To me, an old train, is as much the look and feel , as it is the actual age, take for example, the GWR Castle sets, which are based on the 40 plus year old, HST, but with refurbishment and things like PIS inside, can feel modern, though obviously if one looks closely , there’s things which bely its age, then take a BR later generation, 153 or 156, or now gone pacer etc, which to me feel older and worse traveling environment, than the older HST Castle Sets.
The properly old trains to me are,Mk1 or Mk2’s, and locos, like of course steam, but also the older generation diesels, like the 37’s-20’s-33’s-31’s-86’s, etc, then there’s the, medium age trains, like Mk3’s, 56-58’s-60’s -87’s etc, then the modern trains, which too many to really list.
My rule of thumb for age of trains, is say, anything built more than few years, before the HST. Is i would class old train, then medium age, is HST-87’s, to BR Sprinters-Pacers, MK3 based EMU’s and built, around 40 to 20 years ago, then modern is 20 years old to right up to today, these age brackets to me, are very subjective, and the boundaries are blurred, as one goes from medium age to Modern, as technology which makes modern, might just have appeared in medium age trains.
