Tilting Tragedy – The Advanced Passenger Train (APT)



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)

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45 thoughts on “Tilting Tragedy – The Advanced Passenger Train (APT)”

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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  3. 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.

    Reply
  4. 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.

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  5. 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

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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..

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  8. 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?"

    Reply
  9. 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?"

    Reply
  10. 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!"

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  11. 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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  12. In case anyone is interested, i have discovered a new way to rapidly develop a new high speed rail—significantly lower cost alternative which can be as fast, safe & reliable… as well as higher capacity than even MagLev, possibly as fast as HyperLoop!

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    Reply
  13. 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

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  14. 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.

    Reply

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