A Greater Anglia Class 317 Train

They may look to be scrapheap-ready trains from the 1980s, ripe for replacement with shiny new expensive trains. Incidentally, the train in the picture is one of the last ones built in 1987, so it’s a comparative youngster compared to some.

But underneath the tired paintwork and uncomfortable seating, there is a legendary Mark 3 coach struggling to get out. These coaches used in the InterCity 125 and in many other trains, were made as early as the 1970s and most are still running in 2013.

The Class 317 is closely related to the Class 455, some of which have been refurbished by South West Trains to a very high standard. I talked about them here.

It looks like these 317s are going to get their own version of the Class 455 refurbishment. it is reported here in Wikipedia. Work is ongoing to create a prototype with new and more efficient traction equipment and a new interior to test passenger reaction.

So yet again, it looks like more Mark 3 coaches will be emerging from their chrysalis. The Wikipedia article talks of increasing the life of the trains by twenty years. Not bad considering that many of them are over thirty years old now!

The InterCity 125 is well-known as a design classic of Kenneth Grange. But who’d have thought that the humble coaches in the middle, would still be having a laugh at everybody’s expense nearly fifty years after they were designed.

But I decided to go back and get them and in the end I just made the 11:03 train to Leeds. I would change for Sheffield at Doncaster and take a train to Meadowhall, where after lunch, I’d take a tram to the ground.

The trip up was excellent in First Class on East Coast. It was also notable in that the service was excellent with copious amounts of tea in proper English china cups from Stoke-on-Trent.

Tea In A China Cup On East Coast

We arrived on time at Doncaster and then it was one of the dreaded Pacers to Meadowhall.

If George Osborne wanted to buy votes, a large order for something like London Overground’s Class 172 to replace the Pacers would be an easy way to do it.

I did see the New Measurement Train or Flying Banana at Doncaster, which I’d seen a couple of years ago at Basingstoke.

The Flying Banana At Doncaster

There is an interesting difference in British and Japanese attitudes to names illustrated by the Flying Banana. The Japanese call their equivalent trains, Doctor Yellow.

I do wonder how many of the redundant Inter City 125′s will live on in this role. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple even get exported to countries with long railway lines that need to be checked. After all to put the equipment in a brand-new train will be expensive, but to use a redundant and reliable diesel train, would be a lot cheaper. When checking overhead wires, I suspect that a diesel train may even have an advantage, as it doesn’t interact with the wires! And there aren’t many diesel trains that can do the testing at 200 kph!

Terry Miller’s iconic creation, never ceases to make fools of us all! But good engineering does that!

I had intended to go to Carluccio’s at Meadowhall for lunch, but after locating the restaurant after slaloming through, the hoards of obese people, who always seem haunt shopping centres, I was too short on time.  Often these people make matters worse by pushing equally obese children in enormous buggies.

So I resorted to Plan B and bought some gluten-free sandwiches and a still lemonade in Marks and Spencer. This store incidentally, is by the  bridge from the station, so is quick and easy to get to. One thing I noticed at Meadowhall is that they actually have proper Left Luggage lockers and lots of them.

Left Luggage Lockers At Meadowhall Station

So if you are going to an event like the football, Meadowhall is the place to unwanted bags (or babies), whilst you visit the city.

I did have one problem, as there was nowhere convenient to sit and eat my sandwiches.

The Tram Arrives At Meadowhall

This picture was taken as the tram arrived. Note the lack of seats. One of the London shopping centres has a garden, where you can sit in the sun. Eastfield certainly will have, as it is just a short walk to the Olympic Park. Meadowhall should provide something!

On my trip to Hillsborough, I didn’t see any seats at stops at all. Here’s the stop at Fitzalan Square.

Fitzalan Square Tram Stop

Note the improvisation on the left. At least most stops seem to have proper information with a map. One unique thing I saw as I walked down from the tram to Hillsborough was this sign.

A Unique Sign

So often, you approach a strange ground and there are no obvious instructions as to which end of the ground you go. That excellent sign at Hillsborough must have cost an absolute fortune, otherwise why don’t other grounds have them?

I think Isambard would have been proud of what has been done, as he rarely did boring! And the new Reading station is certainly not that!

The concept of the station is very simple.  The thirty metre wide overbridge is connected to all the platforms by escalators and lifts. Then at one end there is another set of four escalators and lifts to take people to the main south entrance.

