APT What we nearly had!

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Flying Phil

Original Poster:

1,578 posts

144 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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I saw on Sunday that the Crewe Heritage Museum was open so I left home for my 90 mile journey. When I finally found the Heritage centre (No signs on a key roundabout!) the gates were however shut. Fortunately they were not locked and there were some people inside and I was given permission to enter see the APT set. Another very helpful gentleman opened the doors on the set and I now have a good collection of images.
It certainly still looks impressive and the inside was very evocative of airline style.

LotusOmega375D

7,582 posts

152 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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The village park where I played as a kid in the 1970s was adjacent to the Midland Mainline. I still remember seeing the silver gas turbine APT prototype zooming past on a few occasions.

Flying Phil

Original Poster:

1,578 posts

144 months

Monday 20th November 2017
quotequote all
LotusOmega375D said:
The village park where I played as a kid in the 1970s was adjacent to the Midland Mainline. I still remember seeing the silver gas turbine APT prototype zooming past on a few occasions.
Lucky you! That was the APT-E and it still holds the record for the fastest London to Leicester time of 58 min 30 sec - Ave 101.6 mph set Oct 30th 1975. That is now preserved by the NRM at Shildon I believe.

Stedman

7,213 posts

191 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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What a shame it ended how it did

LotusOmega375D

7,582 posts

152 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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The electric one you went to see proved to be a very popular Hornby train set. Our family didn't have that set, but from memory I think Hornby had as much trouble with the tilting carriages as BR did with the real thing. Of course my memory may be mistaken.

droopsnoot

11,817 posts

241 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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When they first got that APT set at Crewe, they had it positioned so that the front end was poking through the trees on one of the roundabouts. I thought it was a great way to publicise the Heritage Centre, but it didn't stay there long. I have been unable to find a photograph of it in that position.

Apparently that's the only surviving power car.

tog

4,517 posts

227 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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LotusOmega375D said:
The electric one you went to see proved to be a very popular Hornby train set. Our family didn't have that set, but from memory I think Hornby had as much trouble with the tilting carriages as BR did with the real thing. Of course my memory may be mistaken.
I had the Hornby APT and can confirm that on tight corners it would lean over and hit the Duchess of Abercorn coming the other way.

Flying Phil

Original Poster:

1,578 posts

144 months

Monday 20th November 2017
quotequote all
droopsnoot said:
When they first got that APT set at Crewe, they had it positioned so that the front end was poking through the trees on one of the roundabouts. I thought it was a great way to publicise the Heritage Centre, but it didn't stay there long. I have been unable to find a photograph of it in that position.

Apparently that's the only surviving power car.
It was a condition of Crewe having the APT that it could not be seen by passengers on the West Coast Mainline which runs alongside the site!
There is another Power car which is currently at Coventry, but the museum there has to close and there is a crowdfunding appeal set up to get that power car moved to Crewe.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/apt/

Stedman

7,213 posts

191 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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It would be ace to see if on the mainline again

Flying Phil

Original Poster:

1,578 posts

144 months

Monday 20th November 2017
quotequote all
tog said:
LotusOmega375D said:
The electric one you went to see proved to be a very popular Hornby train set. Our family didn't have that set, but from memory I think Hornby had as much trouble with the tilting carriages as BR did with the real thing. Of course my memory may be mistaken.
I had the Hornby APT and can confirm that on tight corners it would lean over and hit the Duchess of Abercorn coming the other way.
It would seem that, despite the problems of "brushing" when tilted (almost like the prototypes!), the price of SH Hornby APT sets is on the rise.......Popularity at last.
As Stedman says - it would be great to see it out in action again and, if not on the main line, then on a preserved line at least.
Also, the crowdfunding appeal has already passed the target of £2700, so there is support for the APT concept.

