Sir Kenneth Grange, who designed the appearance of British Rail’s first High Speed Trains in the 1970s, has died just four days after his 95th birthday.

The novel appearance of the InterCity 125 power cars quickly became a symbol of British Rail’s increasingly successful InterCity business, after the first had entered public service on the Western Region main line in October 1976.

Although HSTs were limited to 125mph (200km/h) in service, the prototype train had set a world speed record for a diesel locomotive of 143.2 mph (230.5 km/h) in 1973 during trials on the East Coast Main Line.

Sir Kenneth, whose industrial designs spanned a wide range of objects, including the Kenwood Chef food mixer and the Anglepoise lamp, had been commissioned to design the InterCity 125 livery, but he decided to redesign the appearance of the power car without telling British Rail.

He worked with an aerodynamic engineer, and they tested a model in a wind tunnel.

He later said BR’s original design ‘was rather quite brutal, rather clumsy. I thought “Oh I'd like to get my hands on that”, although the brief was nothing to do with the shape, absolutely not at all.’

In the event his revised design was accepted, and the fleet quickly grew in size. Because the HSTs could run at 125mph, which was 25mph faster than previous diesel express trains, British Rail marketing used the tag line ‘The Journey Shrinker’, while British Transport Films made a demonstration film without a commentary entitled ‘Overture One-Two-Five’. This showed the new trains speeding along the Western Region main line, and included a dramatic musical score by David Gow.

In later life, Sir Kenneth was honoured at various railway events. The first production power car, 43 002, was repainted by Great Western Railway in the original livery and named by him on 2 May 2016 at St Philip's Marsh depot in Bristol, to mark the 40th anniversary of the HSTs entering service. He later visited York in October of the same year, and 'signed' a power car with spray paint.

He was also the Honorary President of the 125 Group, which has restored the original prototype power car.

The Group said: ‘Sir Kenneth became a good friend of the Group, an advocate of our aims and has been our Honorary President for the last ten years – visiting us at events on numerous occasions.

‘We pass on our deepest condolences to his wife Apryl and all his family.’

Sir Kenneth Henry Grange CBE PPCSD RDI 
17 July 1929 – 21 July 2024