The Scotrail 158 702 poked its head out of Edinburgh Waverley platform 15 ready to go to Glasgow on a sunny Wednesday morning. This unit was one of the first to be treated to Scotrail’s refit which includes new seats, new carpets, a new livery, occasionally functional air conditioning in the first class portion and a new nameplate. Unfortunately, it does not include a quieter and more powerful engine which the unit badly needs. By the way, has anyone noticed that Scottish Region 158s have a snowplough-shaped thing at the front whereas the rest of ’em have just a flat slab around the automatic coupler?

Oh yeah, and out of interest, they seem to have taken to naming 158s up here: for the Far North Line 125th Anniversary (Inverness-Wick/Thurso) which was a couple weeks ago in July 1999, they named a 158 precisely that. Unfortunately I can’t remember the number of that unit. The anniversary coincided with a 15-minute journey time reduction on the Far North Line which is still predominantly a 60mph railway.

This photo by Alex Lu was brought to you by Lexcie Corporation Edinburgh (http://www.lexcie.zetnet.co.uk) lexcie@innocent.com (0131) 558-8585.