in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the HST▸ entering passenger service ...[snip]... the first production power car, 43002, will be repainted in a historic livery.
I hope the 'historic livery' will be the 'famous first livery', ie. not the actual first livery with black but the blue and grey with the yellow end wraping-round onto the sides. And, to continue a discussion from the 'Advent Quiz' topic:
And it's my favourite Class 43 power car - 43003 Isambard Kingdom Brunel
I hope that one is preserved, including the nameplates, along with a few other members of the class and some mrk3s to run with them.
Hear, Hear! Just name 43002 '
Sir Kenneth Grange' to honour the HST designer and retain 43002/3 in preservation as a pair.
I'd suggest 43002 in Blue & Grey with
Sir Kenneth Grange nameplates and the original engine paired with the prototype 'Project Miller' powercar, although you'd have to come up with a clever coach livery to allow the blue and grey to reverse partway down the rake, and 43003
Isambard Kingdom Brunel paired with
43154 INTERCITY in Swallow livery but with their current
MTU▸ engines (and 43003 keeping his* nameplates, even though I don't think it had them before 'barbie' came along).
I would be pretty sure that some HSTs would make it into preservation, based on the history of larger classes. Being able to have them run as they were in their prime (at up to 125 m.p.h, in 2+8 formation) might be a bit of an ask. Although they've got pretty good route availability, 2+2 from Lydney to Parkend, each car in a different livery and with paint flaking, would be a sad shadow of their former glory.
Maybe preserved IC125s wouldn't get to 125mph very often, but mainline certified steam locos can still get up a respectable speed (and Bittern was allowed up to 90mph to mark the special occasion of the A4 reunion and Mallard's record anniversary). I think with IC125 it is a choice of whether you preserve as a mainline-certified beast or just as a static exhibit, heritage railways are not really well suited. If static, you only need to preserve one mark 3, whereas you'd need at least 5 mrk3s (TGS-TS-TS-Buffet-FO) for it to look sensible if you're running it. With preserved locos, you want to run them with appropriate stock, so a 91 would need mrk4s** (similarly for steam, you want mrk1s or early mrk2s, anything newer like mrk2 air-cons doesn't give the right feel, a class 86 is easier as at looks at home on mrk1s, early mrk2s, mrk3s and air-con mrk2 stock).
* Male pronoun used because I.K.B. was a man, and surely a loco named after a man can hence be refered to using a male pronoun
** Is there an IC225 equivalent of the 125 group, because if so I might be interested in joining.
