HSTs: The Western Region – Book Review

In 1976 the High Speed Train entered regular service, heralding a passenger revolution on Britain’s railways. Eventually designated as Class 43, 197 powercars were built with an absolute maximum speed of 148mph and a service speed of 125mph. They slashed journey times and still hold a number of railway records.

HSTs: The Western Region is a photographic album by Mark V. Pike which was published in July 2022 by Key Books. It forms Volume 12 of their Britain’s Railways series.

Western Region HSTs….40 years not out

Pike’s book showcases the trains in the region where they were originally introduced. The structure of the book is about as basic as possible. Following an introduction and a single page featuring the prototype HST, there are 92 pages of two to a page photographs with explanatory annotations. There is no table of contents nor an index. Not that these are really necessary as the images are arranged in approximate order of date taken starting in 1987 up to 2020. 

Incredibly, it is now forty years since the final production HST power car was built and interest in these machines is higher than it has been for some time. This may be for a number of reasons, but possibly because after being a familiar sight for so long, they are starting to be retired. In 2019 Great Western Railway commenced the withdrawal of its InterCity 125 fleet from primary services out of Paddington.

No images from the early years, but lineside detail is interesting

Readers interested in the early life of the Western Region HSTs should be warned that, apart from the prototype, there are no photographs from the first decade of operation. Images of the trains in InterCity Executive livery are followed by a few in the evolution of the colour scheme, InterCity Swallow. Most of the pictures show the various colourful First Great Western and later GWR schemes.

While HSTs are obviously the focus of the book, the images also provide fascinating insight into the changing nature of the railway and infrastructure. The period since the mid 1980s in particular witnessed a transformation. Outdated signalling equipment, especially on secondary routes, was largely replaced with modern technology. Although seen throughout the book, this modernisation is especially prevalent in the period up to 2010.

A number of shots place HSTs in mainline South Wales locations. Newport is a popular spot with images of the station joined by an impressive photo of an HST crossing the Usk bridge. The scene is framed on the left by the ruins of the 15^th Century Newport castle! Cardiff Central also features, while a 2014 picture shows Severn Tunnel Junction with a train, ironically, in a Visit Plymouth livery.

In Summary

While perhaps niche for the casual reader, for dedicated fans of the Western Region HSTs from the mid 1980s onwards this is essential reading. Great, too, for modellers of mainline Western Region subjects, especially with a wealth of background detail.

About the Author: Mark V. Pike

Mark Pike has a lifelong interest in UK railways that started at the age of about six when his father used to take him to watch trains at Poole station in Dorset, just after steam had been abolished in the late 1960s. He later joined the railway at the age of 19 as a permanent way trackman at Bournemouth and was later an electric track maintenance worker at Dorchester for over 20 years. Now semi-retired, he is still an avid railway photographer, with various images appearing regularly in mainstream railway magazines and books.

(from Pen and Sword Books)

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