Tomica World - A trainspotter's guide to every model.

Heh, thanks 

Yeah, the Virgin Train is a rather remarkable model considering it's real-world history as Britain's answer to the high-speed networks of the time, being only the third dedicated high-speed rail system to debut in the world after the Shinkansen and TGV, and in many ways a distinctly 1970's British answer to the question of high speed, using what already existed in terms of parts and infrastructure and pushing that to it's limits for the sake of cost savings, since the HST was designed as a means to avoid constructing expensive and politically unfavorable dedicated lines, as well as being a more cost-effective and practical alternative to the experimental APT train that was being developed around the same period.

Actually, the APT, despite being a very advanced tilting train unit for the time, is probably the key reason the HST existed, as the APT project was spiralling out of control in terms of cost and technology, and was an embarrassment to the government of the day who had ploughed millions into the project and got an unreliable unit that couldn't regularly reach the planned speeds and had many mechanical issues, whereas the HST was somewhat more versatile, cheaper to build, and used existing technologies that were already proven and reliable in service, which given many units are still in service after nearly 50 years, really shows.

Interestingly however, the APT's tilting technology would then be sold to Fiat [the rolling-stock division of the car company], who incorporated it into their Pendolino designs of train, which after a later acquisition by French manufacturer Alstom led to the Class 390 Pendolino, which would replace some of the HST's in service with Virgin West Coast [as noted in the OP], so yeah, the APT did eventually get the last laugh, in a roundabout way .

So yeah, Britain's answer to the bullet train was the result of cost-cutting and the lack of political will to build anything along the lines of what Japan or France had, but in the end, turned out to be one of the greatest things to happen to the modern British railway, and I was fortunate enough to ride on one of the last few while they were still in front line squadron service with LNER on the UK's London-Scotland East Coast Mainline back in 2019, as well as seeing them from a distance [while also smelling the heady diesel aroma, and hearing the gorgeous scream of throttling Paxman VP185 engines] in their last London base at St Pancras, in service with East Midlands Railway [E.M.R] when I worked with SouthEastern on the High Speed 1 express trains back in late 2020. That job certainly had it's perks for me, aside from being the funding source to build my expanded layout lol .

They're now all gone, so London no longer has any HST units going to any of it's stations on passenger work, disappearing in less than a year as the new Hitachi IET 800 series trains come online, amongst other units. As noted, their only main services now are either as heritage units, or in several regional long-distance formations in Scotland and the West Country, so yeah. One's in the UK National Railway Museum too, alongside, believe it or not, the only carriage of a Shinkansen on display outside of Japan, as yeah, we've got the driving car of a JR-West 0 Series up there alongside all the famous stuff like Flying Scotsman, Mallard and the like, so yeah, Tomica World isn't the only place you'll see bullet trains and HST's side by side lol, we made that concept a reality .

Glad you enjoyed it though, I'm looking forward to gradually going through all the models one by one, as especially with a couple of the models, there's some interesting backstory that, depending on where you are in the world, is either common knowledge, or a complete surprise; I've had both reactions when i've told people .