..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
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.