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The Official Rapido APT-E Thread


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Yes, I noticed them. Part of the problem (don’t mention it to Jason or he’ll bend your ears for an hour) is the second radius curves it has been bulit to negotiate. Given that the fairings are solid, I don’t know how else it could have been done.

 

I can remember many years ago I owned a Minitrains 009 steam railcar http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=minitrains+steam+railcar&view=detailv2&&id=62B7ED4F450B22ADEAE4FE5242C659CCF1C7B766&selectedIndex=1&ccid=LwIVys5g&simid=608016427692330452&thid=OIP.M2f0215cace60a581a4a546e5c487d16eo0&ajaxhist=0 which was articulated and designed to negotiate narrow gauge curves, that managed to sort of sleeve one part into the other and thus reduce the gap but I guess this would have been difficult to achieve with tilt as well. Too late now I know but just a thought.

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Yes, I noticed them. Part of the problem (don’t mention it to Jason or he’ll bend your ears for an hour) is the second radius curves it has been bulit to negotiate. Given that the fairings are solid, I don’t know how else it could have been done.

They could have made it so it wouldn't go round train set curves, so that only people with decent radius curves could use it! That would have been something else to moan about.

 

Cheers

 

Shane

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I can remember many years ago I owned a Minitrains 009 steam railcar http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=minitrains+steam+railcar&view=detailv2&&id=62B7ED4F450B22ADEAE4FE5242C659CCF1C7B766&selectedIndex=1&ccid=LwIVys5g&simid=608016427692330452&thid=OIP.M2f0215cace60a581a4a546e5c487d16eo0&ajaxhist=0 which was articulated and designed to negotiate narrow gauge curves, that managed to sort of sleeve one part into the other and thus reduce the gap but I guess this would have been difficult to achieve with tilt as well. Too late now I know but just a thought.

 

The Joint Modules on E-Train were never overlapped by any part of the Power Cars or Trailer Cars, so if the model had been built so it did overlap it would have been just as inaccurate as having (temporary) large gaps.

 

Considering that the real thing is mind-bogglingly complex I reckon Bill, Jason and Co have done a remarkable job. And yes, I KNOW I'm biased, but it's difficult to come to any other conclusion.

Edited by Mr_Tilt
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Kit  and friends please form an orderly queue by the scanner.

 

Cue debate on the colour of clothes suitable for the period.

 

And no airbrushing to roll back the years... :jester: ;)

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Kit  and friends please form an orderly queue by the scanner.

 

Cue debate on the colour of clothes suitable for the period.

 

And the width of the flares.............

 

Cheers,

Mick

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There's a pic of me and my mega-flares elsewhere in this thread, and I still have one my kipper ties of the period!

 

What I DON'T have is the Marsha Hunt hair any more!  :D

 

There are moves afoot to make 3D models of me and some of the TC2 crew, have no fear......

 

Here's another one of the time, you can see the kipper tie very clearly, but only the top half of the flares.  :D

 

dWEPzO.jpg

 

Hmm, looking at it more clearly I'm actually wearing a cravat in that pic, another long gone fashion of the times.

Edited by Mr_Tilt
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It looks like an exert from an open university program (if only they had made one on the APT-E) 

 

They did, it's called 'E for Experimental' and in theory you can see it here :-

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f16_1314673094

 

but I'm darned it it will run for me.  :angry:

 

What Trevor Easton and I are discussing there is how long we needed to flush the tilt system pipework with that hefty flushing trolley we're resting on.

 

We decided on 2 hours actually. 

Edited by Mr_Tilt
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They did, it's called 'E for Experimental' and in theory you can see it here :-

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f16_1314673094

 

but I'm darned it it will run for me.  :angry:

 

What Trevor Easton and I are discussing there is how long we needed to flush the tilt system pipework with that hefty flushing trolley we're resting on.

 

We decided on 2 hours actually. 

 

I can't get it to run either... :(

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Just home from a RCTS meeting which had a digital slideshow on The Blue Diesel Locomotive Period. Two slides stood out for me. First a Western arriving at Derby on a service train from the south; second (and relevant here) the APT-E departing from Derby to Duffield on its first ever mainline run. Nice, looking forward to receiving my model.

