Recent content by sprinterguy

156s were working through to Wick via Thurso by autumn 1996 (no separate shuttle), and that's around four years before the 158s took over.

3 hours 27 minutes was the fastest (and fairly typical) time between Inverness and Georgemas Junction with 156s in 1997, and around 4 hours 10 minutes for the full journey through to Wick via Thurso.

And at the best part of any other terminal platforms at major UK stations, for that matter. Newcastle and Carlisle come to mind local to me, to name a couple.

810003 has had an outing from Derby to Stoke and back via Uttoxeter this afternoon: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K00097/2026-08-04/detailed https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K00096/2026-08-04/detailed

Hal o' the Wynd was a character in one of Walter Scott's 'Waverley' novels, the name first being applied in a railway context to one of the North British 'Scott' class 4-4-0s, subsequently passing to a Peppercorn A1 Pacific and latterly to a class 87 electric locomotive.

Ah, yes so it was. I'm losing track of which 390s have had Railway 200/Greatest Gathering affiliations - it's more than I thought!

No worries, it's easily done. :) 1785500784 So it did, which I hadn't realised until you mentioned it, so I've learnt something there. It was definitely 016 that made it to Derby, though.

Quite right, I made sure to note that in my post.

It was renumbered (or more accurately, additionally numbered - it's still registered as and carries 390016) for The Greatest Gathering at Derby as part of the Railway 200 celebrations last August. [EDIT: For the press launch of Railway 200 at the start of last year, ahead of The Greatest Gathering]

That helps to explain why it's the Railway 200 renumbered Pendolino that they've sent over then, thanks for the info.

Already being discussed in this thread here, though the occasion hasn't been fully established: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/pendolino-at-paddington.305302/ It's the unit that was renumbered for Railway 200, so I don't know whether that has any significance.

Colin J. Marsden in "The Second Generation DMUs" states that it was tested on the Matlock branch in spring 1981 prior to being touted to the PTEs, but I haven't been able to find any other supporting references or photos myself.

They've shown digital renders and one pre-production sample for promotional purposes, but there's nothing there that needs to be physically remade: The production models may well be being manufactured now for delivery towards the end of this year, but Hornby have been quite savvy in offering the...

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Having spent some time squinting hard at photos of the set that just had the driving cars vinyled and questioning the evidence of my senses, I'm happy to accept that. Thank you for that, that makes the patch painting make a lot more sense to me. Always looked bright white to me when they were...