Intercity Trains Back on the West Coast Main Line 

Good on those young fellas at Piccadilly. Gladdens the heart to see that the same affection for the railways exists now like it always did. Nice one lads.

Seeing those young lads all enthusiastic about rail travel has literally made my day. What pleasant people, good luck to all of them.

Thanks for having me on the channel Geoff! 🫡(And thanks for bringing the good weather after my southbound from Crewe was a washout earlier that day!) ☀️ 🌧

Geoff reacting to that door is like me reacting to a car where you adjust the window manually. 😂

Good to see a group of young people enjoying the train

It ran yesterday. I saw it at Chelford.

Those seats look so comfortable. I hope this service is still running when I make it back to England. Great video!

I remember these locomotives and rolling stock first time around it's incredible to see them back in action again on the WCML. The MK3 coaches are possibly the best coaches ever built and knock the socks off of all other modern stock for ride and comfort. Hard to believe they are over 40 years old. Let's gone this is a success.

1:47 BRB SCREAMING RN! I mean, I AM LIVING for this collab 🔥

Yes a great nostalgic train 😆 it’s fantastic seeing the young ones loving the 87s and fabulous coaches 🤣 Piccadilly is one of my local stations back in my train spotting days in the 70s so I can remember the transformation from old to new on the west coast main line 🤩 Great video as always Geoff 👍🏻

Lovely to see two of my favourite RU-vidrs on the same video. Looks like a great service.

A proper train.

Is it just me or was the imagequality better before Geoff's cameraman got the beer?

Great Video. My dad worked for the railways and once a year we would go on holiday to ither Cardiff, Bristol and sometimes Redding, that was the days of steam, and the carriages were corridor carriages, I would wander the full length of the train, The doors were slamy doors and the windows had leather straps to lower and lift them. The smell of the steam engines was something else, if I encounter that smell now it takes me straight back to my childhood. Ahhh wonderful memories!!

Thank-you so much for this video Geoff. This really was the train of my childhood. I was born less than 300 yards from the line in Stafford and grew up in a house with a direct view of the line at Rodbaston , south of Penkridge. Watched the trains go by as I did the washing up from the age of six, most drawn by 8Fs in those days I think. I saw the first electric loco - and its internals through plexiglass - at Stafford station, must’ve been in ‘63 or ‘64. My first journey on my own by train from Stafford to London was to go to the ‘69 motor show Earls Court. Not the kind of journey you forget.

very cool to see you and Paul together! Big fan of both of your channels

Nice to meet you Geoff that day, always a pleasure and glad to see you had fun, it was an immense journey that took me back in time! :)

I’m 3rd generation RailwayMan and I also grew up on travelling on the EBW (EUS-BHM-WVH) services and when I eventually joined British Rail 👍🏻 I did a stint as a Signaller on the Trent at Lichfield Trent Valley (WCML) where every day its was Intercity mk2, mk3, cl86, cl87 & cl90. Thundering pass my Box

Ayyyyy!! I met you that day :)

No way! Didn't not expect Paul in there, what a hero

I love Paul! What a crossover!!

Worth it just for the comfy seats, the open windows you can see out of, presumably, not being bombarded by constant announcements or getting whacked over the head every five minutes by passers by.

This video made me think back to a 70-ies night journey in a Mk1 compartment, all the way from Scotland to London. And I don't know if there's a connection with the slam doors/sliding windows, but if you take 6x60=360 and then subtract the 6x2=12 you end up with 348 without using a calculator. Aaahh, there's nurse with my hot cocoa !

Hey Geoff!! Great video. Keep up the good work!

I think I have been on an Inter-City - I do remember the 'Slam-door' & the 'Slidy' windows thou!!! 😉🚂🚂🚂

What a joy! I second the comments about seat comfort, it's maddening that we have such poor comfort in comparison. Also, great to see such enthusiastic youngsters, are trains cool at last?

That's how train travel should be. Comfortable seats and windows you can see out of. I miss these Mk3 Greater Anglia coaches.

I just LOVE seeing all the young folks so interested in railways!

bathroom is the same as in the GA MKIII's on the Liverpool st line (miss those damn trains used to take em all the time!)

Old stuff just looks better. My favorite part seeing that "bashing" is still a thing over there in the UK. Not something that ever was a thing in the US. That being said, how I wish a could flail and window hang behind some Amtrak P42s. Awesome video Geoff!

