The export of High Speed Train power cars and Mk.3 coaches for further use in Mexico and Nigeria – being coordinated and managed by Romic Group – has created another chapter in the fascinating story of these popular trains. Andy Coward met Romic chairman Robert Coleman to find out more about the company and the HST project.
There are certain similarities between the High Speed Train export project and Romic Group’s chairman Robert Coleman. A couple of years ago, Robert started to gradually wind down his business after more than four decades buying and selling railway parts, locomotives, and rolling stock on the international market, focusing on his consultancy business as he headed towards a more leisurely period in his life.
The HSTs have also had an active career lasting more than four decades, but if you’d asked followers of the design this time last year what the future held for them, most would have predicted that possibly a few more vehicles would enter the preservation sector, with the remainder facing a one-way journey to an appointment with the scrap man.
However, fast-forward to spring 2024 and Romic is growing its workforce once again to manage the preparation and export of HST vehicles for a further working life in Mexico and Nigeria – and possibly elsewhere too – with Robert’s immediate thoughts of retirement on temporary hold while he guides his team and oversees this fascinating new chapter in the company’s long history.
We are now rapidly approaching the 50th anniversary of when the first production HST set, featuring Class 43 power cars 43002 and 43003, entered traffic on the Western Region in 1976. Those initial two power cars still exist, with 43002 retired to the National Railway Museum in York as a static exhibit, while 43003 is s
