Advanced Passenger Train
British Rail spent a long time in the 60's/70's developing a 155mph tilting train to speed up services on the West Coast Mainline. When the first ones were introduced rather prematurely at the end of 1981 there were some problems, compounded by the usual pathetic sniping from the press. This resulted in their withdrawal very shortly afterwards. The prototypes were quietly slipped back into service in 1984 and ran without problems - but it was too late and the project was scrapped. Now most fast services on this line are operated by Italian Pendolinos. So they made use of BR's pioneering research and have now made the money!
When I photographed this unit at Preston in September 1982 presumably it was still doing trial running.
Advanced Passenger Train
British Rail spent a long time in the 60's/70's developing a 155mph tilting train to speed up services on the West Coast Mainline. When the first ones were introduced rather prematurely at the end of 1981 there were some problems, compounded by the usual pathetic sniping from the press. This resulted in their withdrawal very shortly afterwards. The prototypes were quietly slipped back into service in 1984 and ran without problems - but it was too late and the project was scrapped. Now most fast services on this line are operated by Italian Pendolinos. So they made use of BR's pioneering research and have now made the money!
When I photographed this unit at Preston in September 1982 presumably it was still doing trial running.