Now, firstly, it has been nearly 3 years since I have posted here, owing to a lot happening in my life and not as much rail travel or visits to the National Railway Museum, though I was on 2 CrossCountry Voyager trains on Wednesday.
Now after some reading, I discovered that there are attempts ongoing by the 125 Group, under the Project Miller banner to bring back to the rails the iconic prototype HST power car 41001, a vehicle I have stood next to many times in the NRM. I discovered, as part of the reading, that the Valenta engine had sadly been sectioned for educational purposes, however, a fully working, and relatively new, Valenta has been sourced by the 125 Group care of the National Railway Museum, and plans are to install this into 41001, of course the cooling system, brakes, bogies and wheels, traction motors, etc, all have to be checked out before 41001 will live again. I will be attempting to visit Railfest 2012, as this will enable me to wish the 125 Group all the best in their endeavours.
The InterCity 125 has always been my favourite train since my childhood, I even painted a picture of one of the power cars in my primary school days, which was during the British Rail era.
Production power car 43159 of First Great Western (claim to fame being the diesel speed record of 148.5 with 43102(43302) between Darlington and York) is also making an appearance at Railfest, and hopefully one of the Mark 3 coaches from the prototype set, reuniting it with 41001. This is my one and only chance to see both prototype and production HST vehicles close up, if I make it to the NRM for Railfest, I will report back and include photographs where they are allowed to be taken.
And for anyone who regularly checks this, the railway blog is not dead, it just was overshadowed by other things in my life
So, if you’re going to Railfest, pleade do check out 41001, after all, it is Genesis, without it we’d not have the high speed trains we have today
And of course, here’s to many journeys on the InterCity 125, or HST to give it it’s official title
