Train buffs pray for lockdown break so they can say farewell to HSTs running through Kettering and Wellingborough

Record-breaking 125s heading for retirement in May after 39 years service on Midland Main Line
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Railway enthusiasts are praying for an end to the lockdown so they can bid a fond farewell to an iconic train as it rattles through Northamptonshire for a final time.

The famous High Speed Trains are heading off to the sidings in the sky in May after 39 years service on the Midland Main Line, calling at Wellingborbough and Kettering on the run to and from London.

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To mark the occasion, operators East Midlands Railway has taken delivery of one of the HSTs repainted in a retro InterCity livery.

Which leaves all the fans of the much-loved locos trying to work out how they can make an essential journey to see it — or hoping Boris Johnson's blueprint for lifting the lockdown, due to be revealed on Monday, allows them the opportunity to check out the rolling stock one last time before mid-May.

Power car 43102 has been given the paint job worn when it when it reached a record 148.5mph between Northallerton and York during a test run in November 1987.

It was later renumbered 43302, but leasing company Poterbrook has restored the original number to go with the livery.

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The record-breaking unit will be heading for the National Railway Museum in York after its last run in public service as the HST fleet makes way for newer trains in time for EMR's May 2021 timetable change.

EMR's fleet director, Neil Bamford, said: “The team at our Neville Hill depot in Leeds have been working hard behind the scenes to strip unit 43302 of its current livery, repaint it in its legacy colours and reinstate its original number in homage to the ‘end of the HST’ era.

“Personally, I remember as a 19-year-old, way back in 1980, going on HST commissioning runs from Derby to Darlington, putting the trains through their paces and doing various tests before they entered into service, such happy memories.

“This is a fitting way to recognise the end for this iconic machine; a massive slice of railway heritage and history.”