Great Western Railway 43185 (20.06.2018)

A shot to revisit here because on the 18.05.2019, it was the last day for these iconic locomotives, the HST's. Since time has been called on long distance services out of London Paddington, some have moved to ScotRail while some have been retained for use on short sets, which are to be found further west on services to/from Penzance/Cardiff etc. A case of should they stay or should they go perhaps!? Maybe so but at least we know that the HST's won't be gone from Great Western Railway completely, so I guess that's good! To mark 40 years of the HST's, 43002 and 43185, pictured here, were painted in retro Intercity liveries and it is 43002 'Sir Kenneth Grange' that sports the Intercity 125 livery while 43185 sports the Intercity Swallow livery and here, it is seen heading through Sonning Cutting under the now electrified line with a service for London Paddington. At this stage, quite a lot of HST's were still in use on this line along with a good chunk of the newer IET's.