But in all my life, I’ve never seen so many people walking wide-eyed in awe around a new building or even an art gallery. One guy told me he’d come into the station specifically to photograph the building and had taken fifty pictures. Even railwaymen who’d probably seen it all, were walking around giving the new station a critical look.

There was also the teacher, who’d travelled with me from London. She was amazed at it all, especially as she had left on Thursday from the old Reading station.

Very little has been reported on the media about the design and quality of this new station.  The only news seems to be stories pointing out the fact that the handover is a few days late and there’s a bit of chaos. None of the stories mention, that the project will be completed a year ahead of the original plan.

I do wonder if Reading is the shape of stations to come.

The wide overbridge concept is used in a similar, but smaller and less dramatic form at Leeds and Derby, but how many other stations could benefit from this type of design?

In the pictures, you’ll see some of Inter City 125 trains, that are used on all services from London to the West and Wales.  They are genuine high speed trains capable of 200 kph, ride as smooth as silk and they are now forty years old. I doubt they’ll all ever be retired, as for running through the Highlands of Scotland and from Bristol to Cornwall, where electrification is virtually impossible, there is no other fast train, that can handle the route.

So at last, these trains have got a modern station, to complement their design.

Unfortunately, he made a mistake in the figures.

Then a Government Minister then used the figures to answer a question in Parliament many months later, giving an answer that was plainly wrong.

Probably, this shows the reasons why you shouldn’t use that thinking technique beloved of idiots everywhere; cut and paste.

The real problem here, is that the Department of Transport civil servant, who made the mistake, is probably too precious to be disciplined.

But Roger gave him or her, a good kicking in the article and has passed the real information to the National Audit Office.

Boris’s political opponents say he is wrong, but they would anyway, wouldn’t they?

On the other hand, what Transport for London (TfL)  are using is exactly the same purchase model, as that used for trains in this country.

The trains are ordered by the Department of Transport, owned by leasing companies or ROSCOs and then hired by the train companies like Virgin. In many cases, the maintenance is arranged by the manufacturer or ROSCO and they guarantee to provide so many trains each day.

When applied to London’s buses, this must give similar advantages.

1. Although, TfL are buying 600 buses, I suspect that this package includes maintenance and guarantees a specific number of operational buses. In fact, on the 38 route, there are nine in service, but usually one is kept as a spare, in case of failure.
2. Are TfL selling the leases on to a third party? How many of those, who are against the deal, have never bought something on hire purchase or a lease?
3. The buses can be used, where and when they are needed. Most routes need about 20-30 buses, so batches of the New Buses can be moved around, according to need. For instance, the passenger pattern may be very different according to the seasons, so buses might run on one route in summer and another in the winter.
4. These buses will change as time goes on and owning them outright, gives TfL the opportunity to update the older ones to the new specification.
5. I think too, that the single ownership, should mean that the buses will have a longer service lifetime, just like the old Routemasters and the Inter City 125 trains.
6. It will also give TfL time to do a full analysis of bus design, operation patterns and costs.

So all things being well, I think this could be a good decision, that saves money in the long term.

Catch the documentary before it disappears from the BBC iPlayer!

The programme said that they’ll still be running in the 2030s on some routes. I wouldn’t bet on them still being running long after that.

Because of their speed and acceleration, they have proven that they can mix it on lines with both slow and higher speed traffic, so unlike heritage units like steam trains, they don’t cause pathing problems. Since they have now been updated with new engines, they produce a lot  less noise and emissions too.

It is still proposed that they will be used for services to the far south west for many years, as electrifying the route from Exeter will be very difficult and expensive. They even did the journey from Plymouth to London in well under three hours recently. I reported it on this post.

But if they did a bit of marketing and perhaps uprated the catering, they could create a line, that would be a must-ride one for all visitors to Cornwall from London.

I have believed for a long time, that these trains will never go quietly. They’ll be like Routemasters and even if they’re not in main line service, they’ll turn up in the most surprising of places. The ghost of Jimmy Saville will see to that!

Korea v Gabon at Wembley

The view was a bit better, than for the game last night.

It wasn’t an exciting game and the goalless draw was about fair. But it meant that Korea came second in their group.

