Great Western Coffee Shop

As most folk are probably aware this set ran around for a good while before the production HSTs were introduced ,this set had the rather odd looking power cars, one of these is with The NRM whilst the other was scrapped.
Well The Trailer cars are still in use today and we have two of them in FGW Land, these being TS 42353 and TS 42356,.....53 is a coach B and in set LAO7 i think, havent managed to locate 56 yet.
So if you find yourself in any of these two vehicles you are travelling in a piece of History

42353 was fitted with a disabled toilet so presumably is a TSD and Coach E

Presume both are now coach E!

you are probably right DM.... my info may be a bit old......anyone else shed anylight?????

I spent some of my early days as an apprentice at OOC working on the prototype.  The prototype had a number of significant differences the power cars had the space for V16 engines although V12's were fitted, the production units had cab side windows where the prototype did not this a request from the drivers and the buffers fitted to the power cars

Some interesting pictures and explanations of the testing of the prototype HSTs, at http://www.traintesting.com/HST_prototype.htm

I often find myself travelling in a 143 ... which should have been consigned to history!  ::) ;D

i think at least one of the coaches was used to form the new Royal Train.

Two at least in the Royal Train and I believe one of the original trailers is in preservation somewhere, possibly Peak Rail if the vehicle still survives.

975984 / 975814 .............Royal Train
41170 / 42357 / 42355.....  NXEA
42353 /42356.................FGW

As far as i can tell this is all of the trailers still in use { numbers quoted are present running numbers}

Thanks, dog box!

That may be why I couldn't find anything useful on the internet - their original numbers aren't used any more!

Chris  ::)

Presumably the original vehicles will have even more coats of paint and will thus be fractionally wider than 'standard' stock, which, according to depot wags, is already a good inch wider than when delivered.

An Inch thicker????  Surely not???

;)