Midland Pullman HST at Cricklewood on December 12, 2020.

As a follower of the HSTS, it was good to hear that a few HST sets were being bought by private operators following their retirement from daily use with main line train operating companies.

Here is the Locomotive Services Ltd Midland Pullman HST approaching Cricklewood, working the empty coaching stock move to London St Pancras for its debut tour.

Had the Midland Pullman taken its original planned journey to Manchester Piccadilly, I would have been travelling on it. However, the train was amended to run non-stop via Crewe, providing no opportunity to photograph it, so I cancelled my ticket to capture it locally.

Momentarily, the sun almost breaks cloud cover on what was a miserable day, just adding the smallest amount of useful light and highlighting the Nanking blue paintwork of the lead power car.

This image has turned out to be one of my favourite photos taken to date.