When Great Britain won, it meant that the tickets, I’d bought on spec to see the quarter-final in Cardiff won’t have to be sold on.

I just felt the two teams might meet there. And I was right!

So it’ll be off on a High Speed Diesel Train on Saturday. What better way is there to travel to see your team?

Three High Speed Diesel Trains at Kings Cross

For those of you, who know Kings Cross station, they started running to the station at the end of the 1970s, which is just about the time, that the disgusting dark green extension was erected.

The irony is that they’ll  actually outlive the extension, by several years.

So good old British Rail did get some things right.  But not stations!  Where should Network Rail’s refurbishment experts strike next in London? After all, they’ve now done or have nearly finished St. Pancras, Stratford, Clapham Junction, Blackfriars, Kings Cross and Paddington. I think London Bridge and Waterloo  are being planned. But what about the others!

Vote now and vote often.

We may think that was a long time ago and it is probably nearly 60 years ago.  But there is a link to this picture I took today.

Where's All The Dirt Gone?

In the picture there are two of the InterCity 225 trains, which look like they’ve just had a good wash too!

But they could easily have been two iconic InterCity 125 trains of the 1970s!

Sir Nigel would have been proud as the 125′s were designed by a team led by one of his apprentices; Terry Miller.

I will not guarantee, that if I’m still here to take this picture in ten years time, that none of the platforms will contain an InterCity 125. These wonderful trains, where I’ve proven that you can sit on the floor and still be comfortable, will outlive most of us.  And certainly me!

I notice in the picture, that they haven’t put the clock back up yet!

So they have found a source of redundant buffet cars and these are being re-manufactured and fitted with seats, as reported here on the BBC.

Some reports are a bit sniffy about this approach and have called it rather stopgap.

But I would say it is a tribute to the design of the High Speed Diesel Train, that has always been capable of sandwiching any number of coaches up to nine between the two diesel power cars.

What puzzles me, is why wasn’t this simple idea, carried out sooner. But then those in the Department for Transport didn’t want anything to get in their way of their trips to Japan to clear the way for Hitachi.

Long after those civil servants have retired, High Speed Diesel Trains and their Mk III coaches will still be running.

I’m all for this and have stated that we should make trains more passenger friendly several times.  Here’s a piece where I advocated a better approach to the trains to the West Country and the north of Scotland from London using rebuilt High Speed Diesel Trains.

Transport for London have used this design-led approach on the New Bus for London and I hope it goes well for them, when the bus is introduced next month.

So get the trains right and of course build them in the UK and we might have a railway to be proud of.  As someone, who’s travelled from London to Nice on Eurostar and a TGV Duplex, we don’t have much competition from the French.  The TGV Duplex may look impressive on the outside, but inside it’s rather cramped and stuffy and the ride is not as good as a High Speed Diesel Train.

High Speed Diesel Train at Castle Cary

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I think though, that it sums up the grace and pace of probably the best diesel train ever built.  It’s certainly the fastest in regular service and has proved that good engineering is timeless.

The railway industry and press is now saying that these trains will still be running to Devon and Cornwall from London in 2035, which will make them about sixty-five years old. I don’t believe that all will be retired even then, especially as they have other uses like the Flying Banana.  But with another refurbishment to include coach rewiring, power doors and better toilets, they would make superb trains to take leisure passengers to the far-flung parts of the UK.

It looks like a High Speed Diesel Train, and it is actually a modified one called the New Measurement Train, which travels all over the network, checking track and electrification systems. Inspection is based on a thirteen week cycle. There is a detailed article on the train here in Construction News. And a video here.

You can see why it got its nickname.

In some ways it is a unique train, not only in the UK, but worldwide.

The Japanese and the French have similar trains for their high speed lines, but these are electrically powered, whereas the New Meaurement Train has two powerful diesel power cars. So as the British train is completely self contained, it can check any line in the UK, whether it is electrified or not.  Where I saw it at Basingstoke, it was on a section of track, that uses third rail electrification.

As it is a High Speed Train, it can also be used at 200 kph on the East and West Coast Main Lines, thus testing them at their operational speeds.

Note that as the lines through the Channel Tunnel to London, are effectively built using French electrification standards, the French train is used to monitor those lines every two months. But it has to be diesel hauled through the tunnel.

