The Official Rapido APT-E Thread

[The Stationmaster]

I really must watch the video, I really must watch the video - however I shall make sure my teacup is nowhere near lest the storm extends to it   

[Mr_Tilt]

Good, I make it less than 4ft then, so it will fit on the sector plate - should raise some eyebrows on a 1958 themed Colliery

 

It would make an interesting weathering job, wouldn't it?

 

E-Train usually looked reasonably pristine, but now and then, usually after a long session at Old Dalby, we'd return to Derby looking a bit grubby and Ron Puntis' team would descend on the train en masse and clean and polish for a day or so.

[Revolution Ben]

Not with a one man crew using non-professional equipment in the time constrained circumstances in the environment Andy had.  It was a busy day for everyone with lots of things to be done, the fact that they had time to do an interview was a bonus for us.

 

 

Andy is busy doing the interview, not making sure everybody stands still so they stay in frame and focus, with the added complexity of taking advantage of the APT-E expert walking past and agreeing to join the interview.

 

 

You are in a big, echo filled, box with announcements, general background noise from people talking, and other noises that are louder than normal thanks to the surroundings. There was no position inside that building, and in particular no location with APT-E as a background, that wouldn't have the noise issues.

 

 

They must be disappointed then, because there is a lot of stuff on the Internet that is orders of magnitude worse that what you people are complaining about.

 

Personally, I am grateful Andy took time out of his day to record the video at all, and I certainly hope that he will continue to provide us with this bonus content that is almost certainly beyond his job description. 

 

 

Hello Gerald,

 

I am grateful too that this video recorded; and there is no criticism of Andy here - just people trying to give pointers as to how it could have been better.

 

Disabling the autofocus is done before the interview starts; once it's underway there is no need for Andy to be distracted; indeed, he'd probably be more comfortable because he *won't* be worrying about the autofocus impairing the quality.  Also, it is simple enough to ask interviewees to stay relatively still (Jason did this anyway) and during the interview the positioning of those taking part tends to be controlled by the interviewer almost subconsciously with their body language.

 

I take your point about the noise; as I say, noise is harder to sort out, yet ironically the sound is actually more important than the pictures.  It's why there is no video equivalent of radio.  Even a hand-held microphone cabled to the camera would be better than trying to just use the inbuilt one.  But yes, this would have a cost implication and the cable forms a trip hazard.

 

As to internet content; yes, lots of it is worse.  But I can't imagine that Andy, BRM and Rapido wouldn't want their content to be the best it can be, and the imput offered here is simply trying to help with that.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Ben A

[Matabiau]

As an avid fan of television I wouldn't have guessed that this was anything other than a standard TV news quality video. I somewhat pity Andy having to interview Jason, his exuberance, enthusiasm and larger than life personality monopolise the film. Andy was lucky enough to interrupt Jason long enough to get out the word "yep" from time to time! Thank you and well done.

[Clive Mortimore]

I enjoyed viewing the video, and the content was great. I am not a professional video or TV person so I cannot give advice. I know Ben is and I hope that his input will make Andy's future interviews better.

 

Having been interviewed for television (and radio) as a representative for the RCN in the past, I did ask the professionals how I came across. They gave me advice which I later used in other interviews. Twice in one day following a TV interview and a radio one both interviewers said I was easier to interview and came across better than a then member of the shadow cabinet. Now when I see him on TV I can see how nervous he is.

 

One cheeky cameraman suggested I borrow a colleagues make up compact to take away the shine off my head.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Clive Mortimore

[experimental]

Hi Rob,

It was a total fluke, I was waiting to go into the museum, but ended up watching the trains from York station for a long time.

 

I had never even heard of E train ,as I was only 9 years old.

 

The first of many flukes, when it comes to E train, the next one was when Kit got in contact.

 

Paul

[experimental]

Well the real thing is 277 feet long, so you should be able to work it out from that.

[Oldddudders]

As one who is neither a potential customer for this model, nor very fond of 45 minute videos, I persevered and enjoyed it more and more. I think I knew an APT engineer briefly - we were both on a 5-week management course - but certainly met Dr M G Pollard, Mr Tilt's boss.

 

While I accept the carps about the video quality are well-intentioned and soundly based, I think the subject matter and the competent speakers largely rescued the vid from the difficulties of the busy site and its iffy acoustics. As has been said - a more informative freebie about this interesting project would be hard to imagine.

[PaulRhB]

If we were deploying extra resources to do a couple of interviews I'd get a better interviewer for a start.

.

