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Today we are taking a look at one of the most legendary trains not just in the United Kingdom, but in the entire world: the InterCity 125. Launched over 50 years ago, this train set broke records for what was possible with modern diesel trains at the time and completely transformed Britain’s railway network.
But with so much history behind them, these trains have become increasingly unreliable and troublesome. So join me in today’s video as we take one of the last remaining HST sets in Britain for a ride in Scotland – a journey that did not quite go as planned.
Train type: Class 43 (Intercity 125 / HST)
Route: Aberdeen to Edinburgh
Train: 09:05 ABD EDB
Distance: 130 miles
Journey time: 2h18m
Average speed: 56 mph
Price: from £33
00:00 Intro
00:40 Station Tour
02:43 Intercity 125 (HST)
04:28 Aberdeen Depature
05:04 Route Map
05:29 Heating is BROKEN!
06:08 Stunning Northsea Sunrise
06:20 Stonehaven
06:38 HST Crash and Reliablity Issues
07:35 Seat Tour in First Class
08:20 Dundee and Tay bridge
09:12 Train Tour
10:38 Cupar
10:52 Forth Rail Bridge
11:20 Future of the HST
11:35 Ticket Prices and Value
11:57 Overall Thoughts
12:38 Edinburgh Arrival
#Travel #Trains #TripReport
12 Comments
2:39 The fouth operator is lner
It's such a shame that these class 43's and the class 91 225's are being retired, although I understand the reasons why. They offered a combination of both speed and comfort that modern class 800's don't come close to matching
Yes – ground breaking trains, and even their direct replacements on the ECML (The IC225 sets with a class 91 loco and mk4 carriages) didn't ride as well as the mk3s in the HST – let alone the Azumas! There again, the 125 sets seemed to be getting tired and rough riding in their last days on the ECML and that was getting on for 20 years ago! The ScotRail refurbishment looks nice, but not a fan of tartan carpet – you can have a bit too much of Scottish cliches!
Never been on these, but now we’ll need to deal with the class 800
The HSTs will always have a special place in my heart for being the most iconic and revolutionary trains not just in the UK, but in the entire world. It's not surprising that these trains are falling apart, hence why every single other UK operator have retired them (most recently being GWR retiring their Castle sets over a month ago), however it's also good to see many of them still being used in other countries, such as Mexico.
Broken heating is unacceptable in winter – refund, what refund? – but glad you got to make one more journey and that you missed the snow problems in January. (We don't cope well with anything resembling a snowdrift nowadays…)
Yeah, top speed used to be a bit more, especially "unofficially" when the ECML around Peterborough had 140 mph stretches.
Great video thanks long live hst
Hopefully the Midland Pullman and other private chartered railtours will operate these iconic machines for many more years to come.
Great video as always. I'm going between Inverness and Edinburgh in less than a month, hope I get lucky with this InterCity 125.
Looks like they'll be replaced by class 222 meridians. Also another temporary measure lol as scotland plan to electrify their entire network and purchase EMUs with batteries embedded in them to traverse unelectrified gaps. The 222s are also looking pretty tired and will def need a full refurb before heading off to scotland.
The seats look damn good. I think we could learn a little here in DK.
Broken train heating is far too common, here, and it isn't limited to old trains like these.