Reminiscipackage 2

A second tranche of the delightful set of photos from late 1970s/early 1980s British Rail, mostly in and around East Anglia. Starting with a brutish Brush Type 4 -- a Class 47 -- on an InterCity express at Ely:

British Rail (or, as it then was, British Railways) introduced a standard design of passenger carriage in the late 1940s. By the 1960s technology had long overtaken it and BR developed a second standard design, what became the Mark 2:

The Mk2 is said to be the coach that launched InterCity -- it was the bedrock of the new standards of comfort on which the premium express service was launched. But BR had developed dozens and dozens of Mk1 catering vehicles and these had a long service life ahead of them, so these lumpy-sided vehicles were marshalled into the long rakes of smoothly curved Mk2s:

Times were, of course, changing, and a full meal service was declining in popularity. BR responded by developing a variety of buffet and "mini-buffet" concepts in the Mk1s:

Their toasted bacon sandwiches were far in advance of modern "premium" dining on contemporary British trains.

Over to the Southern Region now, for some multiple unit fun:

When the new Rail Blue livery was introduced in the mid-1960s, only express carriages were intended to be two-tone blue and pearl grey: everything else (locomotives, multiple units, suburban carriages) was to be all-over blue.

After a while this was thought to be too oppressive, and all-over blue vehicles (other than locomotives or non-passenger stock like parcels vans) were, for the most part, subsequently repainted into two-tone livery.

Not everything went two-tone: with one exception in Scotland, the Class 105 diesel multiple units only ever appeared in all-over blue (apart from the green in which they were first released, of course).

It was into this rather drab world that BR launched a new generation of rolling stock, starting with the production version of their new electric multiple unit for dense suburban services:

The 313 proved to be an exceptionally reliable design (they're still in intensive use today).

A little spartan for my tastes, their vandal-proofing resulting in a rather hard-edged passenger experience, but they are extremely efficient bulk people-movers.

By far the biggest break-through came with the roll-out of this, British Rail's High Speed Train which was branded the InterCity 125:

Like the Mk2s before it, this represented a step-change in the premium express service offered by BR. A 25% speed increase, and an extraordinarily smooth ride in air-conditioned comfort.

BR experienced dramatic growth in passenger numbers on HST routes where, at last, it had a weapon to take on the new motorways.

So successful were they as a marketing tool that BR tried to introduce them onto almost every non-electrified InterCity route (including some where their high top speed could not be used, thus negating some of the advantages). "The network is spreading" was a potent slogan for this design icon.

And, to finish, a single shot of another piece of standard British design -- the Leyland National:

No matter where you were in the UK, the chances were that before long you'd see one of these (usually in leaf green or cherry red livery). For me they are hugely evocative.