Following the handover of 43102, one of the power cars involved in the record-breaking test run, to the National Railway Museum at Shildon, the other power car involved in the run, 43159, has, since withdrawal, faced a less certain future.
The Class 43 has been stored since its final run with Great Western Railway in April 2019.
However, the 125 Group has announced that Porterbrook has donated the powercar to them.
The 125 Group says that normally they selected vehicles based on condition, rather than their painted number, but they have said that historical significance did play a part in the case of 43159.
The 125 Group are now in a unique position as they can now tell the story of the HSTs history, with 43044, a Valenta fitted, marston cooled power car, two VP185 powercars in 43048 and 43089 and the MTU powercar in 43159.
All of these powercars will be maintained to an operational standard with mainline certification.
To go alongside the powercars are nine coaches which are owned by the group.
A spokesperson for the 125 Group said “125 Group again wishes to place on record its sincerest gratitude to Porterbrook for their amazing generosity in supporting our aims, but also wishes to thank its own members, for their support and financial backing to bring this small fleet of HSTs into the preservation circle.”
If you would like to support the 125 Group, then please visit their website here.
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I am very Happy for Porterbrook to gave their 43159 to 125 Group because I am member of 125 Group since 2010 support them already
Wonderful news. ❤️
Not much good without MK3 carriages ! Back up for the Blue Pullman?