No a new outfit is all you need . . . .

 

[Ian Hargrave]

Ben A....post 337....is about to talk himself into another job,I think . RMWeb "roving reporter"?

[87004]

As to the perceived production quality of the video.  I'd much rather have this historical event recorded than not.  Think of the number of objects, buildings, people and events that have disappeared into the ether without ever being recorded.

 

Looking at the old APT-E coverage for example what would have happened if the videographers had thought  "the resolution of this is not high enough, I'll not bother"

 

Oh, and I've reserved a sound and DCC equipped APT-E. :-)  It did of course visit St. Austell! ;-)

[Mr_Tilt]

Oh, and I've reserved a sound and DCC equipped APT-E. :-)  It did of course visit St. Austell! ;-)

 

I better check the logbooks again..........

[aptp]

Hi Kit

 

I have tracked down where I read about the addition of the Bolster Clamp mechanism, and then the later addition of the Tilt Fault Detection Unit. They were both modifications to the P-Trains. (I was right (for a change !!!))

 

 

Rob

www.APT-P.com

Edited June 29, 2014 by aptp

[rapidotrains]

Hi all,

 

OK - I am back in Canada and my (replacement) computer is back up and running though when I mentioned to my wife that I needed to go to the basement and answer emails all day she threw the kitchen table at me.  Ow.

 

My MacBook Pro, known to his friends as Mr. Lemon, died again on Thursday while on East Coast to Edinburgh.  Thank God for the three-year warranty, as this machine has died four times.  I think the repair guy is inviting me to his daughter's wedding, because with all of these repairs I've paid for it.

 

Because there is a holiday here in Canada next week, the only way I would have access to my documents and emails before next Friday was to buy a new, three-year-old MacBook Pro and transfer from my backup. So I'm now writing to you from Mr. Lemon's cousin, Mr. Hopefully-Not-As-Much-of-a-Lemon.  That was $1350 I didn't budget for. Isn't modern technology wonderful?  I now have a backlog of 300 emails to get through.  So if you've emailed me and not received a response, there was a good reason.... 

 

We're working on a video from the event which should be ready this week.  I am proud to say that the production values in our video are FAR LOWER than those of Andy's video.

 

In fact, the usefulness quotient is also far lower.  You'll see what I mean when you watch the video.

 

So I am very grateful to Andy for taking the time to interview Kit and the team for posterity and for interviewing me for posterior.  I find it amazing that Kit remembers names and dates the way he does.  I can't remember what I had for lunch on Wednesday.

 

When I have some more time in the next few days I will go through the entire thread and address any of the questions that haven't been answered yet.

 

A lot of the questions I saw during my brief flashes of internet access while in Scotland the other day have been answered in Andy's film, so it might be worth watching that in the meantime if you haven't already.

 

Talk to you soon,

 

Jason

[Nimbus]

3 minutes of arc? Close counts.............

 

On the subject of rivet counting here's a pic of Bill Schneider doing exactly that on PC2.

 

 

What? No Vernier?   Puts the kybosh on that then

 

(A vernier does work - you nip it up gradually until it can't rattle against the foot of the head any more. It will probably let you measure the height too. Then you read it in better lighting if you need to.)

 

The Nim.

[Nimbus]

Just sat and watched.....and listened to Andy Y's wonderful video with Jason,Kit & co.  What a breath of fresh air...I am full of admiration for such enthusiasm and dedication. Jason,as the saying goes,you could sell sand to a Bedouin chieftain !

 

A couple of similar thoughts struck me too.

 

One, that this is the sort of heroic tale that James May might (help to) put across rather well on TV.

 

Two, that Kit's enthusiasm for besting the challenges of a pioneering engineering project knocks into a cocked hat, the current media equating engineering with the intersection of 'top totty' and 'brains', or the 'technology' of yet another 'app' to choose and order an appropriate outfit to wear, according to the user's biorhythms. Or some such.

 

The Nim.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Nimbus

[60800]

A serious question or two from me regarding DCC functions.

 

It's already noted that a few of us would be interested in the trailer car lights being DCC controlled. I'd also like this as due to the size of the thing, it is likely to live on my railway, hence I'd want the lights to be able to be switched off, either through DCC functions or via a hidden switch ala the Bachmann 85. I'm asking if this would be a feasible addition for consideration within the production budget.

 

My second is will the decoder have pre-set or allowable deceleration settings to replicate the braking forces of the Hydro kinetic brakes?