Hi Geoff, Great video, good to meet you on board..… and my little one, she did that Rubix cube in 1 min 38s..

I used to get those Greater Anglia trains between Liverpool St and Norwich to get to uni, wish they were this nice then!

Thanks

OMG is so nice to old stock still being used!

What a great nostalgic trip. I caught the evening "Pullman" a couple of times from Euston on a Friday night back in the mid-80s - the livery, the 87 and the Mark III brought all those memories back, though I'm thinking they were possibly 86s hauling back then ...

Slidey windows, slammy doors and Paul Lucas - this has made my evening!!

Slam doors are now a heritage thing??? But what a great nostalgia trip, comfortable seats with a buffet and no overcrowding. Great to see Paul in the video too.

Now that's what you call a comfy train ride! Those seats looked plush Geoff, I definitely would have nodded off. Thanks Geoff. 😎

Very nostalgic in the eighties I traveled back and forth to Manchester on these trains , wonderful stuff ☯️☮️❤️

Seeing those locos and livery,brings back memories of my commute between Preston and Euston every weekend in the early 90's

Awesome video Geoff! I love your videos 😀

I love these old trains. So nostalgic.

Omg Geoff and Paul, great to see you do a video together on what is clearly such a shared passion 😁

That was splendid.

I don’t think there’s ever been a better coach than the mark 3 I remember as a boy being on the Royal Scot being hauled by Patriot 87003 the memories.

Toilets for sure upgraded from what I remember! There was a cloth towel roll dispenser that would probably break a bunch of health codes now, and a button on the floor that you'd step on to get water to come out of the sink, and sometimes it worked! I also remember as a kid stealing all the little tablets of soap from the toilet! There for sure was never a push button flush. Great video Geoff, love your stuff! Currently watching the videos all the way from Hawaii! Used to take the 87's on MK3 from Euston to Preston as a kid! Always remember the smell of cigars in the smoking coach at the back :)

oh! MEMORIES. Thank for this.

Geoff you'll be happy to hear my daily commute bus passes the elbow window test with flying colours!

Great train. It looks in great nick too. Total nostalgia.

SLIDEY WINDOWS, SLAMMY DOORS and Paul, amazing!

I used to use these trains weekly in the late 90s between Stockport and MKC, great trains and very comfortable, great video btw!

Seeing that intercity train took me back to 1991

I also love old things like old trains for example

Yay. Geoff is back. We still have a lot of inter City models in Denmark. They are quite nice. They are called IC3 and was supposed to be relived by the IC4 from an Italian manufacturer. Needless to say they (IC4) are not in service. They were like the Princess car. More in the shop than on the tracks. It's a really great horrible story. Set the Danish railways back something like 600 mill euros. And this was in the late 90ies and early 00s. You should look it up if you have time Geoff and fancy going abroad.🇩🇰

I worked at Euston in the early 80s and remember the 87s all queued up in the engine sidings, no DVT then. And watching the incoming engine follow the coaches out up to the. End of platform signal. Nice to see them being used again.

Skipping work to watch this video seems appropriate!?

Great to see the two of you together!

My late Dad worked on the cab electronics when th HST was first built at Crewe works

Definitely the trains of my childhood! Honestly, I kinda miss the manual doors and the sound they would make when you closed them. :)

I don’t mind old as long as they’re electric. Pretty cool. Usually the slidey windows and slammy door coaches are associated with old and very polluting diesel locomotives so I’m happy to see this. Wouldn’t mind seeing more trains like this running.

There are some good thinking young people glory glory 💪💪💪✌️✌️✌️

cool video Geoff as always

Thank you for the video. I've often seen these charters mentioned but they never seem to run when I have time off, luckily I have annual leave booked and nothing planned so have booked a Euston to Manchester Piccadilly trip.

Agree with you about the comfort levels in the modern WCML stock. The last trip down from Scotland to London I ended up sitting on a fold-down seat in an usused disabled area because I was so uncomfortable in the claustrophobic airline style seating. It's quite put me off using the train again on that route, and I now drive down.

I wish them all the luck in the world. I think there's a demand for this type of service. 👍

Fabulous just fabulous Ex secondman BR.

Some of us remember class 86, when it was still called AL6, with E numbers, and mark 2 carriages on the WCML. 🤣

Swallow livery is great, also looks good on the HST 125.... Re: HST 125, can anything beat the original Flying Banana livery?

