I will never forget the Valenta scream. Once a week as a kid I went to an athletics group, and if we were outside doing our stuff, I could never help but to stop and look up at a pair of Valetas accelerating sharply across a viaduct, the very same viaduct by Swansea City's liberty stadium. Brilliant video mate
I think it still had its Mirrlees engine when this was filmed. They got installed in 43167 - 43170 in Jan 87 and ran until the VP185's got installed in around '94...
Thank God this diesel nightmare is soon over. Instead of electrification British Rail for too many years was really "dieselized to death". All the routes that the HST covered should have been run by class 87 or later classes 90 and 91. Instead they continued the diesel madness for another decade. Incredible! A few weeks ago the electrification of the Great Western Mainline has been completed and is now fully operational all the way from London to Bristol. That makes 3 mainlines electrified now (GWML, ECML and WCML). And most class 43s will go where they belong: To the scrap yard! 43-enthusiasts don't need to worry: Some will remain in service for a while on the remaining non-electrified lines of which there are still too many.
Possibly. I lived in York from age 3 to age 8 (1989-1994) and I remember there being some Kings Cross-York semi fast expresses, perhaps its one of those, although I don't remember them using the bay platforms. The Liverpool services tended to start from Newcastle if I recall correctly.
Some of them were converted into DVTs to work with the Class 91s (InterCity 225s) before the proper DVTs were ready, which is why some of them have buffers.
This is what really made Britains Railways the Class 43 Valentas or HST's what ever you want to call them. Obviously followed by The Flying Scotsman & Mallard
In the 70's and 80's, the Lime Street services worked to and from from Newcastle, Hull and York. Not sure if that changed but it possibly did. Either way, yes, it's odd for a HST set to be in that bay.
Indeed. I have to say that BR was run for the public, not run for money which they are now. These train companies also use BR's trains still. I hate seeing endless train operating companies, when before there used to be just one. It may have been oversized, but I'd rather have one TOC than the countless number we have nowadays.
@back2frinky HST's used to operate down the WCML right up until 2002, they done operations from Euston to Holyhead, Blackpool North & occasionally Manchester Piccadilly.
@denim4men They were 'disbanded' due to privatisation in the late 1990's. Now we have a similar problem to what we had 90 years ago. Too many Railway Companies, of which they got merged into the Big Four in 1923, then Fully Nationalised in 1948.
Travelled on a Pendolino recently - god what a piece of s*** that was! Voyager trains are so crap its unbelievable. Doing away with BR was the worst mistake ever, they really knew how to run the railways on the meagre money the government allowed them, today's train operators are just crap.
apparently the MTU engines have far lower CO2 output, quieter etc etc. well bollocks to that! bring back the valentas and the billion decibels and huge clouds of smoke/shit we used to have!!!!
Hmm true, but the meagre money allotted to BR by the Government, in my opinion, is one of the root causes of BR's problems. Plus, you then have the political crap to factor in as well.