 

My next question regards the tilt system, will it be a simple, single link system akin to the old Hornby APT-P, or will it be a (correct me if i'm wrong here) swing link system dynamically faithful to the original system? 

 

Finally, I would like to know if the train is to be modelled exactly as preserved, or will allowances be made to model it exactly as it was towards the end of the testing programme? (The double wipers on TC1 being an exmaple of this).

 

What Jason has done in selecting the APT-E as a foray into British 'OO' is pure genius. It's set the company up to make a name for itself with prestigious BR trains from the dawn of high speed through to the mid 90's, meaning that the Prototype HST set and APT-P become instantly feasible, with the class 91 not too far behind - it just simply doesn't have the 'wow' factor (although it probably would with Rapido's method of marketing). Although all three are significantly longer rakes, the value for money has already hit, with the Rapido APT-E being (car for car) half as much as a comparable four car Hornby HST set at today's prices. Essentially, we could be looking at a full prototype HST set for around the £550, which, given the standard of Rapido's models, is what I would have expected for the APT-E, and that would not have pushed consideration to put me off. I won't plumb the depths of OHLE in 'OO', but the APT-P would be a show stopper, and may finally put the Hornby version with it's incorrect cab profiles to bed.

[newbryford]

 Although all three are significantly longer rakes, the value for money has already hit, with the Rapido APT-E being (car for car) half as much as a comparable four car Hornby HST set at today's prices. Essentially, we could be looking at a full prototype HST set for around the £550, which, given the standard of Rapido's models, is what I would have expected for the APT-E,

 

The big advantage (to my mostly un-trained eye) is that the APT-E only needs two moulds for the four cars. the prototype HST needs at least four - power car, TF/TS, TRUK & TRSB, so the simple maths of scaling up the cost from 4 cars of the APT-E, to the 9 (possibly 10 - see below) vehicles of the prototype HST isn't a true calculation.

Other cost additions to factor in would be that the APT-E is articulated and thus needs less bogies than a conventional vehicle.

 

In fact 10 prototype HST vehicles were originally built - 2xPC, 3xTF, 3xTS,, TRSB, TRUK, although it ran in passenger survive with only 2xTF as 2+7.

 

To further cloud the 252 water, I've read that the original tests were carried out without the actual catering vehicles due to production delays, but a modified loco-hauled RKB formed in the set for 10 months.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited June 29, 2014 by newbryford

[Swifty11]

Nice!

Very well done to see a someone taking the project on! Good man!

 

*goes off to find any excuse to buy one*

[Oldddudders]

 

It's already noted that a few of us would be interested in the trailer car lights being DCC controlled. I'd also like this as due to the size of the thing, it is likely to live on my railway, hence I'd want the lights to be able to be switched off, either through DCC functions or via a hidden switch ala the Bachmann 85. I'm asking if this would be a feasible addition for consideration within the production budget.

 

 

For conventional passenger trains, of course having the lights off in the sidings seems sensible - although cleaners still need to be able to see to sweep, of course. But this is not a conventional passenger train. The only people it carried were engineers and technicians - and they might well be burning midnight oil on board checking this, replacing that, before tomorrow's run.

[Southernman46]

Just a thought - was it ever seen out on the main line being towed by something blue & available............??  

[Grimly Feendish]

I've just watched Andy's video and enjoyed it very much, particularly the information from Jason and Kit. I shall be trying to find time to watch Kits lecture.

 

I've just put  a deposit on one, and I can rationalize that in many ways, but it boils down to "I want one". I may have to build a layout to accommodate it   

 

I do hope this is successful and encourages Rapido to introduce an N gauge version APT-E and a Prototype HST.

 

John

[Mr_Tilt]

Just a thought - was it ever seen out on the main line being towed by something blue & available............??  

 

E-Train wasn't, it only ever moved under its own power, or hauled by the Unimog in the RTC Yard.

 

POP-Train was hauled by a variety of main line stuff, Class 25, 45, 46, 47, 86, 86/1, 87/1  AND the blasted Class 17, as well as the Unimog too.

 

Thanks for the enthusiastic response to the vid, we in the Conservation and Support Group are very pleased at the response.

 

And if any Model Railway Clubs need an odd-ball lecture I can do my APT story in short (1.5 hrs) long (2.5 hrs) and 'Is he ever going to stop' lengths.

[PaulRhB]

I can do my APT story in short (1.5 hrs) long (2.5 hrs) and 'Is he ever going to stop' lengths.

Something for RMweb live? if there's still space Andy

[Andy Y]

I'd genuinely love to Paul although the theatre's somewhat full for this September.