The power cars

High Speed Trains built for the East Coast Main Line were delivered as 254001-254032. Those delivered to the Great Western Main Line were delivered as 253001 onwards.

The plan had been for the trains to remain permanently coupled, although in the end that did not happen.

The first ‘254’ delivered (to Bounds Green in July 1977) featured power cars 43056/ 057. Each ‘254’ featured two power cars and eight Mk 3 coaches.

From May 8 1978, the 125mph running on the ECML took effect, with 18 sets delivered. Only six were diagrammed for traffic instead of the planned eight, as not enough catering vehicles were available.

The allocation of sets was varied, with Bounds Green receiving six sets (254001/ 004/ 006/ 010/ 026/ 030) in July, September, October, December 1977, November 1978 and March 1979 respectively. The power cars were 43056/ 057/ 062/ 063/ 066/ 067/ 074/ 075, 43106/107/114/115.

The largest allocation was for Neville Hill, which received 13 HSTs (254003/ 007-009/ 011/ 015/ 023-025/ 027/ 029/ 031/ 032) between August 1977 and April 1979. The power cars were 43060/ 061/ 068-073/ 076/ 077/ 084/ 085, 43100-105/108/109/112/113/116-119).

The smallest allocation was Craigentinny’s four sets (254013/ 017-019 that featured 43080/ 081/ 088-093), which were delivered in February and May 1978.

The remaining nine sets (254002/ 005/ 012/ 014/ 016/ 020-022/ 028) went to Heaton between August 1977 and April 1979. They featured power cars 43058/ 059/ 064/ 065/ 078/ 079/ 082/ 083/ 086/ 087/ 094-099, 43110/111.

Two spare power cars were built for the Eastern Region (43122 for Neville Hill and 43123 for Bounds Green). These were delivered in April 1979 but built out of sequence, as 43120/121 were delivered to the Western Region as spare power cars. Some ER sets had also been used on the Western Region, prior to introduction on the ECML.

Today, many of the power cars remain on the ECML with Virgin Trains East Coast. They will become part of the London North Eastern Railway fleet, although they’re due for withdrawal by the end of next year.

‘254’ power cars still forming part of the ECML HST fleet are 43057/ 072/ 074/ 077/ 090/ 095/ 096/ 099, 43100/102-105-110 (all have had 200 added to their original number).

Others can be seen on the East Coast Main Line working for CrossCountry (43085, 43101/103/104), while 43062 will appear as part of Network Rail’s New Measurement Train.

Five (43067/ 068/ 080/ 084, 43123) have recently left ECML open access operator Grand Central and transferred to East Midlands Trains, where they join former ‘254’ power cars 43058-061/ 064/ 066/ 073/ 075/ 076/ 081-083/ 089. It’s worth noting that while 43061/ 075 are nominally part of the EMT fleet, they are sub-leased to VTEC on a semipermanent basis.

The other power cars (43056/ 063/ 069-071/ 078/ 079/ 086-088/ 092-094/ 097/ 098, 43122) are now all with Great Western Railway.