387145, 387171 & 387144 South Marston 12 May 2021

387145, 387171 & 387144 pass South Marston on 12 May 2021 with the 1A53 08:40 Swindon to Paddington GWR service. These EMUs had only started working from Swindon the day before, as a partial replacement for the IET fleet, which had all been withdrawn so that they could be inspected for underframe cracks. Despite what the politicians told us, we all knew that the Class 800 & 802s were a barely adequate replacement for the iconic HSTs, but nobody expected the whole lot to be grounded within a few years!