HST... 40 Years old this month!

[caravanman]

Hi,

Interesting item on HST, including talk by the designer!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36188805

I would have imagined it was created by a technical team of rail experts, I wonder how much input the designer had?

Ed.

 

[cirdan]

Hi,

Interesting item on HST, including talk by the designer!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36188805

I would have imagined it was created by a technical team of rail experts, I wonder how much input the designer had?

Ed.

It probably was. The media just like to make a human interest story out of everything and will thus latch onto any individual who had a pivotal role and make him master and designer.

The 1970s were a very interesting period for British Rail design-wise. They were way ahead of other railroads in creating a modern corporate design, even going as far as to create their own font, and applying the same philosphy in everything from trains and station architecture through to coffee cups and spoons. However this was the work of a design board, not of individual heroes.

 

[Caesar La Rock]

An incredible achievement and something that is truly an icon of rail travel on British Rails today. They still have a few more years left too.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Weren't the fonts by Margaret Calvert (or did she just design the road sign font and Tyne & Wear Metro fonts?)?

 

[cirdan]

Weren't the fonts by Margaret Calvert (or did she just design the road sign font and Tyne & Wear Metro fonts?)?

apparently yes ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_Alphabet

 

[jamesontheroad]

The 1970s were a very interesting period for British Rail design-wise. They were way ahead of other railroads in creating a modern corporate design, even going as far as to create their own font, and applying the same philosphy in everything from trains and station architecture through to coffee cups and spoons. However this was the work of a design board, not of individual heroes.

Even more impressive that the typeface is this, the entire British Rail Corporate Identity Manual... instructions for everything from headed note paper to ro-ro ferries!

 

[trainman74]

Seen at the National Railway Museum in York:

 

[jamesontheroad]

Seen at the National Railway Museum in York:

Sorry to be an absolute pedant, but I recognise that carriage well, and it's a British Rail Mk. 2 Standard Class Open, the design of which predates the HST. The HST is typically formed into rakes of varying lengths and compositions with the successor to this car, the British Rail Mk. 3.

The Mk. 3 is just as impressive and important a piece of design as the HST locomotives, in my opinion. It's in service today not just as part of HSTs, but across the country behind locomotives on the Great Eastern Main Line (London - Norwich), the Chiltern Main Line (London - Birmingham) and in its sleeper variety on the Caledonian Sleeper (London - Scotland) and Night Riviera (London - South West) as well. The basic design also formed the basis for a large number of DMU fleets as well.

 

[trainman74]

Sorry to be an absolute pedant, but I recognise that carriage well, and it's a British Rail Mk. 2 Standard Class Open, the design of which predates the HST. The HST is typically formed into rakes of varying lengths and compositions with the successor to this car, the British Rail Mk. 3.

True -- my intent was to show off some of the content from the corporate identity manual, rather than the HST.

 

[caravanman]

I was interested in the info that Loco hauled trains could still be running on the route to Norwich?

I used to work at Stratford MPD in the early 1970's and remember well the Loco hauled "Boat Trains", leaving from Liverpool Street en route to Harwich.

The last time I travelled that route, as a passenger, it was on a miserable commuter emu with no whiff of romance or excitement.

Ed.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Sorry to be an absolute pedant, but I recognise that carriage well, and it's a British Rail Mk. 2 Standard Class Open, the design of which predates the HST. The HST is typically formed into rakes of varying lengths and compositions with the successor to this car, the British Rail Mk. 3.

True -- my intent was to show off some of the content from the corporate identity manual, rather than the HST.

Oops, noted

I was interested in the info that Loco hauled trains could still be running on the route to Norwich?

I used to work at Stratford MPD in the early 1970's and remember well the Loco hauled "Boat Trains", leaving from Liverpool Street en route to Harwich.

The last time I travelled that route, as a passenger, it was on a miserable commuter emu with no whiff of romance or excitement.

Ed.

From the early nineteen eighties up until 2004, the typical formation on the intercity route between London Liverpool Street and Norwich was a class 86 AC locomotive and a rake of mk. 2 carriages. From 2004 onwards, the introduction of Pendolinos on the West Coast Main Line (London - Glasgow) saw the mk. 2s replaced with displaced mk. 3s, including Driving Van Trailers (DVTs). The locomotives were likewise replaced with Class 90s.

The mark 3 carriages are having a complete interior refit which should be all done this year, with new carpets, seat covers, LED lighting, and at-seat power sockets. While the work is ongoing, the former Virgin Trains "Pretendolino" (a mark 3 rake vinyl-ed up to match the Pendolinos, a formerly used for extra capacity on the West Coast Main Line) has been providing cover to a couple of diagrams a day. I haven't seen it in a few weeks, it may have left.

There are no direct services between London and the coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. (There used to be through services which were dragged from Norwich behind a diesel loco).

One final bit of thread drift for this thread drift; there are additionally loco hauled services most days between Norwich and Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, owing to a shortage of DMUs. A pair of class 37s from DRS are topping a tailing a short set of mk. 2 carriages.

 

[caravanman]

Thanks for the extra info. I rode in a very smart coach a few days ago, from Stowmarket to Manningtree, en route to Harwich Ferry.

I guess that was one of the refurbished ones, with a brushed aluminium finish to the seat tops.

We used to run either class 37 or 47 loco's from Stratford MPD for the Norwich and Parkstone Quay trains, back in the 1970's.

Cheers,

Ed.