Waverley Wave-Off

This was a bit of a difficult one, but I think I got the reflections down. Here we have another InterCity 125 departing Edinburgh Waverley heading south with an evening express to London King's Cross, a journey time of about 4 hours.

The InterCity 125's were first introduced on the East Coast Mainline in Summer 1978 as the second region to receive HST behind the original Western Region. Services operated from London King's Cross initially to Newcastle, York, Darlington, Leeds, Hull and Edinburgh, taking charge of the famous Flying Scotsman service, doing the run in 4 and a half hours compared to that of the previous Class 55 Deltic locomotives and their time of 5 hours and 55 minutes. Very soon the HST sets, then designated under TOPS as Class 254 Diesel Multiple Units, took charge of all premier services on the Eastern Region out of King's Cross, displacing the Deltic's to semi-fast and slower operations before full withdrawal of the class in 1982. The removal of the Class 55's coincided with the final production of the Class 43's, which were now heavily operated across the UK network, with primary praise for their speed and efficiency on the East Coast Mainline, a route that continued to maintain its reputation as one of the fastest railways in Britain.

This was further added to by the opening of the Selby Diversion, a re-routing of the traditional East Coast Mainline to the west of a notable bottleneck at Selby, where the Swing-Bridge on the River Ouse would cause major delays, especially in the event a ship struck the structure. As such, between 1976 and 1983, a new route built primarily for the 125mph HST sets was opened across the former Selby Coalfields between Doncaster and York, bringing this slow section of the mainline up to a consistent speed of 125mph. The InterCity 125's benefited heavily from this new route, and reductions in journey time came down to just under 4 hours between Edinburgh and London. Full HST distribution on the Eastern Region was completed in 1979, with sets working one of the longest single journeys in the UK between London and Inverness on the 8 hour 'Highland Chieftain' and the 7 hour 'Aberdonian' to Aberdeen, now known as the 'Northern Lights'.

HST's however have not constantly dominated the East Coast, as between 1986 and 1990 the route was electrified from King's Cross to Edinburgh and Leeds as part of a major modernisation plan. As such, following the widespread introduction of the Class 91 InterCity 225 sets from 1988 onwards, the HST's began to be redistributed elsewhere, primarily to the Midland Region and the Cross Country network. Upon privatization in 1996, GNER, or Great North Eastern Railway, inherited a fleet of 21 Power-Cars from InterCity, used primarily for long-distance trains to Aberdeen and Inverness, but would occasionally cover for Class 91's on intermediate services on the East Coast. Trains were outshopped in GNER's striking Midnight Blue with orange waistband livery and continued to provide a valuable part of the ECML network. Between 2002 and 2007, GNER carried out a major refurbishment of its fleet called 'Project Mallard', including new carriage interiors, updated mechanics and lighting such as LED headlights, and, for the HST's, replacement of their original Paxman Valenta engines to the newly developed MTU engines trialed by First Great Western. Sadly, GNER would not see out the end of the Project as in 2007 it's ownership of the route was removed due to financial instability with regard to its parent company Sea Containers. The franchise was eventually won by National Express, which set up National Express East Coast and continued to update the fleet to MTU power. The final powercars updated to MTU engines were 43110 'Stirlingshire' and 43108, which lost their Valenta's in mid-2008.

Since then, in spite of the various franchise changes that have taken place on the East Coast Mainline, from National Express to the government owned East Coast Trains in 2009 and finally to Virgin Trains East Coast in 2015, the fleet has remained largely the same. The fleet has been largely expanded through the inheritance of ex-Virgin Trains Class 43's, as well as several former Midland Mainline and East Midlands Trains sets. Networks for the HST's have been expanded to services to Hull and Lincoln, and occasionally sees the hiring of extra HST sets from other operators, including Arriva Cross Country, East Midlands Trains, and, in some rare instances, First Great Western. Sadly though, the HST's days may be numbered as the development of the Class 800 IEP (Intercity Express Project) sets gathers pace, with bi-mode diesel/electric units being proposed to replace the HST's on their long-distance trains to Inverness and Aberdeen. But until then, the mighty HST is expected to remain a vital part of the operations up and down the East Coast of Britain.