I find it quite funny that people, myself very much included, find themselves becoming sentimental over the withdrawal of old locomotives, units, and even the ends of franchises. This has been a thought which I have had for a long time now, and thought it would be a good idea to post about it on here.
When the Class 43 HSTs were introduced, in the 1970s, people were upset that they were to replace the classic Western Region traction, such as the Class 50s, 52s, 35s, and 42s, which had been running around the west of the country for many years. However, 40 years later, and when GWR withdrew their Class 43 HST sets, people were being sentimental over the "End of the Intercity-125!" (myself included, once again).
The withdrawal of the HSTs on GWR was, even for me, the end of an era. I had grown up with these engines running along the Cotswold Line, and when they were taken out of service, I made sure that I saw and rode on as many of the last services as possible. This involved me riding the last "Up" and "Down" Cotswold Line HSTs - which was definitely something! The departure from Oxford was met with a large group of enthusiasts all gathering around at the end of Platform 4 to give the last HST a good send off. People climbed onto the small barrier running along the length of the back of the platform to get good photos and those on the train (like me) were all excited to be on what was destined to be part of HST history!
The withdrawal of the Class 313 units on the Great Northern network seems to be less sentimental, but that's not for me to decide. I don't live near the ECML and therefore I have never seen a 313!
I wonder if people will be sentimental over the withdrawal of the Class 800 units, when they go, in the middle of the century?.... :)
-Peter
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