Northern and CrossCountry staged a ceremony for staff at Neville Hill depot on September 23 to mark the end of the more than four-decade association between the depot and HSTs. The depot is now entirely run by Northern, but manager Andy Marden has worked with HSTs since 1987, with time spent at both Laira and Neville Hill. No. 43184 is pictured on display, while Nos. 43007/43008 were being prepped for the September 26 railtour, and No. 43304 was having a traction motor change – indicating, perhaps, that it was not being retired just yet.
CHRIS GEE
THE final CrossCountry HST in public service ran on Monday, September 18, but the preceding week had been full of interest as enthusiasts came out in force to see the last of these long-distance inter-city workings.
There had been two remaining diagrams in the summer timetable, running Monday-Saturday: 1V44/06.12 Leeds-Plymouth then 1S51/12.27 Plymouth-Glasgow Central; and 1V50/06.06 Edinburgh-Plymouth then 1E63/15.27 Plymouth-Leeds.
Tuesday, September 12 was a normal day with Nos. 43303/43304 working 1V44/1S51 and Nos. 43321/43378 on 1V50/1E63. However, there was disruption on the following day after a person was hit by a train in the Newton Abbot area. Nos. 43321/43378 worked 1V50 as normal, but the return 1S51 terminated at Newton Abbot and returned to Plymouth to work the 1E63 instead.This left 13 minutes late and was terminated 34 minutes late at BristolTemple Meads with a traction problem, the set returning empty to Plymouth Laira depot. Meanwhile Nos. 43303/43304 worked 1V50 as far as Exeter St David’s, where it was terminated to pick up the path of the Glasgow train as 1Z51.This left 58 minutes late and lost further time to Edinburgh, arriving 85 minutes late and so terminating there.