This looks like the train is coming towards me. Actually it's heading away from me in more ways than one. The time was 0845pm and we (the lady wife) and I were standing on a railway bridge near the village to say good bye to the Intercity 125 train. If I'm honest, I do like train travel, Not in some gawd awful anorak way, but as the adverts said all those years ago, "Let the Train Take the Strain" I can't really remember what locomotive the Intercity 125 train replaced, but in its 43 years of service, it has thundered up and down the UK often with me on it.
After its launch train travel which had steadily been declining since the 1920's reached its lowest ebb in the early 1980's. there was a real chance train travel would decline into oblivion. Since then train usage has grown rapidly, to the point today where more people use the trains than at any time in history. I know this as they're always busy, sometimes chaotically so.
But tonight the 1830 out of London Paddington to Exeter via Taunton, was the very last scheduled GWR High Speed Train to run. New Hitachi electric diesel trains are rapidly replacing this ageing rolling stock. I'll maybe not miss the suspect toilet facilities, the battered interiors, the slam doors that sometimes got stuck, the rolling motion as to speed was reached, but it really is the end of an era. Four decades is a long time to be in service. Which is why I stood on the bridge and took this 16 second video as the train hurtled towards the South West. Goodbye GWR Intercity 125 "Sir Kenneth Grange" - named after the 89 year old designer of the HST, who was on board.
No comments:
Post a Comment