On Board The New Intercity Express Train

The new Class 800 IET trains were launched on GWR's mainline on 16th October 2017. The first service was one that departed Bristol heading for London, the second was at 7am - leaving Paddington to go to Bristol and back, and that's the one that Geoff caught at Reading on its way back to London.

Thanks to the lovely onboard staff who kindly let me sit in First Class for a portion of the journey.

Quite by change we bumped into our friend Roger who also decided that he'd take a ride on the new train on the day it was launched ..

.. and then, by quite even bigger chance the day ended at Paddington with a steam train, the launch of 'Paddington 2', and some rather famous people who showed up as part of a charity event.

[RoulinBrooks]

If I had to choose between a special appearance by the royal family or a special appearance by Roger, I'd choose Roger every time.

[tidmouthmilk]

11:30 Love that shot. Steam, diesel and electric all together at Paddington!

[ConstantinSPurcea]

When you take your train back to Paddington and casually run into Prince William.

[steved]

11:39 I see what Roger means about the acceleration.

[timc]

I absolutely love that shot of the IET, the HST and Tornado lined up. (11:31) Absolutely stunning. By the way, Tornado isn't a replica, it's the next loco in that class (it just happened to be built quite a bit later!) But now I'm sounding picky.

[leonb]

I love how the royal family are just casually walking around paddington talking to the actors lol😁

[MianCowell]

red? plummy? burgandy? see this is what happens when you don't travel with Vicky! she'd know.

[harrytodhunter]

I hate to do this but Tornado isnt a replica, its a new build. Yes, its not one of the original 49, but it wasnt built as a copy of a specific member of the class, as no a1s were called Tornado. For example, if i built a new a4 and called it mallard, thats a replica. But if i called it Bob, its a new build. This might start a long argument but hey ho.

[moritzl]

The switch to Electric happens shortly before Maidenhead. You'll hear the diesel engine suddenly stop and then the only thing you hear is the natural wind sound. It's a similar feeling to when you turn aircon or a fan off suddenly after keeping it on for a long time.

...also you made the right choice going on the 2nd train. The first one broke down at Taplow due to the electric switch issue and the aircon broke down. It had a lot of angry commuters on it...

[lrp_]

The photo at 11:31 is the generations of rail travel

[Boyracer]

I love how Geoff just waltzes onto a film launch and gets access to stars and royalty 🤣❤

[LeoMartinDJ]

Also to correct that bloke you were with who claimed to explain everything perfectly... the seat reservation system is NOT as he described. Reserving en route is not currently supported by GWR, and it might be at one point in the future, but isn't now and hence isn't anything to do with the traffic light reservation system. It is in fact as follows:

GREEN - This seat is totally unreserved and is available for the FULL journey.

AMBER - This seat is partially reserved for a portion of this journey (E.G. on a Plymouth to London train when the seat is reserved between Plymouth and Taunton).

RED - This seat is fully reserved throughout the whole journey.

[btuckervideos]

Glad to see good old Roger again, enjoyed watching him in your Park Street video

[priestland]

You can almost taste the buzz and excitement that you get just by seeing Paddington Station.

[gordonmcmillan]

Vicky missed Paddington. She wont be happy.

[ertobi]

09:00: I think the lack of a window would be quite negatively received by me if I would be sitting on one of those two seats ...

[TransportGeekery]

So 40% of the potential capacity is taken up with first class seating, and a galley that is used on two trains a day? Train company logic is hard.

[jammin]

It's often said that one of the things that did for the ATP back in the 80s (apart from the fact that Thatcher hated trains and was never going to greenlight it anyway) was the fact that having the power cars in the middle with no walkthrough meant that they had to double up all the staff and facilities with a set in each half of the train. Seems like GWR/Hitachi haven't learned from this...

[jlelliotton]

I was at Slough today when these new trains came by (in both directions). Standing on the platform as they sped by was quite an experience.

[MAAM]

12:18 That's the guy from Horible Histories :D