Preston Station - Regulars

This page provide a pictorial guide to the regular rail traffic - passenger and freight - which could be seen on a typical day at the station.

The Current Scene

Virgin Trains

Preston Station is managed by Virgin and are responsible for a large proportion of the West Coast Main Line passenger traffic.

Until very recently, Virgin held two rail franchaises - Virgin West Coast and Virgin Cross Country. For several years, the West Coast franchaise was operated with class 86, 87 and 90 locomotives, with Mk2 and Mk3 rolling stock, all inherited from BR. Likewise, for the Cross Country services, Virgin was using class 47 locos and HST sets, operating over non-electrified routes. By 2004, all this "heritage" stock had been replaced by modern trains. Now tilting class 390 Pendolinos operate the Glassgow - Euston services, as well as those serving Liverpool and Manchester from the south. Cross country services saw class 220 and 221 Voyagers and Super Voyagers take over.

In 2007, we have seen a shake-up of the franchaises which has resulted in Virgin losing cross Country. A few of the former XC services have transferred to Virgin West Coast, but the majority have been lost to Arriva (who won the XC franchaise), or to Trans-Pennine Express who from December will operate the Manchester - Glasgow - Edinburgh services.

Virgin class 390 Pendolino The class 390 EMU is theoretically capable of 160MPH, but limited to 125MPH on the WCML. On non-tilt sections, the limit is further reduced to 110.		Virgin class 220 / 221 Voyager The two versions of the Voyager, classes 220 and 221 are only distinguishable by their bogies - the 220s have insife bogie frames, with the whole wheel-face exposed, whilst the tilt-capaable 221s have heavy-looking outside frames.

Northern Rail
Northern Rail took over from First North Western in December 2004, operating most of the local services in and out of Preston. These include Blackpool, Manchester, Blackburn, Ormskirk and Barrow-in-Furness, but include many routes which do not involve Preston. Northern Rail operate using a wide variety of second-generation DMUs. In Preston, you can expect to see classes 142, 150, 153, 156 and 158, in a wide variety of liveries including Northern's own lilac colour-scheme. The fact that many of Northern's DMUs have been "cascaded" from other operators and other regions, is made obvious by the number of trains which carry liveries from other areas.

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