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Advanced Passenger Train (APT) motor car 49002. Crewe Heritage Centre. 2013

Advanced Passenger Train (APT) motor car 49002. Crewe Heritage Centre. Good Friday 29 March 2013.

 

Photograph copyright: Ian 10B.

Camera: Canon EOS 550D.

 

An APT officially consisted of two half-train formations which included one power car and six trailer cars. These formations were seldom (if ever) adhered to. This is the official class 370 APT half-train formation for set 370001: DTS 48101, TS 48201, TRSB 48401, TU 48301, TF 48501, TBF 48601, M 49001, all six half-trains had the same first four numerals with the last numeral of each set being 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. 370007 was not a half-train formation as it only consisted of a spare DTS 48107 and one spare TBF 48607.

 

The APT first carried passengers on Monday 7th December 1981. It did not fare paying passengers in 1982 but returned to service during 1983 and 1984 with full double train sets operating between Glasgow and London shadowing normal service trains. The very last APT passenger journey was on Wednesday 12th December 1984 from London Euston to Glasgow Central, in which it set up a new time speed record for the 401 mile journey, covering the distance in just 3 hrs. 52 mins with an average speed of 103mph. The APT project was then scrapped for a variety of reason in particular the funding of it.

 

During 1986 and 1987 a total of 37 of the 44 vehicles were scrapped. A short six car set is preserved at the Crewe Heritage Centre consisting of DTS 48103, TBF 48602, M 49002, TBF 48603, TRSB 48404 and DTS 48106. As funding permits it is being fully refurbished and restored to a non-working condition. Another motor car 49006 is owned by the NRM. The preserved formation at Crewe now carries the M prefix before the fleet numerals rather than the Sc prefix originally carried.

 

Unfortunately I never travelled on the train when it was in passenger service although I had planned to go on it twice from Preston to London. On one occasion it arrived from Glasgow but was terminated at Preston due to a major freight train derailment in the London area. On the second occasion I had arranged to go to London on holiday but this was cancelled at very short notice as I had to attend a funeral, the most annoying thing was that the APT on the day I was due to travel on it did operate the journey, I was not happy.

 

A total of 56 Virgin Pendolino tilting trains (a modern APT) now operate everyday on the WCML in either nine or eleven car formations. It would be interesting to see a Pendolino painted in the APT Inter City livery.

 

 

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Uploaded on April 10, 2013
Taken on March 29, 2013