The expected cull of Great Western Railway Castle Class high speed train power cars took place following the December 2023 timetable change, the fleet now reduced to 12 operational Class 43s, with 43004/042/092/093/097/098 and 43156/186-189/198 remaining in service with the operator.
In order to reduce the operational fleet of power cars, 43027/029/094 and 43122/153-155/162/194 were all removed from traffic by GWR in November and December.
At the time of writing, all of the power cars recently taken out of service remain at Laira depot. Of those removed from service, 43027/029 are owned by Angel Trains, while 43094 and 43122/153-155/194 belong to First Rail Holdings and 43162 is a franchise asset of GWR and effectively owned by the Department for Transport.
The December timetable change saw the number of diagrams worked by the short-formed HSTs reduced to three between Monday and Saturday. To allow these diagrams to be maintained by GWR, there are now 12 power cars and four rakes of Mk.3 trailer coaches retained for this work, with it now expected that there will be no further fleet reductions until much nearer the time when the Castle Class diagrams will be completely phased out, either at the end of this year or during the first half of 2025.
Of the original 35 Castle Class power cars to be operated by GWR, 23 have now been withdrawn by the operator, with three exported to Mexico (43022, 43158/170), six exported to Nigeria (43009/010/016/040, 43172/192), three scrapped (43005/041, 43170) and the remaining 11 (43027/029/088/094, 43122/153-155/160/162/194) are currently in store.
In addition to the power car fleet reduction, the coaching stock utilised in sets GW02 and GW03 have also been taken out of service in recent weeks.
Scotrail’s Inter7City HST power car 43129 suffered a severely damaged cab in an incident on December 27. It struck a fallen tree, fou
