Last Minute Addition to Summer Diesel Festival Announced!

The West Somerset Railway are pleased to announce that a GWR HST will be joining the Summer Diesel Festival line up, courtesy of our friends at Great Western Railway.

Built by British Rail between the late 1970s and early 1980s, the High-Speed Train (HST) became the iconic face of high-speed national rail operations, right across the country, with a handful still in use on the national network today. These trains were also known as InterCity 125s, reflecting their top operating speed of 125mph, and although it won't be reaching those speeds on the WSR, the familiar shape and sounds of the train will be sure to bring back memories for many. 

It's worth noting that the HST shows the next step in development for inter-regional travel, replacing duties that our Hymeks would've once operated on the Western Region. Additionally, the HSTs would've worked alongside, and would also ultimately replace the work of the Class 46s and Class 50s, both which will be represented at the Summer Diesel Festival.

We will be hosting and operating one of GWR's 'Castle class' sets, one of the shorter train sets now used on regional services in the West Country. Although we don't yet know which power cars will be attending, we're truly grateful to GWR for their assistance.

We hope that you're as excited as we are at this announcement, and look forward to sharing our amended timetables with you shortly.

(Please note, the HST will only be in operation on the Saturday of our event and also on Sunday, during our 'mixed traffic' day)

Photo by Mike Lanning