Crosscountry

Modern Railways Crosscountry HST Farewell railtour

Picture of Crosscountry HST at Water Orton in 2014

With CrossCountry’s HSTs set for withdrawal this year, 125 Group are pleased to form part of the operator’s farewell celebrations for this fleet after more than 40 years of operation on CrossCountry routes. Our sales stand will form part of the on board activities available during this special trip to Swanage on Tuesday 26th September.

This full day trip will comprise two ‘tours’ with tickets available for each tour separately. The day consists of the ‘Pines Express’ from Leeds to Swanage, and the ‘Bournemouth Belle’ from Swanage to Bournemouth. A range of activities including a charity raffle are planned on board. More information including timings can be found on the Modern Railways website here.

Tickets are available via our friends at the Branch Line Society for both tours. The Pines Express (Update: SOLD OUT) is £95 in Standard Class and can be purchased here & the Bournemouth Belle is £30 in Standard Class which you can purchase here.

Visit and donation from Crosscountry

We recently had David Jones and John Robson from Crosscountry trains visit our set with a kind donation of several hundred first class headrest covers (antimacassars). During the visit, the opportunity was taken to test fit these to one of our first class coaches (image below) as well as discuss the possiblility of future collaboration, especially as May 2022 sees the 40th anniversary of BR’s introduction of HSTs on the North East – South West/South Wales services. Many thanks to Crosscountry for the kind donation which will be put to good use.

Image of First Class coach interior with XC Antimacassars fitted