Does anyone remember the Great north Eastern Railway that ran services on the east coast mainline from 1996 to when it was stripped of its franchise in 2007.
The services ran from Kings Cross in London, up to Leeds, York, Edinburgh and Glasgow following in the footsteps of the original LNER railway that was famous for the locomotive and services called the Flying Scotsman. The LNER also held the record for the fastest UK mainline steam engine when the A4 pacific Mallard set a speed of 126mph.
GNER inherited 31 class 91 electric locomtives along with associated Mk4 coach sets and driving trailers that ran in fixed sets. These were originally branded IC225 sets by British Rail as they were capable of 140mph and one of these locomotives holds the current UK locomotive speed record of 161.7mph which was set on 17th September 1989. Speeds of 140mph a often reached during normal service.
GNER also operated ‘off the wires’ with a number of diesel Intercity 125 High Speed Train sets. These are record holders too and have the record as the worlds fastest diesel locomotives with a speed of 148mph, and are able to run at 125mph in normal timetabled operation.
Images copyright Ian Blair 2004