The Great HST Hunt
 

I have now decided on the final adventures I will be doing. There are going to be 3 more 'escapades' this year. The final one is 'top secret' and is an idea I have been working on for ages. Anyway, more on that later.......

However before then I am going to do 2 where I am going after one of the best trains in the country but currently facing an uncertain future, the HST.
As GNER are going this year, I will start with them in August. Having not ever been on a GNER HST before I am after one of the non-refurbished ones. There is an 83% chance of getting one and I am travelling on two, and there are no set diagrams for the refurbished sets. What would be an unexpected result is travel on a refurbished one but also a non-refurbished one.

The second one I plan to do is go after one of the summer Saturday HSTs. Now that Virgin have lost the XC franchise and so have NX have lost MML, that could now mean this will be the last year to see an HST (especially an MML liveried HST) in Manchester. So that is the planned line up for now anyway.

Good luck David. I hope you plans work out for you. The HST's are great trains and have served the railways well over many years.
Here's a picture of one taken before you were born:D
http://www.railwayforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2962&cat=501

Best of luck David, and enjoy yourself.

Although I'm not a fan of the Deltic-killers myself. :mad: :D

Well I have the tickets for part one, what is interesting about this is that I really do not know exactly what will turn up (well apart from the fact it will be an HST of some sort, unless they have swapped it for a 67 hauled 225 set ;) ). Will be interesting to compare the service GNER offer compared to Virgin when I travelled with them in June.

Hi John,
Thats a great shot of the HST power car. That was my favourite livery.
Paul.

Thanks Paul. Just for old times sake I will put a few more shots of HST's in the gallery.:)

Im back!
 

Well that probability didn't let me down. I ended up getting two GNER non refurbished HST sets which was the type I was after :) . Have to say though that the journey going down onboard the first HST was really exciting. I loved it when we left Doncaster and went at high speed down the ECML. The sound of the HST at high speed and the clash sound made by the passing GNER trains coming the other way. This was one of the best journeys I have ever done where speed is concerned. Also it was funny when there were parts on the journey where the train began to 'tilt' and the mugs on the tables began to 'jingle' their way to the end, with one of the staff having to walk quickly down the coach and push them all back into position :D .

Now that it was been confirmed that GNER are going in favour of NX (ironically there was an article on this in the Times newspaper I was given onboard!) I am really glad I have travelled with them yesterday. With the mix of sunshine and heavy rain this made for an really interesting array of photos which I will try and post onto my site later tonight (21:00 approx). Also included are some photos of the other trains I travelled on (including TPX 170) and around the stations (got a picture of the Scarbrough Spa Express at Leeds). The HST hunt has now begun :) .

Great stuff. Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself. Look forward to seeing your photos.

Photos are now up:

http://www.davidhicks.fotopic.net/c1349343.html

Thanks for sharing your photos David.......very enjoyable. I assume that Central Trains were terminating at Newark Castle because of the "Lincoln Blockade" described in Alan's(andersley) thread.

Yes, the train services were diagrammed for Nottingham-Newark Castle with replacement buses going to Lincoln.

Here comes part 2!
 

Now, get ready for the conclusion. What is going to happen? Well this one I am really excited about, I even booked this before I did the journey to Newark to make sure I had a seat as I wasnlt sure how many people would be after it! Anyway, 'The Great HST Hunt: Part 2' is in 5 days time. I am onboard a final Virgin Holidaymaker HST.

Since this time last year I did that journey down to Swansea, I have been thinking of something which could be longer than that, and now I have got it, which makes this the biggest 'railway escapade' ever done.

Im back from my trip and it was fantastic! I loved my arrival into Manchester that morning to see a HST back in the platforms. The HST journey was great and I was suprised how popular this service was, almost every seat reserved as I looked through each coach. I went down to Weston-super-Mare for the day, and th weather was great.

Photos now up on the site:
http://www.davidhicks.fotopic.net/c1367683.html

http://images.fotopic.net/yoqqee.jpg