Trains - How to get on a Class 43 HST?

[miniman]

SydneyBridge said:

Yeah fair enough, agree with that.
Least they mentioned him as you say, rather than deleting him from history

They didn't go as far as using his voice though. The jingle "This is the age of the train" was played several times as far as "This is the age" but his spoken "of the train" was omitted throughout. I understand the logic, but is it really necessary to try to remove people from the history books?

[hidetheelephants]

miniman said:

SydneyBridge said:

Yeah fair enough, agree with that.
Least they mentioned him as you say, rather than deleting him from history

They didn't go as far as using his voice though. The jingle "This is the age of the train" was played several times as far as "This is the age" but his spoken "of the train" was omitted throughout. I understand the logic, but is it really necessary to try to remove people from the history books?

Having meandered off to youtube to see some cheesy HST adverts this popped up; Equinox covering BR and the development of the IC225/class 91.

[DickyC]

Take the 19.03 Paddington/Penzance and have a meal in the Restaurant. For years I commuted on that train and spent my journey to Newbury in the Bar adjacent to the Restaurant drinking beer and wishing I was travelling further and having a meal. When a job ended and I wasn't going to use the train for a while I booked a seat in the Restaurant and enjoyed a three course meal with two glasses of red wine and got off in Taunton after my coffee to wait for a train home. The chap I shared a table with asked me about my journey and when I told him what I was doing he stopped talking to me. I enjoyed it though. The 125 came into service a year or so before I started using it and I love it. They aren't as smooth as they were when new but it is still a fine train.

[rs1952]

DickyC said:

They aren't as smooth as they were when new but it is still a fine train.

You might find that this has got a lot more to do with the condition of the track now that it is maintained by contractors rather than by in-house staff, than it has to do with the suspension on a HST.

[DickyC]

rs1952 said:

You might find that this has got a lot more to do with the condition of the track now that it is maintained by contractors rather than by in-house staff, than it has to do with the suspension on a HST.

You could be right about the track condition and ride quality but it was pulling away from stationary I meant. When they were fresh out of the box you couldn't discern the moment they started to move. I couldn't, I should say. The coupling system can't have had any slack at all.

[foxbody-87]

Maintenance is in-house, although contractors can be used for contingent labour they have to be supervised by Network Rail.
You will tend to see contractors on renewals work more than anything now.

[JB!]

rs1952 said:

DickyC said:

They aren't as smooth as they were when new but it is still a fine train.

You might find that this has got a lot more to do with the condition of the track now that it is maintained by contractors rather than by in-house staff, than it has to do with the suspension on a HST.

Maintenance is done in house, and track quality is fairly consistent.