370003 (Sc48103) late-lamented APT-P unit seen on display at Crewe Works Open Day in 1984 😍 Audio APT! 😍
<b>Sat. 2nd June 1984 1Z38 - 'The Midland Executive' railtour</b>
A rather excellent railtour that managed to include scheduled stops at Derby and Crewe for the two works open days :)

A rather sad view of one of the short-lived prototype Advanced Passenger Trains (APTs) making an unusual sight at Crewe Works. By 1984, the units were already soon to be withdrawn and scrapped - as chance would have it, this DTS Sc48103 was saved and put together with an assortment of other coaches to form a preserved unit at Crewe Heritage Centre - on the site of Crewe Works! Note the burnt-out 'Roarer' parked next door!

<b>Something new for 2023...Sound &amp; Vision on SoundCloud - more memories from a mis-spent youth 😎</b>
A rather rare recording of what must have been the last operational Advanced Passenger Train (APT-P) unit that I managed to capture on tape on 14th Oct 1986. The unit had arrived at Crewe station from the north on a test train, near the end of its working life, and I managed to get my trusty 'Boom Box' set up in time to record it for posterity, as it slid out of the station and into the sidings of Crewe Electric Depot (CE). Not the most exciting of my railway tapes, but pretty rare nevertheless :)
Just checking my original notebooks, and I noted the entire unit as follows: 370006 (Sc48106) - Sc48602 - Sc49006 - Sc49002 - Sc48603 - Sc48404 - (Sc48103) 370003. The unit departed around 17.30. Visit here for the authentic sound of an APT-P: <a href="https://soundcloud.com/sound-vision-10193594/apt-p-advanced-passenger-train-departs-crewe-station-for-the-depot-in-october-1986" rel="noreferrer nofollow">soundcloud.com/sound-vision-10193594/apt-p-advanced-passe...</a>

<b>Advanced Passenger Train</b>
British Rail's Class 370 tilting trains, also referred to as APT-P (meaning Advanced Passenger Train Prototype), were the pre-production Advanced Passenger Train units. Unlike the earlier experimental gas-turbine APT-E unit, these units were powered by 25 kV AC overhead electrification and were used on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Glasgow Central. The APT-P is the most powerful domestic train to have operated in Britain, the eight traction motors fitted to the two central Motor Cars giving a total output of 8,000 horsepower (6,000 kW). This enabled the train to set the UK rail speed record of 162.2 miles per hour (261.0 km/h) in December 1979, a record that stood for 23 years until broken by a Eurostar Class 373 on the newly completed High Speed 1.

The APT-P was unveiled to the public on 7 June 1978 but by 1981 the trains were still under test and undergoing modifications. After Margaret Thatcher's arrival at 10 Downing Street, in 1979, the project was facing the possibility of cancellation, and so BR management decided to put the prototypes into service, with the first runs along the London-Glasgow route finally taking place in December 1981. However, the result was a media circus when every problem large or small received front-page coverage and the entire project derided as an example of BR's incompetence. The trains were quickly withdrawn from service again by the end of the month, to the great amusement of the press. The problems were eventually solved and the trains quietly reintroduced in 1984 with much greater success. However, by this time the competing High Speed Train (HST), powered by a conventional diesel engine and lacking the APT's tilt and performance, had gone through development and testing at a rapid rate and was now forming the backbone of BR's Inter City passenger services. All support for the APT project collapsed as anyone in authority distanced themselves from what was being derided as a failure. The three APT-Ps ran for just over a year before being withdrawn again over the winter of 1985/6. One set was retained and continued to be used for testing into 1986. Two of the three sets were broken up, and parts of the third were eventually sent to the National Railway Museum where it joined the APT-E.

Due to ongoing technical problems with the pre-production units, and a lack of cash or political will to take the project forward, the planned APT-S (Advanced Passenger Train Squadron Service) production-series units were never built, but the project did influence the design of the later InterCity 225 sets designed for the East Coast Main Line electrification. The influence is strongest with the Class 91 locos which took many features from the APT powercars. The technology was later sold to Fiat Ferroviaria and used for improving their second generation Pendolino trains which are used worldwide, including on the West Coast Main Line as the Class 390. More info here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_Train" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Passenger_Train</a>

Units were numbered 370001-370006 (plus two spare cars labelled 370007 and were formed as follows:

48101 - 48107 - Driving Trailer Second
48201-48206 - Trailer Second
48401-48406 - Trailer Restaurant Second Buffet
48301-48306 - Trailer Unclassified
48501-48506 - Trailer First
48601-48607 - Trailer Brake First
49001-49006 - Non-Driving Motor

Taken with a Zenith TTL SLR camera and standard lens. <b>Scanned from the original negative with no digital restoration</b>

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: <a href="http://www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/</a>
sc48103 48103 370003 class370 apt aptp creweworks crewe railtour themidlandexecutive bashers railbashers railenthusiasts emu advancedpassengertrain