Last Castle Mk3s delivered

WHAT ARE expected to be the last modernised Mk3s for Great Western were released from Wabtec on August 19 – 43029 and 43154 working the 5V84 10.48 Doncaster-laira with the five vehicles. These were TS 48136/37/49/50 (previously 42570, 42582, 42087 and 42580 respectively) along with TGS 49117 (ex 44042).

In due course, the four extra TS will be added to the other nominally spare TS and TGS vehicles to allow GW12 and GW13 to become permanently-formed four-coach sets, while 49117 will become the sole maintenance spare.

However, with September seeing poor availability of the HST fleet due to a maintenance backlog, 48137 found itself replacing 48124 in GW08 for around a week while 48149 was in a short-formed GW13 with 48135 and 49113.

Warranty work on earlier sets is continuing at Wabtec with the aforementioned pair of power cars taking GW03 to Doncaster on August 31 before returning GW07 to Laira two days later. Then on September 20, it was 43029 and 43093 in charge of the 5E23 10:31 Laira-doncaster, this conveying a correctly formed GW10 and spare TS 48134.