APT What we nearly had!
Discussion
Yertis said:
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. In 1984 it would have been a Peak with its driver hoping it get all the way to its destination...
However, even in 1965 it would have been highly unlikely to see a Jubilee at Leicester. As that year dawned there were just 40 left, allocated as follows:
Carlisle Kingmoor - 4
Manchester Newton Heath - 4
Liverpool Bank Hall - 4
Leeds Holbeck - 9
Leeds Stourton - 4
Wakefield - 4
Warrington Dallam - 8
Stockport Edgeley - 3
Also Cricklewood had closed to steam at the end of 1964 and there were no steam servicing facilities south of Wellingborough
And how do I know all this? A couple of years research doing this, that's how: http://www.robinsummerhill.co.uk/25743.html
Yertis said:
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. In 1984 it would have been a Peak with its driver hoping it get all the way to its destination...
Flying Phil said:
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! Apparently that's the only surviving power car.
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/
Flying Phil said:
I must confess to not checking the dates too carefully but I knew steam was still in Leicester on the GC until 1967 and it had finished on the MML well before that - so when was the last Jubilee(or even BR steam) through Leicester?
The elimination of steam was a gradual process. There were enough Peaks to completely dieselise the Midland Main line by September 1962, but steam still covered failures and some special traffic. Then nature threw a spanner in the works with the 1962/63 winter "big freeze" which the Peaks didin't like one bit This gave steam a last fling during that winter and on into the first half of 1963.Although I'm guessing, I would suspect that in common with the NE/SW line (Leeds to Bristol which ran past the end of our street in north east Bristol where I was living at the time), the last regular steam hauled passenger workings would have ended after the summer of 1964. In the case of the MML, the closure of the steam servicing facilities at Cricklewood in December 1964 would have spelt the final end of steam on the southern section.
As regards the wider issue of steam through Leicester, Kettering depot closed to steam in June 1965 and Wellingborough and Leicester Midland closed in June 1966. Of those, by January 1966 only Leicester retained a steam allocation - 16 locomotives, 12 Stanier 8Fs and 4 Standard class 2 2-6-0s (78xxx range). Wellingborough was just a servicing point after May 1965 having lost its steam allocation in that month.
On the Great Central there was still some steam working until 3rd September 1966 when the line south of Rugby closed. Even there, however, most of the trains in the last few months were diesel hailed.
Not Leicester, but here's a shot of what a Jubilee-hauled train looked like in Bristol in 1963:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93122458@N08/8518532...
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...
Indeed the Peak might have been 20 years old by then - here is one at Leicester in June 1966 (just down the track from the APT picture)In 1984 it would have been a Peak with its driver hoping it get all the way to its destination...
And down the road at Leicester Central Station (Also June 1966)
APT-E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9rBcSZb3bE&fe...
Kit Spackman's condensed history of the APT-E is an interesting read. World-leading engineering and it gets thrown in the bin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9rBcSZb3bE&fe...
Kit Spackman's condensed history of the APT-E is an interesting read. World-leading engineering and it gets thrown in the bin.
I've been meaning to go to Crewe to see the class 370 forever, I always think it was one of the true tragedys of the BR era that it never got the funding it deserved and sending load of journalists on it after helping themselves to many free drinks didn't help it, in the end BR diverted attention to the HST (43) selling the technology to italy and then the pendolinos running over the exact line I've always thought as salt in the wounds, proof it worked too.
Flying Phil said:
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/
It was sat for years in a siding at crew on full display to passing west coast trains as it slowly deteriorated. Last time I saw it was about 95 I think.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/
Glad it's been restored and on display, was sad to see it sat so folorn.
V8 Fettler said:
Grossly under-funded, world-leading design, unfinished R&D, insufficient testing, hopeless public relations. Could describe a multitude of British engineering projects.
They have been waging a deliberate and organized war against British heavy industry for decades, and they are still waging it to this day. No other major European country is doing the same mind you.I really should go and visit this some time. I'm fairly sure my grandad had something to with the design; he was an engineer working for Metalastik and is credited as an inventor in one or two patents for locomotive traction engine supports and suchlike. I wish I'd been interested in stuff like this when he was alive as I'm sure he'd have had some interesting stories!
-crookedtail- said:
Might be a daft question so forgive me, but can you walk through the powercar but in the middle or were you stuck on either end of the train?
Stolen from Wikipedia:"There was a passage through the power cars that connected the two halves of the train, but it was noisy, cramped and not permitted for passengers."
The rest of the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_T...
Boatbuoy said:
Stolen from Wikipedia:
"There was a passage through the power cars that connected the two halves of the train, but it was noisy, cramped and not permitted for passengers."
The rest of the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_T...
Nice, thanks!"There was a passage through the power cars that connected the two halves of the train, but it was noisy, cramped and not permitted for passengers."
The rest of the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_T...
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