Hello all and welcome to this very special journey video and the last video of my trip to Inverness in December 2019. This journey is aboard the last ever 'Highland Chieftain' service to be operated by a HST from Inverness down to London King's Cross.

My journey started, just before dawn, when I left Inverness at 07:55am for London via the Highland Mainline and the ECML. When I left it was dark but before Aviemore, it started to get much lighter offering some great views of the highlands and the landscape. The views on this section of the journey are truly spectacular like seeing snowcapped mountains in the distance and it was great that the sun was up as well. We made the usual stopping points this time, unlike on my inboard journey, so we stopped at Stirling, Gleneagles and Falkirk this time. Before Haymarket, we passed Haymarket Depot which was full of the relativily new Scotrail 'Inter7city' HST's with some in their older GWR livery and with some exGWR MK3's stabled.

We then arrived into Edinburgh Waverley where we had a booked 10 minute wait but we had to wait for out driver before continuing down the ECML which made us 10 minutes late. After leaving Edinburgh, we passed Craigentinny Depot wth some LNER Class 43's and some TPE stock being stabled and then after that, we sped along the North Sea coast offering some amazing views. We then head through Berwickupontweed, over the Royal Border Bridge and cross over back into England. Our next calling point was Newcastle where there was a rare sight of a Class 57 railtour sat waiting in the platform alongside a TPE Class 802 on test. Immediately after departing, we crossed over the River Tyne and on to our next stop of Darlington and then onto York. After leaving York, and participating in a small train race with a 158, we began our final stretch fast down to King's Cross. We flew through every station, however around the Biggleswade area we were informed that, due to a vulnerable person south of Stevenage, we would be diverting via Hertford North but at Hitchin this decision was revert so we would continue along the ECML. After this news, there was a subsequent backlog of trains so this made us another 10 minutes late. Finally after 8 hours of travelling, we arrived into London, roughly 20 minutes late, which marked the final time a HST would operate the 'Highland Chieftain' service on the ECML. A few days later would be the final day of long distance HST operation on the ECML.

Main Timestamps:
Aviemore: 04:05
Kingussie: 09:30
Pitlochry: 19:30
Perth: 24:38
Gleneagles: 30:20
Stirling: 34:52
Falkirk Grahamston: 40:10
Haymarket: 43:20
Edinburgh: 46:31
Dunbar: 52:30
BerwickuponTweed: 55:00
Newcastle: 1:03:20
Durham: 1:07:30
Darlington: 1: 08:20
York: 1:11:45
Doncaster: 1:16:40
Peterborough: 1:20:50
London King's Cross: 1:29:35

Service: 07:55 Inverness London King's Cross
Calling Points: Aviemore, Kingussie, Pitlochry, Perth, Gleneagles, Stirling, Falkirk Graamston, Haymarket, Edinburgh Waverley, Newcastle, Darlington, York
Headcode: 1E13
TOC: LNER
Traction: 2x LNER Class 43's (43239/296)

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