Sunday 15th & Saturday 21st December 2019, saw the London North Eastern Railway Class 43 HSTs bow out of service after 41 years on the East Coast Mainline (ECML).
This is due to LNER bringing in their new Hitachi Class 800 Azumas into service to replace the HSTs & Class 91s (InterCity 125s & InterCity 225s)
This very sad occasion saw powercars such as:
- 43316
- 43238
- 43257
- 43318
- 43317
- 43290
The Final was the 1D30 19:35, London Kings Cross to Leeds service with 43318 & 43257.
To bid farewell to their HSTs, LNER organised a four-day farewell tour for their HSTs. For this railtour LNER hired in Heritage Painting to paint a full set into the original BR blue, grey & yellow livery the HSTs carried from the 70s to the 80s.
The powercars painted in this livery were 43102 (43302) (the world record-breaking HST powercar that achieved 148MPH with 43159) & 43112 (43312)
Sunday 15th December saw RailView film the HSTs final services at Doncaster.
The farewell tour would travel through Scotland and on the ECML.
Day 1. Edinburgh Waverley to Inverness
Day 2. Inverness to Edinburgh Waverley
Day 3. Edinburgh Waverley to Leeds
Day 4. Leeds to London Kings Cross
After the farewell tour, the HST set would head from London Kings Cross to Craigentinny TRSMD to await their fate.
Day 4 of the farewell tour from Leeds to London Kings Cross would see the tour travel through stations such as Wakefield Westgate, Doncaster, Retford, Newark Northgate, Grantham, Peterborough, Stevenage, Hitchin & Finsbury Park.
Sunday 21st December saw RailView film the farewell tour & ECS at Adwick & Doncaster.
Adwick, passing through at 11:28, 3 minutes early.
Doncaster, passing through at 18:51, on time.
Here are a few photos of the LNER HSTs on their last day, farewell tour and previous times before:
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Farewell Intercity 125 HSTs. Will LNER keep some the rolling stocks as the Azuma Class 800 and Class 801 IETs have started operating on the East Coast Main Line.