - meaning Coaches A - D each having 2 table seats and the single seat being retained in Coach A with the Guards Van behind it if that makes sense?

PHILIPE · 18 Jul 2019

krus_aragon said:
I'm guessing that most of those HSTs would then go on a nice long run to London and back to stretch their legs, though.

GWR HSTs don't go to London any more

krus_aragon · 18 Jul 2019

Railperf said:
HST's on Cornwall stopping services are only on full power for no more than 80 to 90 seconds to reach the top speed of 70 miles per hour. It is hardly taxing

PHILIPE said:
GWR HSTs don't go to London any more

I was referring to those services in the past tense, i.e. the "HSTs [that] were used for years in Cornwall as what amounted to local services" that @Bungle158 referred to.

Sorry my post was a bit ambiguous.

PHILIPE · 18 Jul 2019

krus_aragon said:
I was referring to those services in the past tense, i.e. the "HSTs [that] were used for years in Cornwall as what amounted to local services" that @Bungle158 referred to.

Sorry my post was a bit ambiguous.

Sorry I didn't see through it myself

Mollman · 18 Jul 2019

bnm said:
I attended the event at STEAM Museum, Swindon this evening (17th July 2019) where GWR unveiled the Class 255 'Castle' nameplates to an audience of invited guests. Also unveiled were a selection of nameplates that have previously adorned Class 43 power cars in service in the west with BR/GWT/FGW/GWR.

Thanks for the pictures. Those name plates look great, especially the silhouettes. So much better than the sticker names.

43096 · 18 Jul 2019

bnm said:
Note. All but one of the Class 255 'Castle' nameplates have been decided upon and they are at Laira depot in Plymouth. Which nameplate goes on which power car has not yet been finalised though.

23 names in those photos as far as I could tell, so one short. However, I understand that 43198 will retain the Brian Cooper and Stan Martin plates it received recently.

nat67 · 18 Jul 2019

43096 said:
23 names in those photos as far as I could tell, so one short. However, I understand that 43198 will retain the Brian Cooper and Stan Martin plates it received recently.

I'm surprised that 43093 isn't going to be retaining the Old Oak Common nameplates. After all they do have a red base then which fits in with the new Castle names.

stj · 19 Jul 2019

Mollman said:
Thanks for the pictures. Those name plates look great, especially the silhouettes. So much better than the sticker names.

They do look good.I wonder how the Welsh ones will go down though being in English?

apinnard · 19 Jul 2019

Mitchell Hurd said:
The only thing I can think of is that maybe GWR might want to run one to and from Brighton?

Are Castle HST's cleared for towards Southampton and Brighton from there? It would free up a 158.

It is unlikely they are cleared to Brighton. The coaches all need to have short swing link bogies before they are even allowed near third rail territory. As there is a mixture of long swing and short swing link bogies in the fleet, it would probably be an operational nightmare to do.

krus_aragon · 19 Jul 2019

apinnard said:
It is unlikely they are cleared to Brighton. The coaches all need to have short swing link bogies before they are even allowed near third rail territory. As there is a mixture of long swing and short swing link bogies in the fleet, it would probably be an operational nightmare to do.

On the other hand, as they're withdrawing most HSTs and shortening others, it's concievable that they would try to keep all the short swing link coaches, and send all the others away. (If it's even a goal of theirs, that is.)

Brissle Girl · 19 Jul 2019

HSTs aren’t cleared between St Denys and Fareham due to a bridge IIRC, so GWR has no aspiration to run them on the Cardiff Portsmouth axis. End of...

JohnRegular · 19 Jul 2019

apinnard said:
It is unlikely they are cleared to Brighton. The coaches all need to have short swing link bogies before they are even allowed near third rail territory. As there is a mixture of long swing and short swing link bogies in the fleet, it would probably be an operational nightmare to do.

I could certainly be wrong about this, as I am only going on what I have seen posted on these forums, but I believe the short swing link bogies would only be required because of gauging issues on the Netley line, and not because of the third rail. Haven't HSTs run Cardiff-Portsmouth during special events by reversing at Eastleigh before?

GWR operating short 'HSTGTi' sets (see diagrams section for workings)

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