It all goes to show that the High Speed Diesel Train will be laughing at us for a few decades yet.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel at Paddington

I wonder what he would have thought of his restored London terminus.

He might have found the pink interior to the carriage doors a bit much, especially as the Great Western used chocolate and cream.

The only good bit was going to the town on a High Speed Diesel Train changing at Castle Cary for Yeovil Pen Mill.

Before I left, I looked up their web site to see how you get to the ground from the station. My eyes aren’t good, but look at this page, which gives directions to the ground. Trains, buses and walking aren’t even mentioned. So I sent the club an e-mail and of course they didn’t bother to reply. They don’t appear from the site to run a match-day bus either!

When I arrived at the station, I walked to the town centre, along a pleasant path in a country park, but once in the centre, despite plenty of signs to it, I couldn’t find the tourist information centre. I think when I did, it wasn’t signed and it was closed.

So in the end I took a taxi to the ground and got the driver to drop me at the station on the way back. I think we saw just one sign to the ground and that was when you could actually see Huish Park. So I just took a picture and retreated.

Huish Park, Yeovil

The only trouble was I had to wait ninety minutes for the train. But at least the station was worth seeing from an architectural point of view and had been well restored.

I was back at Paddington just before 16:30 to complete my odyssey.

In my travels, I have not found a town or football club with so little information for vistors. I shall not be going again. I certainly won’t have to look far for my dump of the week.

Am I On a Ferry?

But where am I? Judging by the water and the state of the sea, it could be on a cross channel ferry or perhaps one going to the Isle of Wight.

But remember, I’m visiting all 92 football grounds and teams are all on the mainland. I think the only football club that isn’t is Canvey Island, but they play in the Isthmian League.

So the picture was taken at Dawlish between Exeter and Newton Abbot from a High Speed Diesel Train. Trains are regularly sprayed with sea-water and being diesel powered it usually isn’t a problem.  But if the line was electrified, who’s to say what will happen. After all, they’ve got forty years of running these trains in this sort of weather.

They couldn’t close the line, as what would they do when they needed iconic photographs of trains for publicity purposes!

Who’d have thought that the High Speed Diesel Train would live on because of the British weather?

Swindon's County Ground

Or it will be when they finish the roadworks and sort out the pedestrian access around the station.  There are a few maps and signs, but due to the location of the ground, the road signs are a great help once you get started in the right direction. They also have helpful distances on a lot of them.

I’d arrived on the 08:15 from London at 09:13 and had plenty of time to catch the 10:55 direct train to Torquay. I was surprised it was a direct train, but even more surprised that it was a High Speed Diesel Train on its way from Paddington to Paignton, via Swindon, Bath, Bristol, Weston-super-Mare, Exeter and Torquay. I hope that after electrification of the main line   to Bristol and Cardiff, that they use these trains to run lots of holiday trains to the West Country.

I was meeting an old friend in Torquay, so I took a taxi to Torquay‘s football ground. I didn’t see one signpost.

Outside Plainmoor

I certainly needed the coat, as it wasn’t weather typical of the English Riviera. Afterwards it was back to the station to catch a train to London.

A Pacer at Torquay

Unfortunately, it was a Pacer to Newton Abbot for the High Speed Diesel Train to London, where I arrived soon after 18:00. 

I still had time to visit Tottenham in the dark, by taking the train to White Hart Lane.

The Entrance to White Hart Lane

Afterwards, I was able to get a bus back from the ground to close to my house. Except for Arsenal, where I just walk, it is the easiest ground to get to from my home.

In some ways it was a day of three lessons.

1. The High Speed Diesel Trains used on West Country services are a superb asset to the railways. Passengers like them and in some ways they are irreplaceable in serving the far-flung parts of the west and the Scottish Highlands. They may be forty years old, but  engineers know how to keep them going for a few more years yet. Many of them will outlive me! I suspect too, that there is a strong cost benefit in keeping them running, rather than electrifying all the lines, where they run.
2. The Pacers still used in various parts of the country are a disgrace.  To make matters worse, they were a disgrace when they were built. They should be replaced with a modern train as soon as possible. The train used on the Overground from Gospel Oak to Barking would probably be an ideal replacement.  And they would be built in Derby!
3. The train from Liverpool Street to White Hart Lane station may have been thirty years old, but it had been well-refurbished.  On that line it is the stations that are a disgrace which deny access to no-one but the fit to the railway. I wouldn’t like to try to tranport a baby in a buggy either on many of the stations. So perhaps, one of the priorities after the Tpttenham riots, should be to fix those  stations.

