APT POP TRAIN Kit (under design & construction)

[Mr_Tilt]

They where Bachmann mk1 bogies with the sides filed down.

I then cut out the side profile from plastic card the made the rest from different shape

Plastic. It took a long time and several try's to get to to look right. I think each bogie and about 50 parts to it.

 

Jeepers, that's SERIOUSLY good work there.   

[Mr_Tilt]

An interesting thing came up in the last few days about POPII, the later, skinned version of POP-Train. Darren Malster sent me a pic of POPII sitting in the Engineering Test Hall at the RTC alongside LEV1, a pic that I'd not seen before, and it showed PC4 with its single window to the LEFT of the doorway.

 

 

Up till then every pic I'd seen of PC4 in POPII form had the window on the RIGHT side of the doorway, as the two pics below show.

 

 

 

As can be seen in the upper of those two pics PC3 had no windows at at all in POPII form, and with a single side door in the same position as had in its original form.

 

 

For a while I thought that PC3 and 4 had had their identities swapped, but I couldn't remember anything as radical happening back then, and the first pic can't have been a reverse print as the text on the vehicle side is clearly readable. I dug further into the few pics of POPII that I'd got and finally the light dawned when I came across this wonderful shot of the whole train taken at Peterborough.

 

 

It clearly shows PC3 with it's doorless side toward the camera and PC4 in exactly the same orientation as it was in the ETH pic, which can only mean the PC4 had TWO side doors in POPII form!! 

 

I just can't remember that, but having thought about it at length I spent most of my time working on POPII looking at the underside of PC4 while we were trying to get the Mk V tilt packs working properly, or else I was inside the vehicle working on the older MK II pack that was still in there, and I usually got in and out through the end doors.

 

The upshot of all that means that any of you building PC4 in its later form will have to modify the structure to add another side door on the other side of the vehicle. 

Edited June 17, 2017 by Mr_Tilt

[Wolf27]

I remember when I built my original plasticard model 10 years ago that I had put the doors the wrong end so had to fill and relocated to the other end. This train certainly benefits extensive research!

 

Cheers

 

Shane

[Wolf27]

The bodyside doors would have always been towards the centre of the train as they are in the same location as the APT powercar. Windows on the other hand where changed or removed when fully skinned.

 

Cheers

 

Shane

[LongRail]

Just goes to show how hard it is to research vehicles from around that time period there must be more photos out there and as people scan them and make them available things become clearer. This won't be a problem with more recent times as the world is flooded with pictures of everything.

[Mr_Tilt]

Just goes to show how hard it is to research vehicles from around that time period there must be more photos out there and as people scan them and make them available things become clearer. This won't be a problem with more recent times as the world is flooded with pictures of everything.

 

And it goes to show that the memories of people who were actually there aren't all that accurate either! 

 

I'd have sworn that both vehicles only had one side door each in POPII form, and I spent at least a month working in and around PC4 back then.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Mr_Tilt

[Mr_Tilt]

The bodyside doors would have always been towards the centre of the train as they are in the same location as the APT powercar. Windows on the other hand where changed or removed when fully skinned.

 

Cheers

 

Shane

 

Yes, that's right. The internal structure of POP-Train was always the same, apart from moving the 'accommodation' area toward the outer end of PC4. (The word 'accommodation' is used here in its WIDEST possible sense!) As all the monitoring of PC3 & 4 was carried out from PC4 in POPII form PC3 had no need of windows when it was skinned.

 

PC3 still retained its older Mk II tilt pack in the same position as it was in POPI form, as did PC4 but PC4 also had the Mk V pack mounted under the floor at the opposite end of the vehicle to the Mk II pack. In fact it was directly under the 'accommodation' area because the mounting points needed to simulate the conditions under the P-Train Trailer Car. There wasn't room under the old 'accommodation' area as the trusswork was in the way.

 

This pic shows the Mk V pack directly under the window of the 'accommodation' area on PC4 with the outer H4X bogie to its left. The trusswork behind the pack is the structure we added to simulate the 'backbone' of the P-Train Trailer Car. 

 

[DRM]

Posted these on the modelling the railway tecnolagy center, added them here as well. Making PoP2 not sure how it's going to turn out yet.

[Mr_Tilt]

Can you give a direct link to the other thread you mention please?

