The HST was introduced in 1976 by British Rail and is still the backbone of express services on several British main lines. The power cars have new engines, and the Mark 3 coaches have been refurbished, but despite that, this attractive design continues to be a great success and as iconic as the old Routemaster bus.
The HST necessitated realignment of the track in some places on the western region, where it was first introduced. At Chippenham station there was a straightening scheme to allow the trains to go through at over 100 m.p.h. and the effect was to orphan one of the platforms and make the remaining platform do double duty for the trains which did stop. One HST service was timetabled to do the journey from Chippenham to London Paddington in 59 minutes. When the critics of the nationalised railway tell you how much better the services are under privatisation, tell them about Chippenham to London in under an hour.
The packed perspective in this picture was achieved with a focal length of 102mm on a DX camera. The photograph was taken in Sydney Gardens, Bath. Nikon D90 and Nikkor 55-200 VR zoom lens.