Saturday, 18 May 2024 marks exactly five years since the memorable final day of main line HST operations on the GWR network (18 May 2019), so the perfect excuse to recall the locations and services I photographed and travelled on that fateful occasion.
On a brilliantly stage-managed day where the four final departures from London Paddington were lined up alongside each other in the early evening, I had decided to shun the crowds and pay my farewells on two routes I knew well, the Cotswold Line from Oxford to Worcester and the Golden Valley route from Swindon to Cheltenham Spa.
My day began at Reading where there was a chance to see the set I was to photograph, and later travel on, when 43172 Harry Patch and 43162 Exeter Panel Signal Box 21st Anniversary 2009 made a slightly delayed arrival with the 07.29 from Exeter St. David’s.
Both of these HST power cars enjoyed a new lease of life and identity when GWR created the 2+4 “Castle” sets, with 43162 becoming Caerhays Castle until withdrawal in December 2023, while 43172 became Tiverton Castle and remains active on local services between Plymouth and Penzance.
From Reading I travelled on a Class 80x IET to Moreton-in-Marsh, where my plan was to photograph 43162/172 once again as they approached the station with the 11.22 from London Paddington. Signalling problems south of Oxford meant a 30-minute late arrival and curtailment of this Great Malvern-bound service at Worcester Shrub Hill.
Being terminated at Worcester meant that the return working to Paddington was able to depart Moreton-in-Marsh on schedule at 15.29, so that it could reach its destination in time to form a service I would later travel on, and earned the distinction of being the last ever up HST service to run on the Cotswold Line.
From Moreton-in-Marsh I returned to Reading, where I was in time to see the first of the four evening farewell services, the 18.03 Paddington-Plymouth, as it stopped in Reading at 18.27, attracting a good deal of interest, and was formed of power cars 43188/093 (photo of 43188 above).
Both of these HST power cars remain in traffic on Cornish local services, with 43093 now being Berkeley Castle and 43188 named Newport Castle, but also retaining its distinctive The Welshman / Y Cymro branding, as seen below.
My last ever GWR long-distance HST trip was aboard the second of the four farewell departures from Paddington, the 18.15 service to Cheltenham Spa. This left Reading at 18.42 and was formed of the set powered by 43162/172 which I had photographed at Moreton-in-Marsh.
Given the time, and my wish to get a farewell shot of this set on the Golden Valley Line, I travelled as far as Kemble, enjoying a last ever visit to a GWR buffet counter on the journey, and getting some poignant final shots of the last ever HST working to my boyhood home of Cheltenham Spa.
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