Fast trains with pointy ends.

The first "pointy end" on a train was on the A4 Pacifics built in Doncaster and there is some resemblance with the front end of our 125s. On the continent things have gone much further.

A German Inter City Express (ICE) train prepares to leave Brussels Midi forming the 16.28 to Frankfurt, taking us on the first leg of our journey to Florence. Of all the European high speed trains I find these the most comfortable.

Also running from Brussels are the Thalys trains, providing a high speed service to Paris and northern Germany. They are very similar to the French TGV. 

Italy also has its high speed trains. This is a Euro Star service about to leave from Milan on its way to Rome and which will deposit us in Florence.

These are fast and comfortable but for some reason we found them harder work than the other European trains. For a start they are always very full, even though they are very long by British standards with twelve coaches on most trains. The main problem is that they are very noisy. Italians seem to talk incessantly on their mobile phones, or loudly to each other and are constantly on the move through the train. Compared to the serene quiet of a German train, or the Cisalpino services across the Alps you are more pleased when the journey is over.

Bathed in early sunshine a TGV leaves Nice with a morning service to Paris. The train will amble westwards along the coast, a very pleasant journey, at normal speeds until it reaches Marseilles where it meets the high speed line and can accelerate.

A high sped train for Stockholm waits at Copenhagen Centrale for its passengers to board.

A Eurostar set at St Pancras.

A French Eurostar train at the Gare du Nord.

A TGV train for Paris arrives in Dijon. A significant moment because a few seconds before, the lens cap from my camera had fallen off and rolled off the edge of the platform. It might still be there.

A TGV at full speed south of Dijon. The foreshortening effect of the camera making the track look like a roller coaster.

Two Spanish HSTs in the impressive new station at Seville.

And two more in Madrid.

There are pointy ended trains in Ireland. This is a Cork to Dublin service.

Our own early contribution to the pointy end genre: here a London bound 125 powers out of Edinburgh Waverley.

At the other end of the line another 125 departs from Kings Cross. There have been two changes of livery on these trains since these these images were made, with perhaps yet another to come.

The powered end of the East Coast class 91 which will push the train from Edinburgh to London.

 

A "Voyager" on the West Coast Mainline

A north bound Voyager at Newcastle.

Arriving at Preston.

Another Voyager at Waverley.

A Cross Country Voyager, bound for the south west at Inverkeithing

This strikes me as perhaps trying too hard...?

A train from Paddington at Didcot.

Our most recent addition to the fast train fleet at St Pancras, the "Javelin."

Another Javelin at Margate.

Two Pendolinos at Glasgow Central