The InterCity 125 or High Speed Train (HST) is a diesel-powered high-speed passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1975 and 1982. A total of 95 sets were produced, each comprising two Class 43 power cars, one at each end, and a rake of seven or eight Mark 3 coaches. The name is derived from its top operational speed of 125 mph (201 km/h). At times, the sets have been classified as British Rail Classes 253, 254 and 255.
InterCity was a brand name introduced by British Rail in 1966 for its long-haul express passenger services.
The British Rail Class 488 are unpowered trailer sets, converted from Mark 2F coaches for the Gatwick Express service from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport.
A number of different numbering and classification schemes were used for locomotives and multiple units operated by British Railways (BR), and this page explains the principal systems. This section also covers the post-privatisation period, as the broad numbering and classification arrangements have not altered since the break-up of BR.
A number of different numbering and classification schemes have been used for carriages and wagons on Britain's railways, and this page explains the principal systems. Carriages and wagons have frequently had similar arrangements for classification and numbering, so are considered together. There are also links to other pages that deal in greater depth with the particulars of individual types.
Before the TOPS Class 97 was issued to self-propelled locomotives in departmental use, British Rail had such locomotives numbered in a variety of series, together with locomotives that were no longer self-propelled.
The British Rail Mark 3 is a type of passenger carriage developed in response to growing competition from airlines and the car in the 1970s. A variant of the Mark 3 became the rolling stock for the High Speed Train (HST).
The Southern Railway (SR) gave the designation 4-LAV to the electric multiple units built to work the semi-fast services on the route between London and Brighton. None of these units survived long enough in British Rail ownership to be allocated a TOPS class.
The British Rail Class 307 electric multiple units were built by BR at Eastleigh Works from 1954 to 1956. They were initially classified as AM7 before the introduction of TOPS.
The British Rail Class 41 were two powercars built in 1972 by British Rail Engineering Limited's Crewe Works to operate with the prototype High Speed Train (HST) with Mark 3 carriages.
The British Rail Class 43 (HST) is the TOPS classification used for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train diesel-electric power cars, built by British Rail Engineering Limited from 1975 to 1982, and in service in the UK since 1976.
The New Measurement Train (NMT), nicknamed the Flying Banana, is a specialised train which operates in the United Kingdom to assess the condition of track so that engineers can determine where to work. It is a specially converted InterCity 125, consisting of two Class 43 power cars and five or six Mark 3 carriages. It can check the condition of most main lines and some secondary routes operating on a four weekly cycle. This cycle replaced its original 13-week cycle after the introduction of the Plain Line Pattern Recognition (PLPR) Design Patrolling Program.
The SNCF TGV Sud-Est was a French high speed TGV train built by Alstom and Francorail-MTE and operated by SNCF, the French national railway company. A total of 111 trainsets were built between 1978 and 1988 for the first TGV service in France between Paris and Lyon which opened in 1981. The trainsets were semi-permanently coupled, consisting of two power cars (locomotives) and eight articulated passenger carriages, ten in the case of the tri-voltage sets. The trains were named after the Ligne à Grande Vitesse Sud-Est that they first operated on. They were also referred to as TGV-PSE, an abbreviation of Paris Sud-Est.
Neville Hill is a railway train maintenance depot in Osmondthorpe, Leeds, England on the Leeds to Selby Line. The depot is situated 2 miles 14 chains (3.5 km) to the east of Leeds railway station on the north side of the line.
For more than a century, the Swiss locomotive, multiple unit, motor coach and railcar classification system, in either its original or updated forms, has been used to name and classify the rolling stock operated on the railways of Switzerland. It started out as a uniform system for the classification and naming of all rolling stock, powered and unpowered, but had been replaced and amended by the UIC classification of goods wagons.
The Paxman Valenta, also known as Y3J and RP200, is a diesel fuelled internal combustion engine formerly made by Paxman in Colchester, England. It was originally developed for, and previously used in the British Rail (BR) Class 43 diesel-electric locomotives, a pair of which powered the InterCity 125 High Speed Train (HST) in a push-pull train set configuration. The Valenta has also been used for electricity generation in diesel generators on offshore oil rig platforms in British waters.
Departmental locomotives on the London Underground consist of vehicles of a number of types which are used for engineering purposes. These include battery locomotives, diesel locomotives, electric locomotives, sleet locomotives, pilot motor cars and ballast motor cars. Details of the first four types are covered elsewhere. Pilot motor cars and ballast motor cars are generally vehicles which have been withdrawn from passenger service, but continue to be used by the engineering department. Pilot motor cars are used to move other vehicles around the system, while ballast motor cars are used to haul ballast trains and engineering trains.
The first passenger carriages of the Victorian Railways (VR) were fixed-wheel, with a mixture of first- and second-class bodies on either four- or six-wheeled underframes. They were built to the British side-loading, swing-door, cross bench compartment (non-corridor) style; later a saloon style was used to a limited extent, featuring fewer doors per side and perimeter seating - which increased total capacity by allowing more standing passengers.
Terence Charles Barry Miller, MBE was an English railway engineer who rose to become Chief Engineer for British Rail.
The 125 Group is a railway heritage group in England dedicated to the preservation of the InterCity 125s.
