Class 43 Photos HST 🇬🇧, XPT 🇦🇺 & HST 🇲🇽

[Commoner]

14 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Thanks Kevin - I spent quite a while enjoying your flickr pages the other day, so many of your photos brought back some very happy memories for me. I've posted a few on the Old Oak facebook page too (with credit to you of course) and they've been very well received by the mostly now retired train crews.

My Flickr page is a bit HST heavy but I was very much ahead of the curve as I embraced the sets from the beginning😀. Good to know that the photos are being appreciated here and elsewhere after all this time. I remember taking the shot in the HST depot and recall as a shy lad I didn’t exchange a word with the fitters working on 253 004. I regret that now. It was daytime and they didn’t seem in a hurry to complete the set’s A exam as I expect the influx of sets in the evening was a distant prospect and there was plenty of time to clear the shed. Hard to believe the whole Old Oak complex as it was known, has gone!

[MJI]

41007 43169 IRIS

[Rugd1022]

21 minutes ago, Commoner said:

My Flickr page is a bit HST heavy but I was very much ahead of the curve as I embraced the sets from the beginning😀. Good to know that the photos are being appreciated here and elsewhere after all this time. I remember taking the shot in the HST depot and recall as a shy lad I didn’t exchange a word with the fitters working on 253 004. I regret that now. It was daytime and they didn’t seem in a hurry to complete the set’s A exam as I expect the influx of sets in the evening was a distant prospect and there was plenty of time to clear the shed. Hard to believe the whole Old Oak complex as it was known, has gone!

 

I posted that particular photo in the Old Oak group and the names came back for the fitters, Hezron Peters in the cab doorway and Paddy Gaghan on the ground 😉.

 

I still can't believe that so much of 'my' Old Oak has just vanished, it really was a magical place to work with some great characters, and lots of happy memories for me.

 

 

[big jim]

43 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

I posted that particular photo in the Old Oak group and the names came back for the fitters, Hezron Peters in the cab doorway and Paddy Gaghan on the ground 😉.

but who’s the guy in the pit by the front wheel? 
 

only worked into OOC a few times with colas on the NMT and I left it in the old GWR carriage shed part next to what was the Heathrow express shed, is that the place in the picture or the newer dedicated HST building.? 

[Rugd1022]

2 hours ago, big jim said:

but who’s the guy in the pit by the front wheel? 
 

only worked into OOC a few times with colas on the NMT and I left it in the old GWR carriage shed part next to what was the Heathrow express shed, is that the place in the picture or the newer dedicated HST building.? 

 

The HST shed was closer to the mainline as I recall Jim.

 

Never noticed the third man in Kevin's photo...!

[Commoner]

2 hours ago, big jim said:

but who’s the guy in the pit by the front wheel? 
 

only worked into OOC a few times with colas on the NMT and I left it in the old GWR carriage shed part next to what was the Heathrow express shed, is that the place in the picture or the newer dedicated HST building.? 

The shot was taken in the newly built 3 road HST servicing and maintenance shed.  The carriage shed was adjacent on the north side and had many roads with 1 to 6 being allocated to HST stabling back in 1980. The carriage shed was refurbished in the early 2000s, with concrete flooring, proper walkways, and improved facilities all round.  On my visits back in the 70s and 80s I recall cobbled and uneven surfaces, lots of mess in the four-foot and an environment that latterly would have been considered a nightmare from a health and safety perspective. 

[big jim]

What I remember of the shed I worked into was some sort of massive angled stop blocks, almost as if trolleys could be wheeled up them into the gangway ends of the coaches, can’t remember if it was all roads though

 

Also remember the stop mark for a HST powercar was a tennis ball on a string that you stopped at when it touched the windscreen

[balders]

26 minutes ago, big jim said:

What I remember of the shed I worked into was some sort of massive angled stop blocks, almost as if trolleys could be wheeled up them into the gangway ends of the coaches, can’t remember if it was all roads though

 

Also remember the stop mark for a HST powercar was a tennis ball on a string that you stopped at when it touched the windscreen

That sounds like my old garage Jim! It was so cluttered it was the only solution to a lack of spatial awareness! 

 

Regards

 

Guy

[Davexoc]

6 hours ago, big jim said:

but who’s the guy in the pit by the front wheel? 
 

only worked into OOC a few times with colas on the NMT and I left it in the old GWR carriage shed part next to what was the Heathrow express shed, is that the place in the picture or the newer dedicated HST building.? 

 

I was wondering that too...

Factory and HST guys wore blue at the time, as worn by the others in the photo, orange came along a few years later...

The guy in the pit is wearing brown, and as there is a bottle of refrigerant on the sackbarrow in front of the set, I wonder if it someone from C&W dealing with a cab air-con issue?

 

That is the new shed as it was, originally space for 3 sets and IIRC, 3 spare PCs at the far end. It got extended when Southall DMU depot closed to accomodate some of the old 117s etc. That created a problem with the automatic extractor fans, as the units engines weren't loud enough to trigger the fans. As built the shed also had automatic rapid access doors with audio/visual warnings. the system would get confused if a set was split and left in two sections, the doors sometimes coming down between vehicles and getting pulled out of the runners....

