© Stuart Smith, GWR Driver

Originally from the March  2026 Newsletter

My direct involvement with HST’s started on 12th June 2003 as a Trainee Driver based at Paddington station. My first drive was a few weeks into the training course, on an empty stock working from the London terminus into Old Oak Common Depot. 43189, named then ‘RAILWAY HERITAGE TRUST’ became my special Power Car as it was the first one, I got to drive (43132 was at the rear of the set that day).

Between 2003 and 2011, I worked HST’s across the FGW network to exotic places such as Oxford, Cardiff Central, Bristol Temple Meads, Weston-Super-Mare, Swansea, Carmarthen, Gloucester, Worcester Shrub Hill, Frome and Exeter St David’s. I even went around the Greenford Loop on countless occasions when sets needed turning for either maintenance or passenger formation requirements.

As part of major Engineering projects on the Great Western mainline over Christmas 2010, I also took HST’s over the Chiltern route via High Wycombe to Banbury and from Basingstoke into London Waterloo via Woking and Staines (my home town).  In 2011, I transferred to Plymouth (Devon), and as well as still returning to Bristol and Paddington, I now also got to drive HST’s in the far South-West, taking them regularly to Paignton, Newquay and Penzance. On the 9th September 2018, I had the privilege of driving the very last scheduled GWR 2+8 HST to and from Newquay (43098 and 43154) - it was a close-run thing and nearly didn’t happen that day, as heavy delays earlier in the journey were threatening to have the train terminated early!!

My last HST drive out of London Paddington occurred on 17th May 2019, with the 13:03 to Plymouth.  43171 and 43162 being one of only four sets left in regular traffic by then. All four sets operated a series of final ‘farewell’ trips the following day. Following the full-scale introduction of the IET fleet in the new timetable, the ‘Castle Class’ (or 255 as they are officially classified) started operating local services between Penzance, Plymouth and Exeter or from Taunton to Worcester and Cardiff.

At first, these operated with traditional slam-door coaching stock (classified as 256’s and 257’s), but eventually all the coaches were fitted with power operated doors and thus became 255’s. Over the ensuing years, these workings did get scaled back to the far West of England only, with the last 18months of use seeing them operate entirely between Plymouth and Penzance (except for one daily return journey to Exeter).

I’m pretty certain over the years from 2003 - 2025, I managed to drive almost every possible formation of HST, from a 2+9 set (we used to regularly run the summer Newquay services with an additional TGS vehicle for luggage storage), to the standard 2+7 formations we ran out of London during the reclassification and modification of trailer coaches during the FGW to GWR changeover period of 2015/16.

At the other end of the spectrum were the short formed 2+3 ‘racing sets’ when the Castles were first introduced, but Laira Depot didn’t have enough trailer coaches to make up complete 2+4 formations. These were nicknamed as such, due to their super quick acceleration with 5400hp available.

As a heavy maintenance facility, Laira Depot would regularly send out back-to-back power cars on test runs to Newton Abbot (utilising the gradients of Hemerdon, Rattery and Dainton banks to ensure all was working following major overhaul). These moves became regular ‘odd formation’ workings too, often with a couple of coaches added to the trial run.

Between 2018 and 2025, interspersed with working the newer IET’s to and from London, I did still work a large number of trips between Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance with the 2+4’s. During this period, I would often find myself driving 43189 again - although by now re-named ‘LAUNCESTON CASTLE’. In the past few years, I have progressed into a role as a Driver Route Assessor, so spend quite a lot of time being classroom based or doing practical assessments on other Drivers. As such, I find that my regular driving duties are more sporadic, and so what I thought would likely be my final ‘Castle’ drive took place on 19th August 2025, with an early morning journey from Plymouth to Penzance and back with 43098 and 43042..

However, by good fortune,However, by good fortune, Saturday 13th December did actually became the final day I would get to drive one of the reliable, trusty and familiar trains, that had become an almost daily part of my railway career.Four ‘Castle’ 2+4 sets had been scheduled to operate on the final day, with a photo call scheduled for between 19:15-19:30 in Plymouth station, prior to the sets heading to Laira Depot and storage.

As it turned out, a failure elsewhere meant that one of the sets got commandeered to work the Newquay branch, so the photocall only involved three sets. My last drive was to take 5P30, 19:37 Plymouth to Laira Depot.  43004 being my final power car (with 43186 on the rear). For the record, the final GWR working that day was 2P97, 21:22 Newquay to Plymouth, operated with 43156 and 43189, which arrived into Plymouth station at 23:40.

To me it was fitting that 43189 (my special one) survived all the earlier withdrawals and foreign exports, and was there on the final train.

The final lineup. The rear of the sets at Plymouth on Saturday 13th December 2025.  5P30 (43004), 5Z24 (43042), 5Z25 (43198).