 

I've tried a 'Search' for it, but the search engine here is so dreadful it'd take me all week to go through the VAST list of entries it throws up. 

[Wolf27]

Hi Kit

Darren is referring to the Facebook group I set up last year.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/788414664634683/

Cheers

 

Shane

Edited June 6, 2017 by Wolf27

[Mr_Tilt]

Ah right, thanks Shane. 

 

I'm not a Facebook person, far too techie for me. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

Ah right, thanks Shane. 

 

I'm not a Facebook person, far too techie for me. 

 

Glad you said it Kit, I agree.

Shame really, I bet there is some interesting modelling going on in there.

 

Mike.

[DRM]

Work on PoP2 goes on , starting to look like something now ( I hope).

[Mr_Tilt]

That's looking pretty promising, have you scratchbuilt the P-Train Trailer Car 'Lab 8 Pilot' as well as the POP cars?

 

I note you're using the tilting cams from the Hornby APT-P model, but did you scratchbuild the rest of the BT11 articulated bogies as well?

[Robert Shrives]

Hi Great modelling hope to see some POPs running at shows in the future. Just a quick one did the idea of a N gauge version fall to the wayside...

Robert   

[DRM]

Hi Kitt,

Lab pilot 8 is made up of the bits left over from cutting and shutting Hornby APT's to make intermediate coaches.

The pivots are the centres out of left over Hornby B12 bogie ( did not have any spare B11's). And the bogie frame was scratch built to take them. Needed to do it in a way so I did not have to take the "swing pivot" out of the slot in the spare pivot floor plates I had let over.

All so I can remove lab pilot 8.

[DRM]

Hi Robert.

I don't think the N PoP has fell by the wayside,I think that Paul has had a bit of bad luck with things and to add insulated to injury his 3d printers playing up. Probably wants to finish the 00 ones first.

[Mr_Tilt]

I'd like to see that running some time, it looks pretty awesome. 

 

Even though there's around 2000 APT-E models out there I've only seen one running at a show, one that wasn't mine or a demo version anyway. There'll be even fewer POP-Train models so we'll really have to keep our eyes peeled!

 

I've seen Paul's prototype N gauge POP-Train, and it looks pretty good. Nowhere near as finely detailed as the 00 gauge version of course, the 3D printer won't go down to that level of detail, but it's pretty convincing. Plus you're NEVER going to confuse it with anything else! 

Edited June 18, 2017 by Mr_Tilt

[DRM]

Hi Kitt.

I think Bob is planing something RTC related for are stuff to run on.

Someone,s doing Hastings for me and with her I think I'll almost have a full set. Trestrol is in the pipe line,had to restart her as the donor was too short,so had to get another tresol to cut and shut for the length. Need to find a class 84 or a unicorn !!!.

Take care Kitt and look after you self.

[stadman]

I

Even though there's around 2000 APT-E models out there I've only seen one running at a show, one that wasn't mine or a demo version anyway. There'll be even fewer POP-Train models so we'll really have to keep our eyes peeled!

 

 

My own APT-E at Exeter last year 

It (the APT-E) Won't be present this year though

[Enterprisingwestern]

Even though there's around 2000 APT-E models out there I've only seen one running at a show, one that wasn't mine or a demo version anyway.

 

Regrettably, most of them will still be "mint, boxed", and in collectors cupboards, waiting for their "shaft a modeller" moment on Ebay.

 

Mike.

[ColinK]

Too valuable to take to a show?

[Mr_Tilt]

Regrettably, most of them will still be "mint, boxed", and in collectors cupboards, waiting for their "shaft a modeller" moment on Ebay.

 

Mike.

 

I'm afraid you may be right there Mike.

 

Mine gets a run out on the club test track every month, just so I can hear those turbines start up and run again.   

[LongRail]

Mine is in a Train Safe display box in the train room and definitely is run on the layout so I have the best of both worlds.

undoubtedly some people brought them for a profit and sold them straight away this was evident as they were being sold off before I even received mine.

I only run DC at the moment but realising that you could get limited sound on DC I changed my order fro the sound version, this was after the initial orders had been dispatched.

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

I'm afraid you may be right there Mike.

 

Mine gets a run out on the club test track every month, just so I can hear those turbines start up and run again.   

 

Are you sure it's the turbines and not the collectors spinning in their graves?

 

Mike.