Timings have appeared on RealTime Trains showing the confirmed timings for the upcoming LNER HST farewell tour.
London North Eastern Railway is running a special one-off tour to bid farewell to the HSTs.
Class 800 Azuma’s, being built by Hitachi, are replacing the HSTs and Class 91s on the East Coast Main Line.
More and more services are now seeing the bullet-style trains introduced, now being seen on services from Aberdeen, Leeds, Lincoln and York to London.
Enthusiasts, like us here at RailAdvent, will be sad to see such an icon of the East Coast Mainline withdrawn.
The HSTs have worked wonders, and it is still amazing to think that these were initially being only built as a ‘stop-gap’ train until the tilting APT was introduced (which in turn never happened).
What are your best memories of the humble HST on the ECML? Let us know in the comments below.
Here are the timings from the RTT website:
- 1Z43 Edinburgh Waverley – Inverness
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/…/N070…/2019-12-18/detailed - 1Z25: Inverness – Edinburgh Waverley
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/…/N070…/2019-12-19/detailed
- 1Z43: Edinburgh Waverley – Leeds via Doncaster https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/…/N070…/2019-12-20/detailed
- 1Z25 1101 Leeds – London Kings Cross
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/…/N000…/2019-12-21/detailed
Are you hoping to see the tour?
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Responses
My father, R M Williams, was the Regional Operating Manager at the time of the speed record. He was responsible for the planning and of course on the train on the day. I will miss these lovely trains. Big credit to those at Craigentinny who kept them running all these years
My father-in law who was circulation manager at the Hull Daily mail newspaper used to run HDM customer rail trips and he ran one as a day trip special on HST from Hull to London before they entered full service. It was sold out. I remember the cheer when the announcement was made over the tannoy that it had reached it`s 125 MPH near Peterborough on the way to London. When we reached London he had organised souvenir copies of the days Hull Daily Mail to be given out as we arrived. We also got a goodie bag containing am HST pen, and a book of HST logo matches !
And what about a farewell tour of the Class 91 Mk4 stocks.
Going To Be A Shame To See Them Go . Gonna Pop Up To Leeds On The 21st To See The Last One.
In contrast to the tour GWR laid on this is really poor for those in the south, why no part of the tour leaves London????
I sympathize with you, but those that live in the north seldom get rail tours starting up here so for us its a bonus! I suspect it’s because the train will be provided by, and serviced by, Craigentinny.
So it’ll finish at Bounds Green and have to be worked ECS back up north, sorry that’s a disgrace.
A 2.5 hr coasting down to King’s Cross rather than hearing the thrust of it leaving London and heading north… Missing a trick and it’s not like Scotland won’t still see the HST for a little while longer.
Like I said, now makes me really glad I did the entire 17hrs of the GWR tour from Bristol to Plymouth.
2.5 hr coasting??????
As this is a special train, it is pathed inside the other trains running and is a lower priority 🙂
Well I’m currently on my way to Aberdeen to drive it to Inverness
Have fun, Colin!
Sorry to see them go and really pleased to see that they lasted so long into the 21st century when it was the first livery I was on a special train trip to Edinburgh which I will never forget so long farewell .
On the positive side there will be 3 production and one prototype power car, im going on one final journey on the old girls next Tuesday from york to Aberdeen then following day to Kings cross 1w25 then 1E15 in first after spending a few thousand miles travelling on the HSTs over the years, served the country well replacement of the HST would happen eventually