Inside The Intercity Advanced Passenger Train - APT

The interior Of the ill fated and short lived Advanced Passenger Train. The decor screams the 1970's! I start in 1st class, then through to the Buffet Car and finally standard class. Go pay this train a visit - It only costs £3 to get into the Heritage Centre in Crewe.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• APT
• Advanced
• Passenger
• Train
• British
• Rail
• Tilting
• BR
• Intercity
• Crewe
• Heritage
• Centre
• Railway
• Age
• Electric
• race
• against
• time
• horizon

[dalex175]

I rode it from Euston to Glasgow in "extra" service as a fare paying passenger in 1984. The interiour was cramped. The tartan was in place to reflect the Scottish connection. The ride was good, no problems with sickness or feeling the tilt; as mentioned it was adjusted.

[tjshill82]

@dalex175 I would have loved to ride this train!! The train is very cramped in places the is no denying that, the alley in the buffet car is extra narrow.. Footage from Horizon in 1981 is a fab insight to the APT. Type " Horizon A Race Against Time 1981 " in to Youtube and watch it :)

[XTGEcolditz]

Are you sure this is advanced? More like advanced for people with major travel sickness. From what I can remember people kept projectile vomiting on it.

[tjshill82]

@XTGEcolditz The were early teething problems with the train but BR did not help by having a free bar on board for the press on a test run.. Rumour has it they got hammered on free booze which made them feel all the more queezy when the tilting mechanism kicked in

[TimRuffle]

Saw this at Crewe 30 years ago! Looks cramped- I wonder what it's like for the wheelchair-bound.

After the new systems were developed and extensively tested in the APT-E BREL built the production version and made ill-considered changes to the design. It could still have been developed for service but was never given a the chance felled by Thatcherism and the old boys network. So now the technology is used all over the world and we have to buy it back in the Pendolinos.

Criminal.

[JBofBrisbane]

OMG, look at that seat material! Now I know where the TR7's seats came from.

Memo to BR in the 1980s - it's simple, guys, First Class is RED, Second/Economy Class is GREEN, like it always was.

[tjshill82]

@KuraIthys. It was rushed, it wasn't ready lets be honest. Had it of undergone some more testing and had top - down commitment we would have had a world beater by the mid 80's

[KuraIthys]

@stellarartwars07 I heard there were serious concerns with people getting ill due to the tilting mechanism. - They fixed this pretty quickly by, ironically making reducing the tilt and thus less effectively cancelling the forces involved. Otherwise it shares the problem of all tilting trains. To fit the track clearance, it has to be narrower inside than other trains. Especially at the top. But this train was mainly just a victim of bad PR.

[stellarartwars07]

The problem with the APT seemed to be with passenger comfort, lacking compared to the Mk2 and Mk3 stock - from what I've heard the travelling experience was more aircraft than train. The production Pendalino goes some way to addressing this issue- but is still there to some extent, and I guess this would have been much more noticeable in a lower tech era. . This trade off between speed and comfort, combined with operating cost issues killed it, like Concorde.

[tjshill82]

@RoadCone411 Now I think of it you are quite right! I have changed the description to the 1970's as you say it was developed through the 70's. It does sadden me thinking about what could of been. Just think if the APT was sucessful it would still be running alongside the ic125's! - I'm sure of it

[RoadCone411]

You mention that the decor is from the 1980s and, I hate to be pedantic, but that tartan interior screams 1970s to me! And considering the APT was mainly developed in the 1970s, that's fitting! Great video, when I look through, I see so many missed opportunities. BR envisioned the APT to be what the current Pendolino is and has become - except the Pendolino is not a British designed train.

[tjshill82]

@Hood197950 Thanks for the kind comment :)