HST125

Tim O'Toole, me, Sir Moir Lockhead and Peter Hendy pose
with the newly-named power car at Paddington

I am writing this aboard a First Great Western HST125 which was this morning named "Sir Moir Lockhead OBE" after our founder and former Chief Executive.

In a carefully guarded secret plan, Sir Moir and Lady Audrey Lockhead were brought to London's Paddington Station this morning where we had the unit already on platform 1.

Sir Moir was completely surprised when 50 or so guests arrived for the ceremony and then doubly surprised when he saw the train named after him! After introductions by the current CEO Tim O'Toole and FGW MD Mark Hopwood, Clive Burrows gave a short speech outlining the parallel great achievements of Sir Moir and the InterCity 125 fleet, the latter having achieved some 8 million miles and still going strong.

After the launch Sir Moir and the guests were taken on board the train for a commemorative journey along the Great Western Main Line and in a loop via Westbury returning to London. Aboard Sir Moir was presented with a scale model of an HST formation bearing his name and he also received, as is tradition on FGW train-naming ceremonies, a third nameplate to keep at home.


After the event the train was due to form the 1545 service to Swansea so should by now be in regular service and was, at least when we left it, with the power car bearing Sir Moir's name at the London end.


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