Slammy doors made me cry AAAAHhhhhhhh in happiness. Judging by the tripod mounted camera and the resulting shot, looks like a pretty smooth ride. Though for sure you would run in to Jen, given you are going to Manchester

Oh the 87s take me back to being a boy, just about remember the intercity liveried ones and then they got repainted in the greeny/blue Anglia Railways

Great video once again Geoff! I can remember trains back in the 70's and 80's here in the Netherlands where you had to open and close them yourselves. However we also had a door handle on the inside! I remember on a school trip back in 1983 that some kids opened the (sliding) doors way before the train had come to a full stop at the platform. Very dangerous!

Yes I’m in full agreement we should bring back the old trains including the old engines with perhaps more modernised interior like this one.If this is going so well as it is at the moment, is it likely this will continue indefinitely? I’d love to travel on one of these classic intercity trains again though I do like the newer ones at the same time.

reminds me of the MAKE 3's that ran the manchester pullman with 6 first class and 2 buffet/restauant cars and dvt with either a class 87 or 90

Geoff and Paul Lucas in the same video! I don’t know if the highlight now is this meet up or the Intercity branding. I guess we know what Paul’s next video is! Honestly, I am surprised how few people were on this train.

Five star coverage

So much nostalgia behind this. So sad that I didn't even get to see it even though it went to Birmingham International. 😒😔

I’ve got to book a ticket now⚡️👍😉

We need one from Paddington to Cardiff!

Fantastic! These days I ride German ICE and Regio Trains. The ICE is comfortable, but these look bliss.

Enjoyed that. Great to see the 87 again. Although, in my youth I preferred the 86 as I thought the 87 looked too modern!

Lovely carriages just like the German Eurofirma’s

From what I remember of these at greater anglia about 5-10 years ago, the water for the hand basin was operated by a foot pump on the floor, and the toilet flushed onto the track. I don’t know if they upgraded this after I stopped using those trains though.

identity 1Z41, FO - 26/08/2022 to 09/09/2022, Unadvertised Express what a gem, needs more advertising :)

Hi Geoff great to see Paul, I wonder if he will do a review of the train

Great idea... maybe early days, but not many passengers.

*Loving this!!!* I know if I get the chance (assuming LSL can get another run of this at the end of Summer '23) I will be so obsessed by it! 110 mph on a loco-hauled train!!! 😱😱🤯🤯😍😍 This is almost as good as German train speeds, but bettered by the fact that it's still Britain!!! 😍 _"With Love"_ from Australia!!! 💖💖

Such a cool train!

Best BR livery ever! British railway engineering at its best!!

The Guy at Piccadilly with the Crewe Electric Depot Plaque is incorrect 1 Class 87 actually DID wear one the Unique 87101 sadly scrapped many years ago luckily part of it does survive at Crewe Heritage Centre from memory

Wot about the poor old Class 86? 😪😪 Great vid Geoff!

I'm sure someone else has commented but yes, the toilets are the same as they were just when GA took them out of service on the London to Norwich mainline service.

Now, if only we had a chance to drop in on the equivalent of these pages just as the Pendolino was introduced. I'm pretty sure that there would be few if any such glowing tributes to trains of this ilk. We humans are saps ~ ooh shiny, sparkly, tilty train ~ the joy of the new instantly nixing the tired old stock!

I saw this train when I am on the train to work from Manchester. Wanted to take a picture but it’s too late.

Funny how the 80s-90s-early 00s are making a comeback, and how people prefer those times, I bet more heritage trains start making comebacks, next I hope to see a slam door Network South East train from Charing Cross down to Kent! I loved see the old NSE liveries in the 1990s as a child.

That Birmingham International fact….. Yeah I learned that the hard way last month 🤣🤣

Paul is very handsome. I would love to hug him 🥰

I used those coaches several times on Greater Anglia before the 745s were brought on. The bathrooms look the same from what I remember. They're a lot nicer now they've been refurbished with those comfortable seats, which is the main downside of the new trains.

I wish I could travel on British trains again but the fares cost five times what I am used to abroad - and that is travelling 1st class. It is a pity because the car is slow and one gets stressed finding somewhere to park at the end and I love railways.

I hope my seat on GWR Paddington to Cardiff in October is as comfy.

Penny 🇳🇿says: I got excited because for a minute there, I thought you were in New Zealand and telling me we had an Intercity service back in NZ on the West Coast. Damn, it wasn’t true…I recognise all the designs and logo myself but from here in NZ. Passenger services are almost dead here 😩