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Just home from a RCTS meeting which had a digital slideshow on The Blue Diesel Locomotive Period. Two slides stood out for me. First a Western arriving at Derby on a service train from the south; second (and relevant here) the APT-E departing from Derby to Duffield on its first ever mainline run. Nice, looking forward to receiving my model.

 

You'll have seen the short-lived rubber diaphragms between the vehicle bodies and the Joint Modules then. They didn't last further than about mid-way down the platforms at Derby Midland, sad to say.

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I can't get it to run either... :(

Nor I. However, it was accompanied by an advertisement asking if I liked sexy Asian women. I bet the Blue Pullman is the devil of a sight cheaper than one of those. Then there’s the upkeep. A little drop of electrolube and a little spark of electricity is all you need once you’ve paid for the BP, APT-E and Stirling single.

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The Joint Modules on E-Train were never overlapped by any part of the Power Cars or Trailer Cars, so if the model had been built so it did overlap it would have been just as inaccurate as having (temporary) large gaps.

 

Considering that the real thing is mind-bogglingly complex I reckon Bill, Jason and Co have done a remarkable job. And yes, I KNOW I'm biased, but it's difficult to come to any other conclusion.

 

Thanks for your reply Kit. I see in your post no.1721 you mention the rubber diaphrams not lasting long on the first run, I'm interested just how much of a gap was caused by the articulation of the coaches and the joint modules.

 

Yes I agree Bill, Jason and their team have done a great job and I'm looking forward to receiving my model, hopefully it will look good traversing my mostly 5 foot radii curves although I do wonder how it will look negotiating point work. 

 

The real thing must have been quite drafty if those gaps were not sealed.

Edited by bubbles2
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works ok in firefox - the rotating 'buffering symbol' goes on for a while, but click on it and then the play arrow appears, and then it will play - at least for me.

 

edit - it nneds 'flash player', which is becoming unpopular with many web browsers.

Edited by raymw
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Simply put its any radius curve that comes with a train set. Generally 1st, 2nd & 3rd radius.

 

Its worth noting that most RTR manufacturers have settled on 2nd radius being the minimum recommended for most models they produce and as such 1st radius curves tend only to be found on 'starter sets' (i.e. the ones with an 0-4-0 tank engine and a few wagons). While specifying a larger minimum radius would make life easier in design terms and allow more detail, it is a fact that doing so excludes a fairly large chunk of your prospective buyers who through space considerations, etc. who use  2nd radius curves.

 

Thus Rapido have felt it necessary to ensure that their APT-E also complies with the '2nd radius' minimum spec while not compromising on the detail - which results in some pretty big gaps and overhangs if used on such curves. However the good news is if you have the space to install prototypical curves the large gaps reduce and the model looks far better.

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Its worth noting that most RTR manufacturers have settled on 2nd radius being the minimum recommended for most models they produce and as such 1st radius curves tend only to be found on 'starter sets' (i.e. the ones with an 0-4-0 tank engine and a few wagons). While specifying a larger minimum radius would make life easier in design terms and allow more detail, it is a fact that doing so excludes a fairly large chunk of your prospective buyers who through space considerations, etc. who use  2nd radius curves.

 

Thus Rapido have felt it necessary to ensure that their APT-E also complies with the '2nd radius' minimum spec while not compromising on the detail - which results in some pretty big gaps and overhangs if used on such curves. However the good news is if you have the space to install prototypical curves the large gaps reduce and the model looks far better.

Thanks for this. On topics to do with trackwork, I've had the term "train set curves" rather thrown at me and the implication was very much this was a derogatory term. To my mind, if the term is to be useful as a parameter for stock it can only to refer to one radius, which is a minimum - and for me this is the Hornby "radius 2" because as far as I know, all RTR will go round this though sometimes you must omit optional detail fittings. I do appreciate the need for the radius 1 on the smaller sets so I guess the term must remain dimensionally ambiguous for the time being.

 

I am very much looking forward to my own APT-E when the time arrives. I suspect it won't fit my layout because of the overhand of the nose, but I surprised myself a while ago with what the Roco close coupling mechanisms can achieve and I expect the Rapido mechanism will be just as good or better.

 

- Richard.

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the video suggests there are lots of benefits to articulation and sharing a common bogie across two carraiges. i wonder why it's not more common? the only example I know of is the TGV.

 

also, why did the joint module design of the E train not make it into the P train?

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