Virgin CrossCountry: The Timeline of Transition

"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.

Info-Pictorial: Livery Greats - Old Virgin Trains Red

"Very, very, very briefly in early spring '97, Virgin outshopped the Class 43 with “XC” branding and a dark grey cab roof."

A year ago, I said that in the post-BR era, EWS was the UK rail operator with the greatest enthusiast appeal. But is that true? Well, some might argue that a passenger operator would have higher enthusiast appeal than a freight operator, since its trains were, or are, available to the public for daily travel. And that's an altogether richer experience than simply watching trains. It's open to debate. But if you do believe that the enthusiast's choice in privatised UK rail companies would have to be a passenger service provider, then surely the leading contender is Virgin Trains, in its early phase, when the whole caboodle comprised ex-British Rail stock.

InterCity Class 47s With Virgin Trains

"Most of Virgin's loco-hauled XC runs operated between the North West and the South West, or the North West and the South East."

One of the reasons why so few photographers can assemble quality pictorials recalling the InterCity Class 47/8s in the Virgin CrossCountry era, is simply that in the initial phase of Virgin Trains, IC 47/8s were considered a "waste of a photo". They were the default. And until spring 2000, still responsible for the majority of diesel loco-haulage across the Virgin network. As a facet of the scene that most people had already photographed in the latter days of British Rail, the IC 47/8s were roundly ignored.

But by the late 1990s, regretting missed opportunities to record the mundane as a teenager a decade and a half earlier, I suppose I made the InterCity 47/8s my opportunity to atone for the future. Now that future is upon us. It's time to look back on what was, in its day, a sphere of mundanity, but which now stands as a lesser-documented component of an ebbing era. The era of widespread locomotive passenger haulage.

An Afternoon at Birmingham International

A seat beside the NEC, for a pictorial snapshot of the period right before the start of Operation Princess.

We so often represent a moment in train spotting time with just a single snapshot. How much more informative would it be to see a whole afternoon’s worth of traffic in a single post? Well, that’s the concept behind An Afternoon at Birmingham International.

The Virgin Red Class 47/8s - Identification Guide & Trivia Trove

"Particular areas of variation would include the type of marker light panels, and the number of lamp mounts on the cab fronts."

We all chased the celebrities, but today, even those good old bog-standard Virgin reds look mighty fine. Can you tell them apart though? Identify them in photos without knowing the number? Can you reel off those little bits of trivia that time is fast erasing? Well, if not, you'll certainly be an expert by the end of this post. In an almighty article featuring photos of every single Virgin red 47/8, I'm going to dissect those work-a-day, bread-and-butter ILRA classics like never before...

There are also posts for the InterCity liveried 47/8s and the celebrity liveried 47/8s with Virgin, but in this Virgin red post, each loco has its own heading and photo, beneath which you'll find a Quick ID button and a Details button. If you click or tap those buttons, you'll get information which aims to help uniquely ID the locomotives. Use the Quick ID buttons if you just want a fast means of pinpointing the locos' unique features. If you use the Details buttons, you'll also need to consult the key, which appears at the end of the post and tells you what each letter or symbol in the block stands for. If you're not quite that nerdy, you can ignore the ID and Details buttons, and just enjoy the pics and trivia.

Please note that the ID and detail information is only accurate for the period during which the locos were working for Virgin, in Virgin red livery...

Info-Pictorial: Virgin Trains Electrics, Loco-Hauled - 1997 to 2007

"A lot of people didn't realise it was a heritage repaint, such was the continued familiarity with original IC Class 86/2s in the early noughties."

86228 Vulcan Heritage at Birmingham International with the 16:21 Wolverhampton – Euston, on Friday 13th September 2002.

If ever you need an illustration of the indifference enthusiasts showed Virgin Trains' native electric locomotives in the late 1990s, just flick through a handful of period railway magazines. There was very little mention of the Virgin electric locos across the broader railway press of '97 to '99 – unless the locos switched pools, or failed and were rescued by freight traction. And finding an actual photo of a Virgin 86, 87 or 90 in those period mags is an extraordinary challenge. There just wasn’t the demand.

Info-Pictorial: The Virgin Trains HSTs – 1997 to 2002

"The final coaching stock rake to wear InterCity livery was set XC63, which received its Virgin red repaint in November 2000."

43078 in a classic late '90s mixed livery scene.

There are probably not that many rationales that can justify living in Birmingham as a stroke of good fortune. But as the epicentre of Virgin CrossCountry, New Street station gave trainspotters optimum access to Britain’s largest realm of HST and loco-hauled passenger service between 1997 and 2002.

The Class 47/7s with Virgin CrossCountry

"However, Virgin denied that ‘825 was returning, so speculation continued until the 27th, when ‘702 finally went back into store..."

Although diesel locomotive-haulage on the CrossCountry network was inextricably associated with the 47/8s, there were other big contributors to credit. And during the 1997-2002 period in which Virgin ran loco-hauled XC services, the biggest 'other' was unquestionably the 47/7. Here in the blog's fourth article about CrossCountry operations, I'm going to recall the story of the 47/7, fully illustrated, as always.

Class 47/8 Liveries in the Virgin CrossCountry Loco Finale

"In fact, the naming proposal had come before the livery idea... The repaints were only publicised after in-person discussions with Chris Green at the Severn Valley diesel gala on 28th April."

When Virgin Trains finalised its order for an entire fleet of Voyager units in December 1998, diesel locomotive enthusiasts knew that CrossCountry’s theoretical elimination of ex-British Rail stock was now not only a defineable reality, but also a timetabled transition. It was feasible that within three years, locomotive haulage could be eliminated from the XC network, and that was big.

At the time, the Porterbrook-owned Class 47/8s leased by Virgin as the core CrossCountry locomotives, divided into a mix of InterCity swallow and Virgin red/charcoal liveries, with the balance still easily favouring IC. The coaching stock was similarly mixed. The shot of 47812 at the top of the post sums up the era. For an IC/Virgin pictorial see InterCity 47s With Virgin Trains, and for a full Virgin liveried identification pictorial see The Virgin Red 47/8s.

Although the end of the XC 47/8 was now in sight, enthusiasts and photographers had their attentions fixed on higher priorities. For instance, EWS’s ex-BR freight locos were already being made redundant by the incoming Class 66, and were suffering the axe at a shocking rate. In terms of locomotives, the 47/8s were among the least of railfans’ worries.

The Introduction of the Virgin Voyagers

"The first UK sighting of the Voyager’s now familiar front end came on 6th July 2000... Five months later to the day, a high-profile and ceremonious outing for 220001 set out to woo the press."

220003 imposes at Birmingham New Street in the year of introduction - 2001. Class 47, No. 47793, is representative of the outgoing stock.

Back in the mists of March 1998, an eyecatching edition of RAIL magazine appeared on the newsagents’ shelves. The cover featured two artist impressions of futuristic-looking trains, and a headline alluding to a £1.85bn order for new Virgin passenger stock. The larger of the two images documented what was believed, at the time, to be the external design of the Bombardier DEMU which would serve the CrossCountry network. The DEMU was not, at that point, described as a ‘Voyager’, it did not look like a Voyager, and Virgin had a different plan for CrossCountry from the one that eventually came to fruition.