Grand Central, are they really "The train you've been waiting for"?

The title says it all, I've asked that question since Grand Central came onto the rails

Their small 3 train fleet is all buffer fitted Class 43 locomotives with a rake of hauled-type British Rail Mark 3 carriages which had a full rewire to work with Class 43 (HST), although the BREL designed interior of these carriages was retained with the exception of game boards on the tables, that's a Grand Central thing, quite clever if you ask me :)

The InterCity 125 trains in use is in a distinctive all black livery with a small yellow panel between the lights and windscreen, all locomotives and multiple units on UK railways require a yellow front, Grand Central seem to be the worst ones adhering to that

The fleet have suffered reliability problems, but these have been about ironed out now

I will be taking a trip on a Grand Central train in the near future, I'll post from there and let you know how the service is :)

more soon

InterCity 125, the greatest train ever built

Now, for the younger readers, the InterCity 125 is the name of the diesel powered express trains with 2 Class 43 locomotives at either end and the 8/9 carriages with manual doors which you can only open from outside

These trains were built in the 70s and have proven themself in traffic, initially intended as a stop-gap alongside InterCity APT (Advanced Passenger Train), which ultimately failed miserably, they've been a sight on Britain's railway network since their introduction. They were named InterCity 125 as they were all part of British Rail's InterCity sector and their top service speed of 125MPH

8 of the Class 43 power cars were fitted with buffers when the InterCity 225 was introduced on the East Coast Main Line, 6 of these are with Grand Central, still with the buffers, and are the most unreliable of the power cars in service, but do retain their original engines whereas the majority now have a bigger, more modern engine, most engines ending up in the hands of the 125 Group

British Rail made a number of TV ads featuring the InterCity 125, I found some on YouTube and some are here for your enjoyment


This ad features several different class 43 power cars, one of which is "nicked" for speeding by a police livered Class 37, complete with blue light on roof and the horns sounded to imitate a police siren, British Rail sure knew how to make adverts, heh



The 2 "Relax" adverts, made around the time the InterCity 125s were carrying the Swallow livery, I distincly remember the first one from my childhood but not the second one


The InterCity 125 will always be, in my eyes, the best train that was ever built, it has stood the test of time, and will remain a firm favourite of mine :)

Low Gates level crossing, Northallerton

OK, I'd like to gripe about the level crossing most hated by Northallerton's motorists, Low Gates, the crossing causes traffic chaos every time the barriers are down, which is more frequent now as Grand Central use that line now as well

It's a fully automatic, full barrier level crossing, with a signal box right on it, and yards from it on one side is a mini roundabout seperating the roads between Richmond and Darlington, what's with that? well highways can answer the roundabout, NER/LNER/British Rail/Railtrack/Network Rail can answer to the level crossing, assuming it's old enough for NER/LNER

I'll gripe more about this one later

TTFN

The class 185, what were First TransPennine Express thinking?

Ok, so the Class 185 "Pennine" Siemens Desiro used by First TransPennine Express is more modern than the BREL built Class 158s they replaced, however it's not without it's faults, and there are a lot

1) This DMU uses Cummins QSK19 engines that are oil and fuel thirsty, though First were reported to be working on this issue
2) the same mentioned engines can be heard in the train, unlike the 158 before it
3) the doors are not at the end of the carriages and there are no vestibules, annoying if you want to make a phone call out of the way of everyine else
4) less seats, therefore overcrowding becomes an issue and makes things hard for passengers and train staff
5) The central door locking controls are located in two places in the train so if the guard is in the wrong part of the train it can take 30 seconds to get the doors unlocked and open
6) These trains, because of a lot of the above, and several other things, make them unsuited to the job they do, the trans-Pennine routes, and even up to Scotland now, who'd want to be sat onboard this train for near 3 hours? get me a class 158 any day, or an upgrade to first class to show willing

Last time I was on one of these was last Saturday, boy did it suck

Just get Hornby Hobbies to make a 00 gauge model of it, I'll buy 2 and crash them together to show my hatred of the train, and the only thing ever good that train did for me was get me out of harm's way twice

So to First TransPennine Express, get some better rolling stock, the 185s are only good as commuter trains!

Welcome to the Railway blog :)

Hi, it's Paul here, this is where I'll be posting things, bad and good, about Britain's (rather messy) railway network, and anything else related to railways

If you don't like trains, look away now, lol

Enjoy reading the railway blog

Paul