Oxford, must surely be one of the most difficult stadia to get to from the town centre, even if you have a car. And if you do, you have to actually drive along the by-pass where there are queues of traffic. Of all the taxis I have taken to get to and from grounds, Oxford was by far the most expesive. 

Oxford United's Kassam Stadium

Oxford‘s stadium is just a rather anonymous pile stuck by the Science Park. I will not be sad, if I never ever go there again. It should be said, that Oxford is not noted for its wonderful traffic systems, as every time I go, it always seems to be totally gridlocked. A couple of years ago, I went there to play real tennis and walked to the court from the station. It would appear that or a bicycle is the only sane way to get about.  If ever a city needed a second or parkway station it is Oxford. 

Peterborough was a very different kettle of fish and it was just a short run in a High Speed Train to the city and then about 15 minutes walk. 

Peterborough's London Road Stadium

I should say that the walk could be made easier, but I suspect that as the ground is still not finished, that this will come later. 

I was soon back on another HST to Kings Cross and then it was on the Circle Line to Paddington for Plymouth. 

Sitting in Style on a First Great Western HST

I had been unable to get a seat online, so I just bought an Off Peak Return and made the best of what was available, as the picture shows. 

I should say that it wasn’t that uncomfortable and I got a seat from Taunton, when the train started to clear. I wouldn’t like to sit like that in a Pendolino, as they certainly don’t ride like forty-year old HSTs. 

It did look like it was all going to go pear-shaped, as the train had been delayed at Paddington for about fifteen minutes by a fault and this meant it had got stuck behind a stopping train along the Devon Coast. We were nearly thirty minutes late at Totnes and it was starting to look like I’d miss the 18:00 back to London. But then driver got a clear line and let the HST go, so much so that it was only twenty minutes late at Plymouth, giving me just ten minutes to get to the stadium and back. 

Outside Home Park

As you can see I made it. 

I did get a seat all the way back, but the train was late due to someone falling under a train at Reading West station. 

But if the day did prove one thing, it was that the stopgap Intercity 125 is a superb train.  But then I know that, having been through the Highlands at 90 mph. 

There are plans to make sure these trains continue for a few years yet. Who’s to say that in the 2060s, they won’t be a tourist attraction in their own right, as they speed passengers to the West Country.  Probably to the consternation of politicians, who can find all sorts of reasons to not use a what would be then be a nearly ninety year old train. After all, I doubt that electrifying this line to Plymouth will ever be done.

I said how pleased I was with the company, adding that I hope it wouldn’t upset the journey I was about to do.  It didn’t! We then got talking about Inter City 125′s and how she and the customers preferred them.  She also said, that quite a few people booked so they travelled in one.

All those proponents of the IEP would not have warmed to the conversations.

THe Inter City 125s will be replaced on the main line, but they’ll outlive most of us!

I arrived at a very crowded Paddington in mid-morning for the 11:06 to Plymouth.  It was crowded, with the usual wheeled cases being trailed everywhere.  Do these selfish people realise that their mobile obstacles are a nuisance to anyone with limited movement or vision? I’m alright now and to prove a point, I had everything I needed in my new Samsonite bag.

I was carrying my gluten-free sandwiches and a bottle of wine for my friends, from Marks and Spencer in a carrier bag, but as I’d arrived with plenty of time, I walked straight on to the Standard Class Quiet Coach nto the window seat I’d booked. My two bags and coat spent most of the journey on the overhead coat rack.  I only needed to disturb my companion once to get my lunch down and for another to get a coffee and take a toilet break. I should say that I was surrounded by a family of about six, all of whom spent most of the time reading and playing on a laptop. Their mother was dispensing a real picnic, with lots of parma ham, salad and fruit.  Surely, they were showing how you use a Quiet Car!

In fact, the whole car was mostly quiet with not even a crying baby and there were some small toddlers there. The only problem was that some had blocked the aisle with heavy luggage.  Those going to Plymouth seemed to have used the Baggage Car as the staff had asked them to.

I made one mistake on the journey.  Although, I was sitting by the left hand window, I forgot to get my camera out to take shots of the train as it sped along the Exeter to Plymouth line between Exeter and Newton Abbot.

