APT-P power car number 49006

[floydeeeee]

does anyone know whats happening with the apt-p power car thats currently outside at shildon?

 

[The Gricer]

I'm told by the chap that took this photo that Shildon volunteers are starting to do the bodywork up. Looks like they have quite a job on!

 

[nedchester]

I've had over 5000 miles of that!!!

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . . . . volunteers are starting to do the bodywork up. Looks like they have quite a job on!

Nah, I've had cars get through an MOT with more rust than that!
Just a bit of T-Cut, wet n dry and a quick spray one dry day and Bob's your uncle!

 

[theblackwatch]

I've had over 5000 miles of that!!!

Never had you down as a unit basher!

 

[nedchester]

Never had you down as a unit basher!

A dirty secret of mine. Used to use the APT to travel down to London on Fridays to do 50s in the early 80s when it worked a relief train MWFO from Glasgow to London.

The APT was a beast of a train. Managed to get 137 mph one day down the Trent Valley. Used to tilt properly none of this Pendolino nonsense.

I would have rated a fleet of them (although I do like the 87s).

 

[At_traction]

The APT was a beast of a train. Managed to get 137 mph one day down the Trent Valley. Used to tilt properly none of this Pendolino nonsense.

Could you elaborate on that? There was a period of mechanical failures as the 390 came into service (and I don't have to tell you about the APT's track record (yes, pun intended) on the same issue ), but has it really been unreliable in years?

 

[theblackwatch]

A dirty secret of mine. Used to use the APT to travel down to London on Fridays to do 50s in the early 80s when it worked a relief train MWFO from Glasgow to London.

Top man! Sadly I didn't experience the APT at all. What was your total APT mileage then?

 

[nedchester]

Top man! Sadly I didn't experience the APT at all. What was your total APT mileage then?

About 6000. 49006 was always out. Only missed one of the power cars (49004 I think!)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Could you elaborate on that? There was a period of mechanical failures as the 390 came into service (and I don't have to tell you about the APT's track record (yes, pun intended) on the same issue ), but has it really been unreliable in years?

Don't want to go into detail but there was two of us timing it (using mileposts) and we both got the 137 mph.

The APT was in fact very reliable in the latter years 83 to 86 working the thrice weekly relief train without any fanfare.

4 hours Euston to Glasgow no problem at all (1632 Euston to Glasgow relief). Virgin made a great fanfare some 20 years later about similar timings........
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Theblackwatch's post got me thinking and I have had a look through my old records:
Anyway it was 49003 that I got the high mileage off not 49006.

Rundown is as follows:
49001 - 2407.5
49002 - 401.25
49003 - 5126
49004 - The one that got away!
49005 - 401.25
49006 - 2317.25

Total APT mileage = 5527.25 (Remember there were two power cars on each train)

Anyone out there beat that?!

 

[Matt Taylor]

I raise you 278000 miles in 158s.:roll:


Not quite so rateable though lol

 

[At_traction]

The APT was in fact very reliable in the latter years 83 to 86 working the thrice weekly relief train without any fanfare.

Indeed interesting how totally BR dropped any pretense of an APT to ever have existed, even as the train was running passenger services...

 

[Wyvern]

Internal railway politics? The APT was designed by the civil engineers not the CMEE. Newspaper politics? National politics? Something good from a nationalised enterprise? Cant have that.

Which is why it has never been acknowledged that the advances brought about by British Rail in many areas of the railway were as revolutionary as anything that went before.

They rewrote the first chapter of all the text books.

 

[nedchester]

Internal railway politics? The APT was designed by the civil engineers not the CMEE. Newspaper politics? National politics? Something good from a nationalised enterprise? Cant have that.

Which is why it has never been acknowledged that the advances brought about by British Rail in many areas of the railway were as revolutionary as anything that went before.

They rewrote the first chapter of all the text books.

Exactly. The APT quietly plied it's way from Glasgow to London and back working at high speed. The train was way ahead of its time and BR had got it to work.

However, BR (Government?) decided it couldn't afford a new tilting train fleet (at the time) and decided to go for the business market by introducing Pullman services on a number of InterCity lines.

In 1986 the APT was quietly withdrawn from service.

 

[Wyvern]

However the £M8 spent on it was repaid hansomely in the HST and in improvements to both freight vehicles and passenger trains. Not to mention the patent royalties.

 

[At_traction]

However the £M8 spent on it was repaid hansomely in the HST and in improvements to both freight vehicles and passenger trains.

Indeed. These are still around as beautiful (one more than other ) remainders of the technological "great leap" that the British rail industry did on its own, and could rely on as the other portions of a complete rail system needed updating and upgrading. Of course the Japanese can be said to have pioneered the modern high-speed passenger rail, but the 1964 Shinkansen was a special system, incompatible with the whole other system there. I guess it still is , but the expansion of the network has made that less of an issue anymore.

Not to mention the patent royalties.

Were these royalties connected more to the sale of the APT technology *ahum* overseas, as I assume that BREL was able to use its own innovations on Classes 43 and 91 as well as Mks. 3 and 4 without such transactions?

 

[Wyvern]

I imagine so.

BRB had a subsidiary called "Transmark" which I think handled it. It also arranged the secondment of techies to overseas railways. Two of the places I remember our lads going to, for three months or so trips, were Kenya and New Zealand.

I should say it wasn't just APT technology that BR pioneered, they took the study of vehicle dynamics back to first principles such there isnt any modern train which hasnt been influenced in its design by British Rail.

Moreover BR carried out pioneering work on track and structures, signalling and electrics such as IECCs and RETB