ryan125hst
Established Member
Following the final HST's leaving London Paddington last night and also travelling on a HST from York to Retford myself yesterday, I have been looking into the history of the HST sets. According to the 125 Group, 27 were ordered for the Western Region and 32 for the East Coast Mainline initially. Later orders saw 14 more sets to be used for the West of England and 18 for Cross Country use. A final four were then ordered for the ECML.
The ECML sets were then moved around following the electrification of the ECML in the late 80's. The information on 125 Group's site says there were 34 HST sets allocated to East Coast spread between Bounds Green, Neville Hill, Heaton and Craigentinny at the time of this electrification, but 25 were moved away to enhance Cross Country services, replace loco hauled trains on the Euston to Holyhead services and increase capacity on the Great Western Main Line. This would have left 9 HST sets which is what I seem to remember from the later stages of GNER days when I first got into railways.
Their page on Midland Mainline then mentions that GNER gained a further two sets from May 2007 when a second London to Leeds service was added, thereby bringing the total to 11 HST sets. However, LNER now have 14 sets as well as a 15th set, NL65, that is based at Neville Hill and was, until Thursday, used on the Hull Executive and a return to Leeds every day. Both this and EC64 (which I travelled on yesterday) have the original IC70 seats with an LNER (well, carried out by Virgin) interior, having been transferred from East Midlands Trains after the refurbishment to "Mallard" standard occurred at the end of the last decade.
My question is, when did the other two HST sets arrive and where did they come from? They must have arrived at some time between the final months of GNER and East Coast taking over as this was the period that the HST's went through the refurbishment program. Presumably they were ex Cross Country or Midland Mainline sets?
The ECML sets were then moved around following the electrification of the ECML in the late 80's. The information on 125 Group's site says there were 34 HST sets allocated to East Coast spread between Bounds Green, Neville Hill, Heaton and Craigentinny at the time of this electrification, but 25 were moved away to enhance Cross Country services, replace loco hauled trains on the Euston to Holyhead services and increase capacity on the Great Western Main Line. This would have left 9 HST sets which is what I seem to remember from the later stages of GNER days when I first got into railways.
Their page on Midland Mainline then mentions that GNER gained a further two sets from May 2007 when a second London to Leeds service was added, thereby bringing the total to 11 HST sets. However, LNER now have 14 sets as well as a 15th set, NL65, that is based at Neville Hill and was, until Thursday, used on the Hull Executive and a return to Leeds every day. Both this and EC64 (which I travelled on yesterday) have the original IC70 seats with an LNER (well, carried out by Virgin) interior, having been transferred from East Midlands Trains after the refurbishment to "Mallard" standard occurred at the end of the last decade.
My question is, when did the other two HST sets arrive and where did they come from? They must have arrived at some time between the final months of GNER and East Coast taking over as this was the period that the HST's went through the refurbishment program. Presumably they were ex Cross Country or Midland Mainline sets?