At Plymouth, I got ff the train pretty fresh, which is more than could be said as I got off my flight to Athens on easyJet.

Both journeys are about the same time, but give me the train anytime.  Especially in a forty-year-old, but newly refurbished  IC125.

If you go to Dublin by train and ferry there is one train at 9:10 in the morning from Euston, that gets you to Dublin at 17:15, which is a journey time of eight hours and five minutes.  I looked for tomorrow and the fare is only £32 one way.  But there is only one service during the day, with another overnight.

So how fast could a service be done if the line was electrified all the way to Holyhead? Crewe from Euston can be done in two hours quite easily and it is only 84 miles from Crewe to Holyhead.  The fastest services now take just short of four hours. but the trains are not electric or  have the smooth ride of an IC125. The fast ferries take two hours for the crossing, but the larger slower ones take three hours fifteen minutes.

If we assume that Crewe to Holyhead can be done at a similar speed as Liverpool Street to Norwich, it would appear that a time of about one hour ten minutes could be obtained on this part of the route. So this would mean a time from London of three hours ten minutes in a smooth modern electric train. If this could be paired with a fast ferry this could mean a time of under five and a half hours if the sea conditions were good enough.

But this is more than about electrifying the North Wales Coast line, which it would appear that the Welsh Assembly would probably like to do. It is about kick starting the Irish economy.  And that of North Wales too!

So surely instead of spending billions of euros propping the Irish up, wouldn’t it be better to spend use of that money to connect Eire to Europe more efficiently. After all, railwise, despite what some might believe, the UK is actually part of Europe.

It would be 84 miles of electrification and perhaps a subsidy to the Holyhead to Dublin ferries to make sure that the fast service was every three hours or so.  Surely, that would be a more affordable option, as it would also benefit North Wales, which is not one of the more prosperous parts of the EU.

But it is not just about London to North Wales and on to Dublin. Properly built the line would also connect Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester to North Wales.  As an example Liverpool to Holyhead would be under ninety minutes, which is the magic time that makes day trips easy. I also think it would make trips between North and South Wales quicker, but it would probably mean a change at either Chester or Shrewbury.

There are also other issues on the horizon.  The major sources of employment on Anglesey, are the nuclear power station at Wylfa and the aluminium smelter. Who knows what will happen in the next few years? But if Holyhead and Anglesey had a first class electrified rail line to the rest of both Wales and the UK, it would help to attract long term jobs. It would of course help tourism and would probably make the University of Bangor even better.

The trip takes three hours and is probably one of the longest trips you can do from London easily in a day in a  High Speed Train or IC125 both ways. I got six and three quarter hours in Swansea, which was enough time for a wander round the city, have some lunch and see the match.

As to the latter, I’ll not be talking about that!

According to the guy who served me coffee in the buffet, the train out had just been refurbished.  It was certainly in very good condition and completely clean.  I think it might have been the same train set on return, as it was in an equally pristine state.

So how did Standard and First Clases compare?

According to Ian Walmsley ‘s excellent article in Modern Railways a couple of months ago, he scored 82.1% for First Class and 76.2% for Standard for the IC125.

I’m not going to argue with those figures, although, I actually found the more upright Standard Class seat slightly more comfortable.  But then my spine doesn’t curl under correctly and I’ve always found that too soft chairs are less uncomfortable than hard ones. When I used to drive, I found some cars particularly difficult.

My one complaint is that the tray in Standard Class is not big enough to lay the paper out, so I could do the Sudoku.

Small Seatback Tray on an IC125

However, I did get two seats to myself going out, so I could spread sideways a bit.

Perhaps I need a Working Class coach.  This would be Standard Class but everybody would get a proper table, just like you originally got, when the trains were built.

I know the new layouts get more people on the trains, but have we really progressed?

As to progress, I did walk through several carriages to get to the buffet.  The train was rather busy and there were several of those trolley cases, I hate so much,  in the aisles. Despite this, I didn’t have any problems getting to the buffet and getting back carrying the coffee.  Compare that with the problems I had on the Pendolino. But then I was running yesterday at 125 mph on a railway built for 60 mph in the Victorian era, in a forty year old train.