 

3 hours ago, big jim said:

What I remember of the shed I worked into was some sort of massive angled stop blocks, almost as if trolleys could be wheeled up them into the gangway ends of the coaches, can’t remember if it was all roads though

 

Also remember the stop mark for a HST powercar was a tennis ball on a string that you stopped at when it touched the windscreen

 

Those stop blocks were big, and I think the shore supply switchgear might have been attached to them. So, the tennis ball should stop you in the right position to connect up the shore supply cable without having to drag it around too far.

[Rugd1022]

12 hours ago, Davexoc said:

 

I was wondering that too...

Factory and HST guys wore blue at the time, as worn by the others in the photo, orange came along a few years later...

The guy in the pit is wearing brown, and as there is a bottle of refrigerant on the sackbarrow in front of the set, I wonder if it someone from C&W dealing with a cab air-con issue?

 

That is the new shed as it was, originally space for 3 sets and IIRC, 3 spare PCs at the far end. It got extended when Southall DMU depot closed to accomodate some of the old 117s etc. That created a problem with the automatic extractor fans, as the units engines weren't loud enough to trigger the fans. As built the shed also had automatic rapid access doors with audio/visual warnings. the system would get confused if a set was split and left in two sections, the doors sometimes coming down between vehicles and getting pulled out of the runners....

 

 

Those stop blocks were big, and I think the shore supply switchgear might have been attached to them. So, the tennis ball should stop you in the right position to connect up the shore supply cable without having to drag it around too far.

 

Your post has reminded me of the occasion when Lawrence Maddox drove a HST power car through the door of number 10 road in the Factory...!

[Rugd1022]

Photo by David Malt...

 

[The Stationmaster]

On 26/07/2024 at 19:15, big jim said:

What I remember of the shed I worked into was some sort of massive angled stop blocks, almost as if trolleys could be wheeled up them into the gangway ends of the coaches, can’t remember if it was all roads though

 

Also remember the stop mark for a HST powercar was a tennis ball on a string that you stopped at when it touched the windscreen

That was the (old) Carriage Shed Jim - the part adopted for HST stabling as mentioned above.  The HST servicing shed was south of that - i.e. towards the running lines.  As far as I can recall there was only one really large stone built stop block by the mid 1980s and it was on No1 Road - and was duly collided with by a brand new HST set arriving on its delivery run to Old Oak.  That set went straight back to works to be lifted to check for damage.  The stop blocks on the other roads were a lot less massive

[25kV]

A couple of southbound services this evening, from video stills...

 

 

43037+43137 on 1A26 Inverness-Aberdeen, at The Rushlach, Kintore.

 

 

 

And a little while later, 43183+43034 on 1A28 Inverness-Aberdeen, in place of the usual 158/170, passing Harlaw, Inverurie.

Edited July 30 by 25kV

[Dunsignalling]

Currently resident (in "warm storage", I'm told) on the West Somerset Railway, which seems to involve it covering the daily (MFX) DMu Diagram. This was the 11.00 Bishop's Lydeard - Minehead, yesterday.

 

Formation is 43154, 42199, 48105, 48109, 48107, 43155.

 

Edited August 15 by Dunsignalling

[lcd13]

Was driving back from Ely this morning and was stopped at one of the Queen Adelaide crossings.  It was a surprise to see a pair of Rail Adventure power cars heading eastbound on the Norwich line.  There was no chance of taking a photo.

[Phil Mc]

43277 & 43357, either end of 9523, 999550, 1256, 6260.

Seen today at the RTC.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Busmansholiday]

43 046 and 049 on yesterday's 1Z43, Norwich to Paignton seen at Paignton.

 

 

 

Complete with 166 212 on the right and a Dart Valley "kettle" on the left....

Edited August 22 by Busmansholiday

[25kV]

 

Earlier today - 43182 heading south through Kintore.

[4630]

In the twilight on 24th August 2024, Retro Railtours ‘Retro High Speed Scot’, railtour operated by the 125 Group’s 43089 and 43159 'Rio Warrior' at Bradley Junction, east of Huddersfield, with the return working, 1Z78 from Edinburgh to Crewe.

 

 

 

[Rugd1022]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Trev52A]

Northbound HST passing the site of Low Fell Sidings, Gateshead on 29th October 1989. The train had presumably travelled on the slow lines from Tyne Yard and would regain the ECML via the Bensham diveunder, during PW diversions. The Royal Mail Tyneside depot now covers this site. The track panels on the left are in Low Fell PW yard, also now gone.

 

Trevor

 

 

[vulcan product fan]

43257 and 43251 working from Derby R.T.C. to Barrow Hill about to pass through Chesterfield station 2-9-24

[08221]

43251 and 43257 top and tail the 1135 Derby RTC to Carlisle test train through Uttoxeter on 4/9/24.

 

Had to smile as Realtime Trains showed this as pathed for an Electric loco!