Hello all! 😀
In perhaps the greatest tragedy in British railway history, the Advanced Passenger Train or APT was an experimental tilting train which was unbearably close to becoming a success, and could have easily paved the way not only for the improvement of high speed services within the UK, but could have been the barnstormer for a range of export models with the potential of revolutionising train travel across the world.
Instead, poor management, a condemning national press, and a disinterested government, conspired to destroy the APT as it edged oh so very close to being mechanically perfect, and with a little bit more funding and commitment could have attained the goal originally proposed by British Rail back in the 1960s, but with its fate decided by far greater powers, what was meant to be the pioneering new face of railway technology instead became an embarrassment to both BR and the prestige of UK technology as a whole, with future rail operators in Britain ending up buying back a system of train travel that this country had come within inches of securing.
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References:
– APT-P.com
– Rail Revisited (and their respective sources)
– Wikipedia (and its respective references)
source
Whut
The poor thing never stood a chance, and of course everyone got behind the diesel one.
GOOD
Japan: Suuure, Sir, Can Do ! And they proceed to work.
France: Oui, Monsieur, bien sur ! Nousn avons des trains partout !
Our country: No way, peasant. No can do. And they waste money.
Conclusion: Brilliant idea, genius engineers, stupid people.
Nothing new.
Looks like a rip off hst
I look at the NHS now and draw parallels to BR. The media pointing and yelling "oh look here's a problem" over and over, a problem caused by systematic mismanagement and a government eager to see it die unceremoniously. Then the case gets made to privatise it, almost as if privatising is putting it out of its misery like it's a dying pet.
I wonder how many of Mrs Thatcher's donors and friends
profited from the development of tilting tech?
APT-get install
On the other hand, the beloved InterCity 125 being a huge success!
I don't think I've ever left like… constructive critisism on a youtube video before but there's something that I struggling a bit here. Above all you've made an incredible video; the editing is spot on, you've done awesome research and you've clearly gone to a lot of effort to find good footage. The only thing is that I think the VO needs some work. A lot of youtubers do the same thing I've noticed you've done here, where they find a paticular way to talk (especially ending sentances) and then just use constantly. I think that having some variation with the way you do your voice over work would massibly improve the quality of your videos.
For what it's worth, I'm only saying all of this because I think this video is almost perfect, and your channel 100% deserves more subs!
Either way, you've gained yourself a new subscriber and I can't wait to see all the other videos you put out, as well as explore your backcatalouge.
Intercity APT?
Did u drink too much coffe? Cuz u speak too fast, slow down when u make a documentary. It's not a pharmaceutical commercial lmao
Yes, it is tragic that this highly advanced and ground-breaking train wasn't allowed to do what it was designed for. The Pendolinos were a poor alternative and a slap in the face for home-grown technology.
God I hate politicians
Was not that much of a tragedy more just a lack of commitment and a government with no understanding of how much testing new technologies take to perfect and the Italian's took on the atp and hence the pendlinos
Just a little fix: 5:45, the train wasn’t developed by renfe, but by Talgo (the manufacturer) FOR renfe (the national operator), both Spanish. Talgo’s passive tilting “pendular” system evolved, to the point where they’re still in use today with very high speed trains (even the new ones, the Talgo Avril, or Renfe S106). Specially pioneering with the single bogey mechanism allowing less maintenance and more space.
The APT-E has the face of a Baboon!
rubbish train
Why didnt they just lock or replace the bogies and use the expensive train as a conventional set ? What a waste, scrapping an otherwise presumably serviceable train.
I made a ride in a tilting DMU in Germany on the Eifelline from Cologne to Trier. It was a special experience I remember. But shortly after my journey these tilting DMU's were withdrawn from service due to safety issues with the tilting mechanism..
Classy click-bait trying to imply this was an actual tragic disaster as in a deadly accident. Pretty low really.
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?…"
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?"
If you're going to make a video about a subject that contains a lot of "h"s, you need to find a narrator who can say "aich" and not "Haich"
APT British version. Advance Passengerless Tractor🤣🤣🤣
3:14 Shin-Osaka is the station. Osaka is the city.
Lots of nice footage but so many inaccuracies in the commentary.
Can someone me about the accident that happend on the midland railway?
They did get to the IC125 eventually which has been brilliant
Very interesting documentary but you talk uncomfortably fast…
Did I miss the tragedy?
A prime example of what happens when you let bean counters tamper with Engineering.
Well-researched, but there are only so many times I can hear "haich" without closing the window and doing something else. And for the HST, there's a LOT of "H" going on.
The letter "H" is pronounced "aitch", otherwise you sound like Parker from Thunderbirds: "hit hain't no use, milady, 'e's set orf the halarm, hand nah 'e's taken the wrong way hout, hain't 'e?"
Another example of a British government stepping in to grab defeat from the jaws of success.
Very informative. Thanks for sharing.
" laughing stock of the industry" nah dont worry as long as America exist nothing passenger train related will be less worse.
I remember seeing the APT-P power cars being built at Derby on an open day in the late 70's. All six of them in the same workshop at the same time.
So is there currently a tilting train in Britain in regular service? Even Portugal them, albeit foreign made.
Following the withdrawl of the APT, one BBC radio comedy sketch ran on the lines of: (Supposedly, I think it was Sir Peter Parker speaking), "Oh, I've just found a new type of train, you put the coal in here and the water in there. Well, at least it works!"
I knew someone who was in the senier management of the British Rail Research Centre at Derby. The said that the Research Centre had been created against the wishes of BR management and there was a very strong NIH (Not Invented Here) sentiment amongst BR management against the APT.
I remember seeing a TV interview with a senior BR manager where he said that he had given the project one more week to show it could work. That happened to be a week where there was extensive icing on the overhead cables. The cancellation was then announced.
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It's strange standing at the heritage centre in Crewe and in front of the APT and seeing an Avanti West Coast Pendolino go past…It's sad…The grandad being sat in a nursing home imobile, while the grandkids play about outside the railings
For the APT to have survived I think the HST would have to have not been born…And that's not acceptable. By the time they had ironed the motion sickness and other bugs out, the HST was already well used and since there was no speed increase why bother? Without the HST the APT could have lived but I wouldn't swap them.
sorry but in Poland a Pendolino with this system was only tested(older model). now Pendolino what work in Poland is newer model without this system. poland bought a pendolino without "pendolino " function😂
Yet another government funded program ruined by neoliberals.
Indeed.