The High Speed Train (capitalised) was the first high speed train in
Britain: that is, the first train to go over 125mph. It is known by its official designation,
Class 43, its trade name of
Intercity 125 or the more colloquial name of "Screamer", referring to the loud screaming noise that the accelerators in the train engine make.
It was introduced in the late 1970s by
British Rail, at a time when the generally accepted maximum speed of British trains was around 60mph, or 100mph if you were lucky. This, plus its fast
acceleration and
deceleration, made it ideal for passenger use and it slashed journey times around the country.
The train is widely used on long haul
passenger services even today and has been hailed by many as Britain's best train ever.
Liveries
The original
Intercity 125 livery was blue and yellow-yellow fronted with a long blue stripe down the side of the train. This led to the nickname "
flying yellow banana".
The next
livery was in less widespread use. It was black at the top and white at the bottom, with a red stripe at the bottom. This did not feature the British Rail name or logo, and carried a new
Intercity logo, with the name in serif type and an image of a bird. This is
colloquially known in rail circles as the "
fag packet" livery, due to its similarity to the look of a cigarette packet.
After privatisation, the individual
train operating companies attached their own looks to the HST, with (First)
Great Western changing its livery many times, finally to a Barbie-pink and white theme to match
FirstGroup's corporate colours.
Formation
The HST is usually made of 7 or 8
British Rail Mk3 coaches, with a
Class 43 engine on each end. The double engine arrangement removes the need for the engine to be decoupled, go to a
turntable and then to the other end of the train.
Usage
The HST is used by many national railway companies, including
Virgin Trains,
GNER,
First Great Western and
Midland Mainline. It was also copied by the Australians for their
XPT (however the XPT is slower).
Future
The HST is still in widespread use.
First Great Western are slowly replacing their HSTs with
multiple unit Adelante trains, which can travel at the same speed as the
HSTs and offer virtually no further benefits to the customer. They also lack some of the comfort and style of the HSTs, and have noisy underfloor engines known to irritate passengers on the long journeys for which they are meant. The Adelantes are also thought by many to have a plasticky, "
flimsy" feel to them.
For those who may cry plagiarism, I also submitted this to Wikipedia.