LNER’s twitter feed has announced the final trains that locomotive 91108 will work today before being taken off-lease, the locomotive is due for a ‘G’ Exam, the cost of which can’t be justified, so it will be retired at Bounds Green depot in North London tonight. This is the first of the 125 mph Class 91s to be withdrawn. Introduced between 1988-91, the 32 strong fleet have been the backbone of East Coast services ever since. Now they’re being displaced by the new Hitachi built ‘Azuma’ trains which already operate the London – Leeds route before entering services on Anglo-Scottish services from the 1st August. Here’s 91108 in Virgin Livery at Kings Cross in November 2015.
This is LNER’s tweet with details of the 3 services 91108 will work today.
The first train (1E01) is due into Kings Cross at 0938. Here’s timings for the other two services, starting with 1S23, the 11:00 to Edinburgh which stops at York, Darlington, Newcastle and Berwick on Tweed. The final train is 1E23, the 16:30 from Edinburgh, which stops at Berwick, Newcastle, Darlington, York and Stevenage, before arriving at Kings Cross at 20:51. So, if you want to have one final run behind this loco, these are the places to go to. I’m hoping to be out to record the event myself later today.
The gradual withdrawal of the Class 91s is yet another sign of how much UK railways are changing over the next few years. Thousands of new vehicles have been introduced, with thousands more to come. The East Coast will look very different as LNERs fleet is being completely replaced and strengthened, whilst their HSTs and Class 91s will disappear. It’s not just LNER. Trans-Pennine express are introducing two new fleets and Hull Trains is also replacing all their Class 180s with Hitachi Class 802s. Meanwhile, Northern’s new Class 195s and 331s will be gracing sections of the ECML too. Over the years the Class 91s have carried several different liveries as the TOCs running them have changed. Today, 91119 has been repainted in the original BR ‘Intercity swallow’ colours the locos carried when new.
Here’s brand new 91011 on test at Peterborough on the 11th March 1990.
Some Class 91s may yet re-appear. Whilst the future of the HSTs is uncertain, some Mk4 coaches will transfer to Transport for Wales and open-access operator is still expected to take some Class 91s and short Mk4 sets to operate its new Blackpool-Euston service from 2020.
Update.
Due to an incident in the Huntingdon area, 1S23 is running 23 minutes late and isn’t due into York until 13:17.
13:57.
I’m now racing up the ECML behind 91108 for a last run behind the old girl – unless she appears in another incarnation in the future. At the moment that’s uncertain as her next appointment after today is at Wabtec, Doncaster, where she’ll be used as a “Christmas tree”, being stripped of spares to allow other Class 91s (several are out of use) to be returned to service. We hit the maximum 125 mph between York and Northallerton.
Here’s a couple of pictures of 91108 arriving at York and sitting at Darlington earlier.
As much as nostalgia kicks in at this point, I’m not sad to see these trains go. They’ve done their job but the world’s changing. On the way back I bumped into fellow RAIL magazine contributor Gareth Dennis on a Southbound HST. We swapped stories about the old and new trains when Gareth made a very good point when we were discussing the “sh*t off a shovel” acceleration of the new Azumas.
On a post Hs2 railway the new trains will allow greater connectivity on the ECML through extra stops without a huge sacrifice in end to end journey times. That said, end to end will be less important to most passengers because if you’re going to do Leeds -London you’d do it on HS2, not the ECML but in-between it’s a different matter. The connectivity HS2 will allow on the existing network is a major selling point.
Unsurprisingly, it’s fairly lightly loaded at this part of the journey but it certainly won’t stay that way.06:55.As expected, after stops at Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Rochdale my train’s half full in this carriage, not bad for the first service of the day! Now we’re trundling the last few miles into Manchester because we’re following another service. As we pass Northern’s Newton Heath depot I can see the civils work that’s happening to build the new shed which will be dedicated to maintaining the new CAF trains. The shed’s being built adjacent to the main line. Ironically, it’s kn a patch of land I remember being used as dump fir old DMU cars awaiting scrapping back in the 1970s. Now it has a more productive use!07:30.On arrival at Victoria I did my usual mad dash across the city centre to Piccadilly station. The city’s just beginning to wake up. Many of the poor souls who’re homeless are still asleep- and who can blame them? Sleep’s a steess-free release from the wretched situation they find themselves in.
