blonde poker forum

..seriously...

was reading through one of those 'on this day in history' websites, and discovered that on the 4th october 1976 the intercity 125 came into service. I remember this - it was a big deal on the news and as I very young child it made a lasting impression on me. The main london-glasgow west coast line ran about 3/4 mile away from my house  and whenever I was out walking with my dad/uncle i used to try and stand there as long as possible in the hope that one would pass. I cant remember if one ever did but I do recall being taken to Glasgow Central and being utterly amazed at how big this thing was.

So that got me thinking - a couple of years later, I remember talk of an 'advanced passenger train - APT' which was a special tilting train and was capable of insane speeds. I even remember hornby bringing out a 00-gauge model of this train. But this project never got off the ground. Reading up on it now it would appear that in a non-stop race it managed to do the london-glasgow run in 3hours 52 minutes. This is still faster than virgins 'pendolino' train has ever managed it.

I dont recall exactly the reasons for the APT never being used - i vaguely remember something about the track not being up to the job, the trains making people sick, and a whole host of other seemingly petty reasons. At a guess I would say there were political forces at work, with the government owned railway at the time not wanting to stomach the huge cost of introducing this new model.

to me it just seems typical of this country. 30 years ago we had a train that was miles ahead technically of anything else around, but for whatever reason we refused to embrace it. Now of course, the track is being upgraded, but i am sure it is costing much much more than it would have in 1979

Wasn't the APT the one that tilted to increase it's speed?

I think there were safety concerns ???

This, pretty much. The now derelict rolling stock remains at Derby Railway works, & can be seen from the Southbound Main-Line.

The then-called "Inter-City 125"'s were, however, a tremendous success, & still survive on what used to be called the GWR (First Freat Western now), LMS (Midland MainLine/National Express), LNER (GNER) & other parts of the Network.

These Call 43's, re-engined, have been trundling up & down reliably for over 30 years now. Remarkable.

No - they tilted to enable them to negotiate curves without slowing down. A very different thing.

Here's another of the splendid Class 43 workhorses. I'm not sure, but this looks like Paddington Station.

didn't blue peter or similar do a programme from an apt trial? I seem to remember them showing how much it tipped by filming a cup of tea on a table

fmp

Better.

reading about the french system - they basically built a whole new line to accomodate the TGV. This meant they could make it travel at up to 200mph. Currently the radii of any new track being replaced is greater still, and potentially means that speeds of up to 250mph maybe possible.

is it complete fantasy to dream that something like this would be possible in this country ? Can you imagine manchester - london in 1 hour ? glasgow - london 2.5 hours ?

it would surely cause a huge problem for the domestic airline industry....

we're just crap at building stuff like that laz. as I posted elsewhere there's now a 140mph service running from where I live into london (which is actually capable of close to 190 mph) but it took them 9 years to lay the 70 miles

it's possible to change the system but would need a complete rethink of the way we undertake engineering projects in this country

My team are currently upgrading the WCML to get these journey's down in time as we speak, i cover from Glasgow High level down to Cove which is 8 miles from the English Border.

We are going to be seconded onto this new Glasgow-London line where the trains will be doing 200+mph at times, and the journey time from Glasgow-London will be 2hrs 8mins!

Very exciting times in my place just now.