The Official Rapido APT-E Thread

[LocomotionatShildon]

Hi all

 

Just a quick reminder that the order book for the APT-E and Trailing cars closes on Thursday. Visit our website www.locomotionmodels.com/ to see our brilliant countdown clock and get your order placed in time!

[Colin_McLeod]

When is the balance due?

[LocomotionatShildon]

Balances are not due until September/October.  Before dispatch anyway.  All we need now is a deposit.

[Danim]

will the sound chip be purchasable later on if you have already preordered the dc version

[Tase]

I'd imagine so as it's being produced by Legoman.

[shreds]

So I know that the E train was only ever four vehicles and the 'half sets' of the P trains were 7 vehicles with an in-service design of 14 max vehicles when combined together.

 

But before the E morphed into the P version, what had been the thinking behind the potential size of an E train? Was that also 14 or was it less? 

 

I know this is all theoretical, but it would be interesting to know, (if anyone does have an answer, Mr Tilt perhaps?) and might boost the sales of spare coaches (!). I already have a view on this, but just wanted to see what others thought.

 

Oh and Jason....how about a POP train, to sit alongside the APT-E? 

[piranha230]

Jason, 14 coach APT-P to go with it , you could do it as Hornby did as a 5 car unit and sell the other power car and additional coaches separately so people could build it up into the shorter rakes or the 14 car rakes if they wished to do so.

Also it had a few variations on the cab front lettering eg all yellow front with no lettering, black mask front no lettering, black mask front with lettering same as Hornby did, black mask front solid br black logo and red apt lettering and a few other variations plus later the thin red stripe dividing the yellow and executive light grey, and 2 styles of pantograph, not to mention the powercars without the br and intercity lettering when they were being tested with the hst prototype.

[piranha230]

PS,got my order in for one dcc ready apt-e and one sound fitted the other day, would have ordered a few more if it wasn't max 2 per customer!!.We will have to see how much they go for when they start getting sold on EBAY.

[piranha230]

If they are going at high prices on Ebay at the time, I will be happy with the 2 sets I have managed to buy.

Seems a shame as by limiting them to 2 per customer it makes it an expensive way to buy them if peoples only choice in future would be to obtain them from Ebay sellers who are just in it to make money.

Just remember if people have not pre-ordered them before the deadline it might be that they have not got the money at the time or they might want to see the fully finished product before they part with any cash, its a shame if 30th of april is the deadline no more models made as you could easily get many future orders, otherwise its expensive tooling that might never be used again.

[Mr_Tilt]

So I know that the E train was only ever four vehicles and the 'half sets' of the P trains were 7 vehicles with an in-service design of 14 max vehicles when combined together.

 

But before the E morphed into the P version, what had been the thinking behind the potential size of an E train? Was that also 14 or was it less? 

 

I know this is all theoretical, but it would be interesting to know, (if anyone does have an answer, Mr Tilt perhaps?) and might boost the sales of spare coaches (!). I already have a view on this, but just wanted to see what others thought.

 

Oh and Jason....how about a POP train, to sit alongside the APT-E? 

 

The E in APT-E was for 'Experimental' and that's the way it was always going to be, a 4 car unit.

 

But later versions were planned to be longer however they were powered and that meant much more powerful turbines for the non 25 kV versions. It never got that far because of the '73 fuel crisis though. A turbine version wouldn't have had the power cars in the middle of course, so would have looked much more conventional and maybe would have looked more like E-Train. There were a number of studies made before the E-Train design was finalised but they had more rounded fronts, so it's not really possible to give a definative answer. 

 

A PoP Train model would be amazing, but it'd be a REAL pain to mould I bet! You could power it with a large variety of locos, but you'd need good models of Lab 3 and Lab 10 or 23 as well.

[shreds]

Just one more question.

 

The E train clearly got down to the GW mainline around Swindon and Didcot via the MML with pics of it also at St Pancras and obviously between Derby and Old Dalby / Edwalton.

 

But did it get anywhere else such as the Duffield slab based track north of Derby, or to Mickleover?

 

Are there any records of its travels and dates?

Edited April 29, 2015 by shreds

[Mr_Tilt]

Just one more question.

 

The E train clearly got down to the GW mainline around Swindon and Didcot via the MML with pics of it also at St Pancras and obviously between Derby and Old Dalby / Edwalton.

 

But did it get anywhere else such as the Duffield slab based track north of Derby, or to Mickleover?

 

Are there any records of its travels and dates?

 

Yes, but only the very first run on 25-7-72, got as far as Duffield before returning.

