Meeting Sir Kenneth Grange Inter-City 125 in Cardiff

On a visit to Cardiff in July 2016 I had the honour of being delivered the infamous Inter-City 125, Class 43 Sir Kenneth Grange to my feet while I waited on the platform at Cardiff Central. A fitting moment for myself personally that day but an honour on any occasion I am quite sure, a privilege to see the 40th anniversary edition of the Inter-City 125 in its original livery colours and fashions.

I was visiting Cardiff with my much wiser and better half while escaping the chaos of family life for a night and the first time in years. We came by train as we often do to save on the cost and stress of parking in the city (though I am sure the train tickets cost several more times the cost of parking tickets, but anyway). We waiting for our return train, while plugging our ears with every finger we had each time one of the valley trains pulled in, screeching to a halt with a noise you felt couldn't get any louder, but always did. A train from London Paddington pulled in slowly, trailing what looked like an odd coloured locomotive compared to the purple livery colours of the front end and carriages. The glimpse of a red name plate stood out as the train curved into the station, resting about 3 or 4 carriages up from where I was sat. Totally intrigued by anything Inter-City 125 since travelling on them many times as a child with my father, a train fanatic in later years, I went to investigate why the read engine was in the original IC125 colours and what this name plate was.

Now Cardiff, the IC125, the 90's and this train station, Cardiff Central all hold fond memories for me, bring them all together in a single place and moment, this was beginning to be quite something. To further discover this was the 40th anniversary edition of the Inter-City125, dubbed Sir Kenneth Grange I couldn't imagine much more could have made the moment more perfect. So chuffed to bits, happy as Larry, totally made up I returned to my seat to wait for my connection home as my wife looked at me laughing to herself and saying "your so like your Dad".