Class 43 Locomotives in Scotland illustrates High Speed Trains (HSTs) operating services throughout Scotland since their introduction in the late 1970s.

Published in June 2025 by Amberley Publishing and written by Colin J. Howat, this soft-cover book measures around 23.4 cm x 16.5 cm, has 96 pages and 180 illustrations.

It has a published price of £15.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and for £12.39 from Amazon.

A four-page introduction, which describes the background to the development of the Class 43 High Speed Trains, is followed by photographs illustrating High Speed Trains throughout the length and breadth of Scotland.

The introduction provides a very brief summary of services operated by HSTs, but it would have been useful if more details were included about the lines and services they operate.

The introduction also refers to them being allocated to Craigentinny in Edinburgh, Inverness, and Cadder, near Glasgow, but omits to reveal how many were allocated to each depot.

With HSTs having been introduced in 1975, it is reasonable that the first few photographs in the book are in black-and-white, such as the ones below.

However, they set a precedent for poor captions, where the bridge in the upper image is not the Montrose Basin Girder Bridge as in the caption, but has the more formal title of the South Esk Viaduct.

The lower image refers to a Central to Birmingham service, but whether this was a Central Trains service or a service from a station named Central is left to the reader’s imagination.

Poor captions are perpetuated with the images below, such as the lower left caption, which refers to East Midlands livery, when it is actually Virgin Trains’ East Coast livery.

The caption at the top right refers to the train arriving in Edinburgh, but for completeness and to help the reader, it would have been preferable to mention that it was at Edinburgh Waverley.

It also mentions a Class 322 behind the HST, but with a minimal view of the unit, it could be almost any type of unit.

The lower-right caption notes first-class coaches immediately behind the locomotive, but that formation doesn’t warrant being mentioned, as it is a regular occurrence.

The captions throughout the book refer to the set length by e.g. 2+8 rather than a 10-car unit.

However, when captioning short sets, as in the lower two images below, the common terminology is to refer to them as Inter7City sets, a nomenclature referred to in the Introduction, but avoided elsewhere in the book.

The caption at the top right refers to a train at Central, leaving the reader to assume that it is Glasgow Central.

With such a narrow subject, the book could have been improved with more detailed captions, such as including the name of the operator, especially as over their 50 years of service, they were used by different operators.

The right-hand photo below is another example of an Inter7City set, unidentified as such. This caption, along with most others in the book, also includes where the unit is allocated, in this case [HA], which is irrelevant unless an HST set is operating away from its normal base.

Class 43 Locomotives in Scotland – The High Speed Trains appears to be the author’s project to see a collection of his photographs in print, but the result does not do justice to his efforts.

Many photographs are of average quality, often being over-saturated, of poor definition, or of average clarity and composition.

There is a serious lack of attention to ensuring the captions are interesting and accurate, with most captions including depot allocation codes, which are superfluous unless a set is operating outside its normal route.

There is an excessive randomness about the layout of the book, with many page pairs having an arbitrary selection of locations, such as Inverness, the Forth Bridge, Carnousite, and Kilmarnock, or Haymarket in Edinburgh, Abington on the West Coast Main Line, and Arisaig on the West Highland line.

The book would have been better divided into sections depicting particular lines, such as the Highland, East Coast, and West Coast main lines.

Although the photographs depict sets from different operators, there is no list of operators or the services they operated.

Overall, the book gives a fair appreciation of High Speed Trains operating throughout Scotland, but it seems to have been compiled with little thought to its overall presentation.

Considering the above comments, we can only recommend the book to HST aficionados or those who collect Scotland-related railway books, thus earning it a 3.5/5 rating.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.