 

We took E-Train to the Mickelover Track for the initial re-commissioning runs in 3-car form in August '73, which was after the rebuild over the winter of '72-3.

 

The only other place E-Train went was en route to York on the last run in '76.

 

I've still got the tilt system log books for the train's life which list every single movement we made with the train (down to the minute!) but they're also listed in Hugh William's book, 'A Promise Unfullfilled' in slightly less detail.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Mr_Tilt

[shreds]

Thanks Kit.

 

I have got a copy of Hugh Williams book somewhere in the loft....must dig it out, as it must be ten years since I looked at it.

 

You are undoubtedly a star with such fantastic resources. Eternally grateful.

[47137]

If they are going at high prices on Ebay at the time, I will be happy with the 2 sets I have managed to buy.

Seems a shame as by limiting them to 2 per customer it makes it an expensive way to buy them if peoples only choice in future would be to obtain them from Ebay sellers who are just in it to make money.

Just remember if people have not pre-ordered them before the deadline it might be that they have not got the money at the time or they might want to see the fully finished product before they part with any cash, its a shame if 30th of april is the deadline no more models made as you could easily get many future orders, otherwise its expensive tooling that might never be used again.

My understanding is the limit of two per customer is for orders with the £50 deposit. No limit if you pay outright now.

 

Richard.

[Mr_Tilt]

Thanks Kit.

 

I have got a copy of Hugh Williams book somewhere in the loft....must dig it out, as it must be ten years since I looked at it.

 

You are undoubtedly a star with such fantastic resources. Eternally grateful.

 

My pleasure, I'm a tad evangelical about the APT project, as you may have gathered by now. 

 

But it's had such bad, and wrong, press from our ignorant media in the past I feel that the correct information needs to be made available.

[Indomitable026]

My pleasure, I'm a tad evangelical about the APT project, as you may have gathered by now.

 

But it's had such bad, and wrong, press from our ignorant media in the past I feel that the correct information needs to be made available.

.

I agree with that wholeheartedly !!

 

You led the world, we know that

 

I take my hat off to you

[hymekfan]

So the 30th April deadline for pre-ordering has come and gone, and all seems rather quiet.  Have there been enough orders taken for the project to run, and if so will there be any additional numbers produced as a contingency?  (I have my sound option ordered)

[Colin_McLeod]

I am “bumping” a question I asked earlier in the thread.
I have ordered some additional trailer cars so that I can run a “might have been” longer service train. I have read somewhere in this thread that of the two trailer cars in the 4 car APT-E, one is full of instrumentation, and the other has only got seats for about half of its length. My question was, will the additional trailers have full seating as would be appropriate for a service train, and if not, can further seating units be purchased separately for all trailers so that a fully seated train can be made up?
 

[Wolf27]

So the 30th April deadline for pre-ordering has come and gone, and all seems rather quiet.  Have there been enough orders taken for the project to run, and if so will there be any additional numbers produced as a contingency?  (I have my sound option ordered)

Give em a chance, it's only 2nd May. I'm sure it's all ok as I don't think Rapido would have make the progress they have if there was any doubt.

 

Cheers

 

Shane

[47137]

Locomotion Models are now showing a maximum of four per customer on their Web site.

 

- Richard.

[dibber25]

So the 30th April deadline for pre-ordering has come and gone, and all seems rather quiet.  Have there been enough orders taken for the project to run, and if so will there be any additional numbers produced as a contingency?  (I have my sound option ordered)

The pre-order deadline was to ensure that an appropriate number are manufactured, not to decide if the project went ahead. The tools are made and test models have been running, see the video elsewhere on this thread. Jason has said repeatedly that he only produces a couple of extras for 'contingency' in the event of needing to replace faulty ones. 

[modelpara]

Locomotion Models are now showing a maximum of four per customer on their Web site.

 

- Richard.

 

After the deadline passed?

[Colin_McLeod]

Well, why not try to sell some more?

[Andy Reichert]

The topic threads have grown rather rapidly, so I didn't notice whether my question on the model's tilting specification was answered.

 

e.g tilt goes from 0 degrees at RX to Z degrees at RY

 

Andy

[Vistisen]

Well, why not try to sell some more?

Well I suppose if the reason for buying 2 was because you hoped to sell the second one at a profit ( there being no possible prototypical reason to have more than one as there was only ever one i reality). Then then you could be a bit miffed that the rarity value decreases for each extra model that is sold after the cutoff date. I'm not planning on selling mine ( unless it won't go around the bend on my layout that can not be rebuilt without moving a major roof supporting beam. ) but if I was, then I'd rather that the demand was larger than the supply.