"Perhaps one of the most surprising facets of the Class 220s' early days, as seen from today's vantage point nearly twenty years later, is that the units were initially popular."
47826 was one of the Class 47/8 XC regulars paid tribute with a heritage repaint, courtesy of Chief Exectutive Chris Green.
After the renewal commitments of privatisation, the late 1990s brought a new climate to UK railways. As increasing stocks of old locomotives packed the scrap lines, it dawned on us that for the first time since the end of steam, a primary genre of train was soon going to vanish from widespread operation. The locomotive-hauled passenger train.
As the brand with by far the biggest realm of loco passenger haulage in the UK, Virgin Trains was expected to undergo the most dramatic transition. At the time, Virgin ran both West Coast and CrossCountry, and the renewal on CrossCountry was scheduled for a swift metamorphosis from what was effectively still late 'eighties British Rail, into a virtual “closed shop” of mega-modern DEMU services. In this post, I'm going to chart the timeline of Virgin CrossCountry's transition.