The summer of 2002 was the swansong for the Class 47s on Virgin CrossCountry services, with the last working taking place on Monday 19th August 2002, 47840+847 working 1M56 Penzance - Manchester Piccadilly. During this period of time, First Great Western were also running their own small fleet of Class 47s to provide extra capacity following issues with the launch of the Class 180. This DLC would provide a new timetable set in that last summer, with a whole host of stock modified to their appropriate conditions during this time period as well as a new loco. Proposed Rolling Stock Class 43 in First Great Western and unbranded Red/Black livery The FGW and Virgin HST sets formed the backbone of the express services on this route during Summer 2002, with them also still having their Pacman Valenta engines fitted at this time. Class 47/4 in First Great Western 'LOVE Packet', unbranded Red/Black and Farewell heritage liveries The centrepiece of this DLC, the Class 47s would work services south to Penzance, Plymouth, Newquay & Paignton as well as northbound services to Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool for both Virgin and First Great Western. The FGW Class 47 would also include sleeper Mk3s for the Night Riviera services. 4 of the Virgin CrossCountry fleet were given heritage liveries to celebrate their withdrawal from service, with these being pictured in a separate post. Class 67 in EWS livery The Class 67 is a fleet that is apparently capable of 125mph, though I have yet to see this proven anywhere. They were built to take over from Class 47s on parcels traffic in 1999, but Royal Mail drastically reduced their parcels services to only use the Class 325 on the East and West Coast mainlines, rendering the 67s redundant at only 5 years old. Nowadays these locos are used by TfW on services from Cardiff to Manchester and Holyhead as well as Colas Rail operating 2 locos as East Coast Thunderbirds at Newark as well as the RHTT from Swindon to Kings Norton via Malvern & the Cotswold line. They would have just under 10 playable services on this route between Exeter and Plymouth. Class 150/2 in Wessex Trains & Regional Railways livery Wessex Trains operated a fleet of 25 class 150/2s across the South West of England, although only 18 of these managed to make it into Wessex Trains livery, with the rest retaining their Regional Railways colours until the company was absorbed into First Great Western in 2006. In this timetable, the units can be found on local services to Exmouth, Barnstaple, Paignton, Plymouth, Penzance and the Cornish branch lines. Layers Cargo Line Vol 5: DRS Class 20s would have one round trip on a nuclear train from Exeter to Plymouth Midland Main Line: EMT Class 158 cosplays as a SWT Class 159, with AI services at Exeter St Davids as well as some playable services to Paignton and Plymouth. The China Clay layers are the same as on the modern Riviera timetable, using WCML South, Southeastern Highspeed and the BR Class 20.
Virgin Class 47 Special Liveries 47829: Police livery 47840 'North Star': BR Blue livery 47847 'Brian Morrison: BR Large Logo livery 47851 'Traction Magazine: BR Two Tone Green livery 47853 'RAIL EXPRESS': XP64 livery
