Diesel Electric

The train on the left of the photo is the 125mph express that brought us from Edinburgh to Kings Cross station in London, on the first leg of our European holiday. It's powered by twin diesel-electric engines, one at the front and another at the rear, which took us down the track in a nifty 4 and a half hours.

The train on the right is one of the newer 225kph trains that also run on the East Coast main line from Edinburgh to London. They are all-electric engines powered from overhead lines and have a top speed of 140mph.

This means they cannot be used for the Aberdeen to London route, for that section of track is not electrified. So the 125s are used for the Aberdeen to London trains, and once they leave Edinburgh, they stop only at the main stations such as Newcastle, York, and Peterborough. The faster 225s stop more often but their higher top speed allows them to keep up with the 125s all the way to London, so they also take about 4 and a half hours to do the journey.

We spent the night visiting family in St Albans, to the North of London, and continued on our trip to the continent the next morning. And I'll tell you about that part of our journey another time.