InterCity 225


The InterCity 225 is an electric high speed train in the United Kingdom, comprising a Class 91 electric locomotive, nine Mark 4 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer. The Class 91 locomotives were built by British Rail Engineering Limited's Crewe Works as a spin-off from the Advanced Passenger Train project, which was abandoned during the 1980s, whilst the coaches and DVT were constructed by Metro Cammell in Birmingham and Breda in Italy, again borrowing heavily from the Advanced Passenger Train. The trains were designed to operate at up to in regular service, but are limited to principally due to a lack of cab signalling and the limitations of the current overhead line equipment. They are used on services from to,,,,,,, and.

History

The InterCity 225 entered service with InterCity on the East Coast Main Line in 1989.
They have also operated on the West Coast Main Line. In April 1992, one set a record of two hours, eight minutes between Manchester and London Euston, shaving 11 minutes off the 1966 record. In 1993 trials were operated to Liverpool and Manchester in connection with the InterCity 250 project.
In 1996, as part of the privatisation of British Rail, all InterCity 225s were sold to Eversholt Rail Group. Since then, the trains have been leased to all operators of the InterCity East Coast franchise, which is presently operated by London North Eastern Railway.
The InterCity 225 has a top service speed of ; during a test run in 1989 on Stoke Bank between Peterborough and Grantham an InterCity 225 reached. However, except on High Speed 1, which is equipped with cab signalling, British signalling does not allow trains to exceed in regular service, due to the impracticality of correctly observing lineside signals at high speed.
Between 2003 and 2005, with support from GNER, Bombardier Transportation, Alstom and others, HSBC Rail funded a complete rebuilding and refurbishment programme for both the Class 91 and Mark 4 coaches, called Project Mallard.

Operations

In June 2018, London North Eastern Railway inherited all 31 InterCity 225 sets from previous operator, Virgin Trains East Coast, as part of the franchise. At this point, LNER had intentions to begin replacing their sets with Class 800 bi-mode and Class 801 electric trains from the Hitachi A-train family, which are branded as Azuma's. The first Azuma entered service with LNER on 15 May 2019, allowing for the first withdrawal of an InterCity 225 set. The withdrawals have gradually continued as more of the new Azuma trains have entered service and at the beginning of 2020, it was said that the final InterCity 225 sets will leave LNER's fleet by June 2020. However, LNER confirmed via their Twitter on 29 January 2020 that a number of sets will remain in service with them to benefit their December 2021 timetable change.
With LNER losing the majority of their InterCity 225 sets, it has been announced that other companies will be obtaining some of the sets. From May 2020, Grand Central will begin using InterCity 225s on their new London Euston to Blackpool North services with Class 90 locomotives hauling six-carriage sets. Transport For Wales will lease twelve Mark 4 carriages to replace the current Mark 3 coaches in use on their Premier Service. Prospective operator, Grand Union, are also proposing to operate InterCity 225s on London Paddington to Cardiff Central services from December 2020 and London Euston to Stirling services from May 2021.
During their operation with VTEC in 2016, there were plans to retain six to eight sets with shorter rakes for a new London to Edinburgh service, even with the Azuma takeover. However, having succeeded VTEC, LNER went ahead to introduce the new Azuma trains with no more plans in retaining any of the InterCity 225 sets due to high maintenance costs on the fleet. In January 2020, LNER announced that a number of sets were to be retained anyway.

Capacity and formation

The formation of the InterCity 225 sets is below:-
The total numbers of seats are 406 Standard and 129 First, giving the train an overall capacity of 535 seats.

Scale models

One of the first models of the IC225 in the UK was by Hornby Railways, after previously releasing an OO Gauge BR Class 91 locomotive in 1988. In 1990 Hornby Railways launched its first OO Gauge models of BR MK4 rolling coach stock, consisting of a BR Mk4 Driving Van Trailer, three BR MK4 coaches, a Tourist Open Coach, a First Open Coach, and a Catering Service Car. Hornby Railways launched its first full model version containing a BR Class 91 locomotive, a BR MK4 Driving Van Trailer, and two MK4 Tourist Open Coaches as a complete train set in 1991.

Gallery