Virgin Trains

Took my 3 year old son 'train spotting' today! He actually had a choice - I offered him the chance of a trip on the Torpoint Ferry or go and see some trains. The trains won.
He enjoyed his trip out with Daddy and I got some photos of the Station and a few trains. So tonight I post one of the Virgin Trains that was sat at the station this afternoon. Shortly before this an identical Virgin train had left on the 16:05 departure to York.
I know very little about trains as I have spent years being a hardened bus spotter and always hated trains. As my interests have widened over the years to include most forms of transport I now pay more attention to railways - but still know very little about the trains themselves. I belive these are Voyager trains.
The Railway Centre has an interesting set of pages on the Voyager trains although its not been updated for a couple of years. Another site here gives more details on the trains.

They may look great but they do look on the small side. This is born out by this item about lack of luggae space on the trains meaning Virgin were sending luggage by road!
Also...

About 160 passengers stranded for more than three hours on a Virgin Train that broke down on a coastal route on Friday night have disembarked. The Glasgow to Penzance service came to a halt at about 1730 GMT after huge waves caused damage to tracks near Dawlish in Devon.
The train was towed into Dawlish station at about 2110 GMT.
A Virgin spokesman said if they had known how severe the weather was they would have stopped the train at Exeter. He added that Network Rail has told them the track has been damaged in both directions. He said the weather had taken a turn for the worse - the train involved was stopped at red lights on the sea wall at Dawlish when it was hit by a huge wave - and water got into the electrics.
He said contingency plans were put into immediate effect but the track had been damaged by debris in both directions which delayed the arrival of the rescue locomotive. Once the track had been made safe the train was towed to Dawlish station. Passengers were transferred to a Great Western service to continue their journey. Passenger Marion Roue was travelling had travelled from Liverpool and was only a few miles from her destination of Newton abbot when the train broke down She said: "It was a bit scary. Three hundred yards outside Dawlish and they said we couldn't get off the train. My brother-in-law rang through and said he could come and pick us up but we couldn't get off the train. "Mind you it was dangerous because the waves were coming up one side, catching one side, and it was frightening." Virgin will be writing to all passengers involved offering a full refund. The rail line is now open but only a single track furthest from the sea.
BBC News 2nd December 2005.
Needless to say, First Great Western's 25 year old High Speed Trains, based on reliable old 1970s British Rail technology, continued to run once they'd got the failed Voyager out of the way.


A closer view of 220-017

For more photos of Virgin Trains try FreeFoto which has a collection of (free) fotos to download.
didbygraham