British Rail Class 43 (HST)
The British Rail Class 43 (HST) is the TOPS classification used for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train power cars, built by BREL from 1975 to 1982.
The class is the fastest diesel locomotive in the world, with an absolute maximum speed of 148 mph (238 km/h), and a regular service speed of 125 mph (201 km/h). There are claims that this diesel rail speed record has been broken twice unofficially: by the TEP80 Russian train in 1993 achieving 271 km/h (168 mph), and the Talgo XXI Spanish train reporting 158 mph (254 km/h) in 2002.
Read more about British Rail Class 43 (HST): History and Background, Development and Design, Operations, Replacements
Famous quotes containing the words british, rail and/or class:
“The British are a self-distrustful, diffident people, agreeing with alacrity that they are neither successful nor clever, and only modestly claiming that they have a keener sense of humour, more robust common sense, and greater staying power as a nation than all the rest of the world put together.”
—Quoted in Fourth Leaders from the Times (1950)
“In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.”
—William Congreve (1670–1729)
“In verity ... we are the poor. This humanity we would claim for ourselves is the legacy, not only of the Enlightenment, but of the thousands and thousands of European peasants and poor townspeople who came here bringing their humanity and their sufferings with them. It is the absence of a stable upper class that is responsible for much of the vulgarity of the American scene. Should we blush before the visitor for this deficiency?”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)