50 Years of Service - The Castle Class 43 HST - (June 2024)

Welcome to this new video:

The Castle Class 43 HST - Legend of the Great Western Railway.

Filmed - June 2024 from the Great Western Mainline.

Locations include Plymouth Station; Devonport Station; The Royal Albert Bridge; Saltash Station; Forder Viaduct (Trematon); St Germans Station, and Truro Station.

Running Time 24 minutes 25 seconds.

Iconic is often an overused word in railway writing but for the High Speed Train (or Inter City 125) if you are of a certain age, the word is most certainly apt.

I think it would have been 45 years ago (1979) when I saw my first Inter-City HST (125) as it passed through Devonport Station. I was therefore thrilled to see a Castle Class 43 HST passing through the very same station during a visit in June 2024.

These sleek and stylish trains are now in their fifth decade of operation on the Great Western Mainline but for how much longer I wonder?.

The 2+4 HST Sets are also known as the ‘255 Castle Class Sets’ with many of the power cars receiving names of Castles that are located in their areas of operation.

The GWR introduced its first 2+4 formation Castle Set into service on 29th March 2018 to combat a shortage in trains caused by the delayed delivery of new train fleets. However, their days are numbered and at the time of making this video there was still some doubt about how much longer they will remain in service so it is very much a case of catch them while you can.

The video contains clips of 4 Castle Sets that were operating on the main line between Plymouth and Penzance back in June 2024.

The Power Cars featured are:
43004 Caerphilly Castle
43042 Tregenna Castle
43093 Berkeley Castle
43097 Castle Drogo
43098 Walton Castle
43156 Maen Castle
43189 Launceston Castle
43198 Driver Stan Martin / Driver Brian Cooper

Thanks very much for watching.

#gwr #castleclass43 #hst