2002 could be described as a watershed year for West Country railways. As the summer season drew to a close, Virgin Cross Country ended the use of ‘traditional’ locomotive-hauled trains to the South West in favour of the new Class 220/221 ‘Voyager’ DMUs. First Great Western followed suit, with the remaining Class 47 daylight diagrams replaced by HSTs, leaving just the operator's overnight Penzance sleeper services worked with loco-hauled coaching stock. The only variety would be provided, in the busy summer period, by a few ‘foreign’ HSTs hired from other operators, and the
