Planning a Trip on Class 43's

[Montel Osman]

Hi, I'm planning on having a small trip on Class 43's before they start to leave service soon and I wondered if you guys had any suggestions on which would be best route?

I don't want to particularly spend lots of money on the train ticket at this current time (Paddington to Penzance would be nice but expensive)

I've been looking at Paddington to Bristol but I wondered if that route already has class 800s?

I don't know much about GWR and their routes as I mainly use Greater Anglia.

Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Mills444]

I can almost guarantee that all PAD-Bristol services and vice versa are IET's
however this thread has the most up to date diagrams I believe
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/remaining-gwr-hst-diagrams.164465/page-41
and remember that most of the TAU-CDF services are 2+4 HST's if you maybe wanted to do an IET to Bristol then one of these to Cardiff and back

 

[Darandio]

They aren't leaving service any time soon and there will still be plenty around for many years to come.

 

[cactustwirly]

Hi, I'm planning on having a small trip on Class 43's before they start to leave service soon and I wondered if you guys had any suggestions on which would be best route?

I don't want to particularly spend lots of money on the train ticket at this current time (Paddington to Penzance would be nice but expensive)

I've been looking at Paddington to Bristol but I wondered if that route already has class 800s?

I don't know much about GWR and their routes as I mainly use Greater Anglia.

Any ideas or suggestions?

It's too late to get anything out of Paddington, only 3 out of about 50+ diagrams are HSTs, with nothing except WofE services, unless you go on the 18th May.

I'd suggest going from London to Nottingham on an EMT HST, advance tickets are relatively cheap on these services, with a similar journey time to London - Bristol.
These are the daytime xx34 services from St Pancras, and xx45 from Nottingham, these are the fast services that only stop at East Midlands Parkway, Leicester and Market Harborough

 

[leightonbd]

Plenty of 125s go North from Kings Cross every day. Pick a train with the ultimate destination beyond Edinburgh (Inverness, Aberdeen, Stirling) and you can be sure of one. York is 2 hours with the bonus of an interesting city to explore.

 

[cactustwirly]

Plenty of 125s go North from Kings Cross every day. Pick a train with the ultimate destination beyond Edinburgh (Inverness, Aberdeen, Stirling) and you can be sure of one. York is 2 hours with the bonus of an interesting city to explore.

Plus selected services to Leeds and York, but not for much longer, these are being replaced from September

This thread may be of use:

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/remaining-lner-hst-services.174019/

 

[hexagon789]

Hi, I'm planning on having a small trip on Class 43's before they start to leave service soon and I wondered if you guys had any suggestions on which would be best route?

To be slightly pedantic while they are being withdrawn from front-line passenger traffic, they will still be with ScotRail, GWR for likely at least a decade on regional services. Plus EMT and CrossCountry look set to retain their's for a little while at least.

 

[Montel Osman]

Thank you for the recommendations!