HST action at Arbroath

Anyone wanting to see and experience scheduled weekday HST action in Great Britain 2025 has a choice between the three GWR diagrams between Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance or the rather more extensive 15 daily ScotRail Inter7City HST diagrams for express services between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Aberdeen/Inverness.

Having paid numerous visits to Cornwall in recent months, a short break in Edinburgh meant the chance to take a 90-minute journey aboard one of these very comfortable Inter7City HST sets on 18 June 2025 as far as Arbroath, in order to capture a few shots of four and five-car Class 43-powered sets passing the semaphore signals.

Spending almost five hours at Arbroath (10.06 – 14.50) on 18 June 2025 I noted a total of 13 different HST sets in action on Edinburgh/Glasgow-Aberdeen services, with just one use of a Class 170 unit on 1T34 from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street and every HST-diagrammed service operating as planned.

That is a rather better return than the two or three GWR HST sets I would expect to see during a similar trip to Liskeard or St. Erth, with the blue and grey ScotRail livery rather easier to capture in pictures than the GWR dark green.

There are a total of seven semaphore arms on the main line that are controlled by the remarkable and Listed Arbroath North Signal Box, all but one of which can be easily photographed from the station and from two over-bridges south of the station and another two to the north of the station and signal box.

As I wrote following my November 2022 visit, from south to north the signals are motor-worked down outer home AH48, up starter AH16 at the south end of platform 1, down home signal AH47 (also motor-worked) at the north end of down platform 2 and down section signal AH45 beyond a road over-bridge, alongside up home signal AH15 and a bracket housing AH19 for accessing a crossover near the signal box.

Finally there is up outer home signal AH14, which could just be seen by looking north from a footbridge over the line, but has now completely disappeared from view due to the encroaching lineside vegetation that has also made a decent rear view of a train approaching AH48 impossible.

On my 2022 visit I had lamented that many booked HST diagrams were actually worked by Class 158 or 170 units, so it was good to see a much-improved picture on this latest visit, where during my almost five hours in the town I was able to see and photograph no less than eight different HST sets.

Besides the HST action, other workings at Arbroath comprise terminating Class 158-worked stopping services to and from Dundee, LNER Class 80x Azumas on services between Aberdeen and London King’s Cross, as well as very occasional freight workings, though on the day of my visit the regular working of cement tanks from Oxwellmains Lafarge (near Dunbar) to Aberdeen was cancelled.

Arbroath North Signal Box is notable both for its height – having been designed to offer a good view of approaching rail traffic – and having an oversailing signal cabin that is supported on metal brackets and projects forward towards the running lines. It is surrounded on three sides by a metal walkway, though sadly it has long-since lost its wooden flooring.

Taking a break for the rail action, I once again managed to fit in a brief refreshment stop at the attractive Wetherspoon-owned Corn Exchange, a mere five minutes’ walk from Arbroath station. Here I sampled a superb pint of a strong dark beer called Midnight Bell (4.8%) from Leeds Brewery, which set me back just £1.85, or about one third of what a pint costs in the Scottish capital.