It breaks my heart to see scenes like this in so many UK towns and cities. After a decade of politically enforced ‘austerity’ (well, for some) the problem’s exploded and it’s only going to get worse whilst those billionaires, spivs and self-entitled toffs who’re trying to foist a no-deal Brexit upon us are in such positions of power and influence. Any Brexit will harm the economy, but they really don’t care as they pursue their own selfish political and financial interests.07:37.My sprint got me to the station in time to catch an earlier train. Cross-Country’s 07:27 to Bournemouth. It’s worked by a 4-car Class 220 (017 for the number crunchers) and it’s rammed, despite being a peak time train. This is what it looks like in coach C after leaving Stockport, and yes, I’m sitting in the luggage rack again!
I’ve written many times before about how poor an offering this is when it’s the only intercity service between two of our biggest regional cities, Manchester and Birmingham. Roll on Hs2 when we’ll have decent sized trains on the route and times will be cut by 52%!11:48.We’ve now got two stations under our belts, having just left Belper. I won’t go into too much detail but we’re seeing some very different stations and groups.13:30.How’s this for a ‘bug hotel’? It’s on the 3rd station on our list…
It makes a change to be heading for Leeds without a reversal at Bradford. I’m also enjoying the different scenery. The line through Brighouse to Mirfield is a shadow of it’s former self. Once it was four tracks all the way from ‘brig’, with massive goods yards and a vast amount of freight traffic along with a large steam locomotive depot at Mirfield, one of the last to close in the UK. The site is now a housing estate that was built in the last decade.Some of the towns haven’t fared much better, such as nearby Dewsbury (although it still has a lovely station and great station bar) and Batley, once renowned for its variety club and all the famous names that played there. Now, it’s infamous for the awful murder of Batley & Spen MP Jo Cox by a far-right fanatic.What Batley does have is one of the last surviving signal boxes in this part of the world, which protects a small level crossing to the East of the town. I’ll add a picture later.14:43.I’ve enjoyed a short break in Leeds in the sunshine, now I’m heading South bit by bit. First off is LNER’s 14:45 to Kings Cross which is worked by one of the companies fleet of HSTs that will soon be replaced by Azuma’s. The HSTs replacement on Intercity services is sounding the death knell for something that dates back to the dawn of the railways. The slam door…
The HSTs that will remain in service are being converted to power operated doors, meaning the remaining slam door stock will be operated by charter operators and a couple of the freight companies like DB who lease them out to one or two operators like Scotrail, Abellio and Transport for Wales but they’ll be history on intercity services17:12.Far later than I expected due to technical issues with dealing with last minute picture requests, I’m now speeding south from Doncaster on another LNER service from Leeds, only this one’s a crowded and toasty Mk4 set. The air conditioning is struggling in my coach (F) but it’s the only one I could find a free airline seat in. Despite that, the crew have been great.All I can say is I’m glad I’m not dressed in full PPE (other than boots, which are easier to wear than carry) and I can dress down and pretend this is a local train in Thailand. Well, apart from the sights, sounds and smells, obviously!18:21.I abandoned my LNER service at Stevenage which offers a very handy connection to cross-London Thameslink services. The days of having to fight your way from terminal to terminal via the London Underground have dropped dramatically and will do so even more when Thameslink finally opens.20:18.OK, I admit I dallied in old haunts in central London for half an hour as the weather was so perfect. I bailed out of my Thameslink service at Blackfriars after seeing the stunning weather. I couldn’t resist a short walk aking the south bank just see see how the ever changing skyline of the ‘square mile’ looks like now.
Paul Bigland 