If I had the choice, I’d take a High Speed Train or failing that a Mark 3 Carriage anytime I could! When I travel to Ipswich, I always book one of the Norwich trains, as these are made up of Mark 3′s.

When booking on-line, you should be told the type of train you would normally be getting.

A lot on my part was speculation, but articles have started to appear in respected journals, that show 2035 is not only easily achievable, but achievable with increased fuel efficiency, much higher service intervals and with meeting all regulations concerning safety, doors and toilets.

The most surprising thing I read in the article in Modern Railways, was that a full computerised structural analysis on the Mk. 3 coach showed that they were good for a sixty year lifespan and were very much better than expected. They also found that the coaches were very stiff, which probably explains why passengers like the ride. I certainly find it better than a Pendolino.

But knowing the way governments think and engineers design and make-do and mend, I think that 2035 will be a date  that when they retire the last IC125, will be long in the past.

I’m travelling on two tomorrow as I go to Swansea to see Ipswich play. The trains cover the 191 miles from London in around three hours including stops.

The New River - Built in 1613 to supply London with fresh water, It is still used in part for that purpose nearly four centuries later.  Will there be a celebration in 2013?

The Thames Embankments and Bazalgette‘s Sewers in London – These transformed the city and also laid down the basic quality control standards for large construction projects.  I seem to remember reading that only one person died in the construction of the sewers, which was a major achievement for the ninteenth century.

The Forth Bridge  – Probably the best known bridge in the world.  Opened in 1890, it still carries nearly 200 trains a day.

The Thames Tunnel - The first tunnel under a navigable river, that now carries the East London Line under the Thames.

St. Pancras Station – The head of SNCF described it as the finest station in the world.  I’ll agree with him. It was originally opened in 1868 and a lot of the original design is still intact.

Welwyn Viaduct – An extraordinary structure in Hertfordshire, that still carries the East Coast Main Line over 150 years after it was built.

We may have structures that last for years but actual vehicles that last more than a four decades or so are rare indeed.

The Mersey Ferries have been around for centuries, but the current three boats are all over fifty years old.  I remember them with affection from my days at Liverpool University in the mid-1960s. 

The London Routemaster bus was launched in 1956 and although most were replaced by 2005, their are still two heritage routes in central London.  I  rode on one in September.

The Victoria Line in London has two distinctions.  It is the oldest fully-automated railway in the world and it still has some trains dating from 1967.  I have travelled on some quite recently and they are still in good condition. at 43 years old.

And then there is the Inter-City 125 or High Speed Train. It may not be as venerable as the other three examples, but then they don’t travel at 200 km/hr or 125 mph over routes that measure hundreds rather than tens of miles.  It was also designed as a stop-gap design after the failure of British Railways to get the tilting APT to work.

Now over thirty five years since the trains were introduced, they are being refurbished, re-engined and are still in front-line service all over the country.

On my trip north from Edinburgh to Inverness in the cab of HST, 43313, talked about some of the problems with the trains and added to my knowledge.

The old rather smoky diesel engines have now been replaced in many power cars with modern units.

The rather draughty and noisy doors in the cab have now been replaced to make the working environment second-to-none.

But the slam doors of the Mark 3 coaches with their rather quaint traditional windows are a worry.

But that is now being addressed by sound engineering according to Modern Railways.

Who’s to say when we’ll see the last of the HSTs.  I wouldn’t be surprised if some are still running in 2030 or even 2040, as they are classic Darwinian train, that evolves to beat every attempt to kill it off.

In the same magazine, it was also announced that one of the HSTs had run from Plymouth to Paddington non-stop in just two hours forty minutes.  That is an average speed of 84.375 mph. London to Paris by Eurostar is 307 miles and takes two hours fifteen minutes at an average speed of 136.444 mph.

So Eurostar is quicker, but it runs on a line virtually without curves and it isn’t thirty five years old.

As Modern Railways said, the Plymouth to Paddington run wasn’t bad for a thirty-five year old, British Rail-era diesel train dismissed as obselete by Labour transport ministers almost a decade ago!  

I could talk about pots and kettles, but in a way isn’t the HST a superb two-fingered salute to the bunch of NuLabor morons, who almost bankrupted this country, by  their idiotic policies?

An Exhilirating Ride

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I’ve also selected this section, as it shows how the journey brings the conversation out of the two drivers in the cab.