Prototype HST workings

[AY1975]

The prototype HST has already been mentioned in several threads in passing but I can't find a thread on prototype HST workings as such, so I thought I'd start one as a follow-on to the recent thread on 50 years of production HSTs in passenger service at https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-production-hsts-in-passenger-service.305636/

AFAIK the prototype HST started test runs in about 1973 and ran in revenue service, mainly between London Paddington and both Bristol/Weston-super-Mare and Cardiff/Swansea, from at least May until the autumn of 1975. Does anyone have any more details of which services it worked?

 

[Martyr]

AFAIK the prototype HST started test runs in about 1973 and ran in revenue service, mainly between London Paddington and both Bristol/Weston-super-Mare and Cardiff/Swansea, from at least May until the autumn of 1975. Does anyone have any more details of which services it worked?

From my own experience and records of when I had an All-Line Railrover ticket in July 1975 I can say that at that time it was - I think - scheduled to make two round trips a day out of Paddington to at least Bristol Temple Meads. On Friday 18th July 1975 it was scheduled to work the 1015 to Weston-super-Mare and I was all set to travel on it as far as Bath. However, when I got to Paddington I found class 50 haulage instead.

Conversely, on Tuesday 22nd July I'd been aiming to get a 1040 service to Swansea, but when I got to Paddington found the prototype HST was this time on the 1015 Weston service. So as not to disrupt my itinerary too much I had a ride on it as far as Reading, arriving at 1049.

The two things that have remained with me from my first ride on an HST was the rate of acceleration, and the internal doors which seemed to open themselves. (Whatever would they think of next?)