Photos, videos and docs of Jon Searles, with the keywords: "HST"

Intercity 125 Cardiff-Newport, UK, 2014

nobody@ipernity.com (Jon Searles) — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 12:41:59 +0000

This is the first of a series of short railfan videos that I took out of train windows while traveling from Cardiff to Prague. "Railfan" is an important qualifier here. I didn't expect any of these videos to be spectacular by themselves, Instead, they're aimed primarily (maybe only) at railfans who like to watch high-speed train videos. Technically, in modern terms, these Intercity 125 diesel trains, introduced in 1976, aren't high-speed in the modern sense. This is because their maximum legal speed is, and has always been, 125 m.p.h., or about 200 km/h, while the threshold for modern high-speed trains is about 210 km/h, set by the Japanese Series 0 bullet trains in 1966. However, the Series 0 bullet trains ran at 200 km/h from 1964 to 1966, and when the Intercity 125 diesel trains were being developed by British Railways in the 1970s, they were referred to as, literally, "High Speed Trains," or HSTs. Today, they're still often called HSTs, and remain some of the fastest diesel trains in the world, 39 years after being introduced to regular service.

First Great Western Intercity 125 in Cardiff Central Station, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales (UK), 2014

nobody@ipernity.com (Jon Searles) — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 14:07:43 +0000

Jon Searles has posted:

This was my train, still worked by an Intercity 125 after all these years. These trainsets date to 1976, but in some respects they're still the most advanced diesel passenger trains in the world. At the moment, I'm also unaware of anything faster than them, although some DMU's and ICE-TD variants can match them.

FGW Intercity 125 New Interior, London Paddington, London, England (UK), 2013

nobody@ipernity.com (Jon Searles) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 20:10:56 +0000

Jon Searles has posted:

This is yet another renovation of the BR-era Intercity 125's interior, this time for First Great Western. I was taking this train directly to Cardiff from London Paddington.

FGW Class 43 At Cardiff Central, Cardiff, Wales (UK), 2008

nobody@ipernity.com (Jon Searles) — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:13:35 +0000

Jon Searles has posted:

This was the first of many trains I had to take to get home to Prague, this one being an Intercity 125 for London Paddington. I never got the number, but on magnifying the photo I'm fairly certain that this lead Class 43 power unit was #43192.

FGW Class 43's in London Paddington, London, England (UK), 2008

nobody@ipernity.com (Jon Searles) — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:13:36 +0000

Jon Searles has posted:

I took this as we were arriving into Paddington, and reflections off the safety glass or not, I still like it. I have no idea about the numbers of the trains this time, of course.

Intercity 125 and Class 165 DMU In London Paddington Station, London, England(UK), 2007

nobody@ipernity.com (Jon Searles) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:54:43 +0000

Jon Searles has posted:

This was my train to Cardiff, on the left. It's obviously a rebuilt Intercity 125, but I don't remember if this was one of the reengined ones.