Preview

The prototype High Speed Train (HST), then classified as Class 252 and with Power Car 43000 leading, waits to leave Paddington during its revenue earning trial period on a train to Bristol� Little did anyone realise what was going to develop���� Note the empty Brutes waiting around for their next tasks, with some blocking the platform for passengers. These were neat cages on wheels for parcels/newspapers, or other items of non-freight train merchandise. The title derives from British Rail Universal Trolley Equipment and they could be seen littering pretty well any busy station, making it clear how important this sort of traffic was to British Rail at the time.

A quiet summer’s morning at Paddington in 1971 and the empty stock for a down express to Bristol has arrived from Old Oak Common at Platform 2. Putting in a very rare appearance is an ex GWR Director’s saloon (W9005W) looking smart in chocolate and cream livery, attached at what will be the front of the coaching set which is awaiting its locomotive, probably from Westbourne Park layover sidings� The saloon formed part of the Ocean Liner Express trains that ran from Plymouth to London in the 1930s until the Great Depression saw the services suspended and the coaches used on special services. The last Ocean Liner Express ran in 1962, and W9005W was then used as an Inspection Saloon by BR Western Region. The saloon has been restored and is now used on the South Devon Railway.