Edited by Flying Phil on Monday 20th November 12:19

Rich1973

1,191 posts

176 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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Still, at least the Italians managed to sell our own technology back to us.

steve-5snwi

8,593 posts

92 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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You can see it from the west coast line on leaving crew, its something that i'd always want to go and see. After spending lots of time on the trains i decide to do a little bit of reading up, it seems it was on the verge of being successful until the government pulled the plug. I think the carriage design lives on - and somewhere upstairs i have the hornby set, although it is just the train, no boxes or track.

V8 Fettler

7,019 posts

131 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Grossly under-funded, world-leading design, unfinished R&D, insufficient testing, hopeless public relations. Could describe a multitude of British engineering projects.

P5BNij

15,772 posts

105 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Flying Phil said:
LotusOmega375D said:
The village park where I played as a kid in the 1970s was adjacent to the Midland Mainline. I still remember seeing the silver gas turbine APT prototype zooming past on a few occasions.
Lucky you! That was the APT-E and it still holds the record for the fastest London to Leicester time of 58 min 30 sec - Ave 101.6 mph set Oct 30th 1975. That is now preserved by the NRM at Shildon I believe.
Here it is at Leicester London Road...



silverfoxcc

7,683 posts

144 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Took a ride on the APT from Glasgow to Preston in 1984?
you could sit where you like First class for second class prices

Great Experience

Clive-sz8cz

108 posts

103 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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I dimly remember watching a documentary about the APT, probably back in the very early eighties. The train was packed with journalists and it came to a halt with the carriages jammed at random angles. An engineer with a micrometer stuck his head under a carriage and then pronounced it had the wrong size pin (presumably a pivot pin for the tilting mechanism), hence the failure. As an ignorant non-engineer print shop worker I wondered how fking incompetent the management and actual engineering teams could be when all they had to do before this high-profile run was walk the length of the train, measure each pin and if necessary replace with the revised design of pin - I mean, was commonsense in such supply back then that a task like that was beyond British industry. Britain's lack of manufacturing industry now is probably because we couldn't make anything then!!

Flying Phil

Original Poster:

1,578 posts

144 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
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P5BNij said:
Flying Phil said:
LotusOmega375D said:
The village park where I played as a kid in the 1970s was adjacent to the Midland Mainline. I still remember seeing the silver gas turbine APT prototype zooming past on a few occasions.
Lucky you! That was the APT-E and it still holds the record for the fastest London to Leicester time of 58 min 30 sec - Ave 101.6 mph set Oct 30th 1975. That is now preserved by the NRM at Shildon I believe.
Here it is at Leicester London Road...


Thanks for that picture - to think that, only ten years before, that would have been a filthy Jubilee leaking steam everywhere! The APT was (nearly) such a step change for the railway.

rs1952

5,247 posts

258 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
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Flying Phil said:
P5BNij said:
Flying Phil said:
LotusOmega375D said:
The village park where I played as a kid in the 1970s was adjacent to the Midland Mainline. I still remember seeing the silver gas turbine APT prototype zooming past on a few occasions.
Lucky you! That was the APT-E and it still holds the record for the fastest London to Leicester time of 58 min 30 sec - Ave 101.6 mph set Oct 30th 1975. That is now preserved by the NRM at Shildon I believe.
Here it is at Leicester London Road...


Thanks for that picture - to think that, only ten years before, that would have been a filthy Jubilee leaking steam everywhere! The APT was (nearly) such a step change for the railway.
A jubilee working train through Leicester would have been a bit longer ago than 1974, which was 10 years before the photo.

In 1984 it would have been a Peak with its driver hoping it get all the way to its destination...

Starfighter

4,908 posts

177 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
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I recall seeing them running on the WCML when I was a kid. Looked really nice, especially when tilted right over but did not sound anywhere near a good as the Deltics in the ECML near my home.

Yertis

18,016 posts

265 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
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rs1952 said:
A jubilee working train through Leicester would have been a bit longer ago than 1974, which was 10 years before the photo.

In 1984 it would have been a Peak with its driver hoping it get all the way to its destination...
I think the pic was taken in 1975, so the Jubilee would have been in 1965. smile