The Official Rapido APT-E Thread

[Dagworth]

The original TurboTrain done by Rapido has a decoder in each end car which simplifies the wiring between each car. Hopefully Rapido will do the same for the APT-E and have it set up that one engine starts up and shuts down before the other. Sounds great that way.

 

Keith

One engine? There are TEN engines in E-train all told  

 

A

[Andy Y]

Hopefully I'll be able to get the other files from the office tomorrow to finish the video interviews so for now you'll have to make do with the interlude.

 

[LocomotionatShildon]

If this is the case can you keep us informed of the numbers that have been ordered. I really dont want to have to sell anything to get my preorder in but I just cannot afford it right now and really don't want to miss the boat on this.

 

Steve

Hi Steve

 

The order book doesn't close until the end of April so you have plenty of time but I will keep you all posted on how things are going.

[PaulRhB]

Hopefully I'll be able to get the other files from the office tomorrow to finish the video interviews so for now you'll have to make do with the interlude.

 

JS.gif

Now post that clip on a big screen at Warley!

 

The E isn't going to quite tempt me over the point of no return, though I do wish it well, simply too many other goodies on the way that won't tempt me to build another layout. The reaction does bode well for the future though and I like the approach of the video star above

[Ramrig]

How complete is the APT-E. Has it still got the engines/turbines on board? It does not tell you a lot on the website.

[37114]

How complete is the APT-E. Has it still got the engines/turbines on board? It does not tell you a lot on the website.

I read the last few updates from the restoration update website and it seemed to imply it is relatively complete?

[Neal Ball]

Hi Jason and Bill.

 

If it's not a good idea to try and open the unit once purchased ... Can I pay extra for crew and passengers / technicians?

 

Thanks :-)

[dibber25]

I read the last few updates from the restoration update website and it seemed to imply it is relatively complete?

It was open to visitors on Tuesday and is very complete. Remember, it went to the NRM under its own power. The power cars still have all their gas turbines etc. The test instrumentation had been stripped from the trailer cars but the group which looks after it (several of whom worked on it in the 1970s) have gathered similar equipment and fitted out one trailer car as closely as they can to its original state. 

[Andy Y]

As Chris says, very complete. The preservation group have been doing a lot of electrical system checking and there's a lot of circuitry that's now functional too.

 

 

We did offer to go and get some fuel if they could tow it outside.

[Phil Parker]

As Chris says, very complete. The preservation group have been doing a lot of electrical system checking and there's a lot of circuitry that's now functional too.

 

PC1.jpg

 

We did offer to go and get some fuel if they could tow it outside.

 

No we didn't. We offered to get some fuel and then film it bursting out through the shed doors. That would have made a great video clip...

 

Anyway, we got chucked out of the cab because all the buttons were lit up and they didn't trust us not to press some of them.  

 

(More on the support group here)

[experimental]

Hi Everyone,

Just thourght I would introduce myself, I am Paul Leadley, and I set-up and run the APT-E Conservation & Support Group (lol Jason, can you say it yet!!).

 

If anyone has any questions about E train, please feel free.

 

I would also like to say, what a great few days we have had up at Shildon,  very inpressed with the turn out, and the questions people asked about E train and the APT project as a whole.

 

I am also very glad to see that very many of you have already placed orders, great stuff.

 

It was great meeting you all, and thanks again for the really nice Italian on Monday night.

 

Regards

 

Paul

APT-E Conservation & Support Group.

Edited June 26, 2014 by experimental

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

What does a gas-turbine powered train sound like?  I imagine something like an annoying biz jet, but secretly hoping it sounds more like some kind of Thunderbird sci-fi malarkey.

[experimental]

What does a gas-turbine powered train sound like?  I imagine something like an annoying biz jet, but secretly hoping it sounds more like some kind of Thunderbird sci-fi malarkey.

Hi,

It actually sound more like a large scale airliner than a small jet, there are a few clips of film where you can hear it, but they are sadly few and far between.

Thunderbird 2 wouldn't be too far away from the real thing(ish)!!!

Edited June 26, 2014 by experimental

[Mr_Tilt]

I'm typing this while lying in bed after three manic days at Shildon and a 270 mile drive home last night, but I just HAD to read the general response to the anouncement.

 

I'm suitably impressed that it's been greeted with general enthusiasm, and I look forward to seeing veritable fleets of E-Trains running at shows in 2015. {We 'in the trade' tended to call it 'E-Train' rather than 'APT-E' simply because many of us had been working on 'POP-Train' before APT-E was built, and APT-P became known as 'P-Train' by similar logic)

 

To add fuel to the N gauge issue, that Power Car that I built way back when was done in 2mm scale, not quite Brit 1/148 N Gauge, not Euro/US 1/160 N Gauge either. Don't ask me why, I can't remember  but maybe it was easier to do the maths at 2mm/ft. I used a Minitrix Class 33 as a basis, sawed it in half (!), threw away the MONSTER Minitrix motor and substuted an ECM Type 1. Then I had to file VAST amounts of metal from the top and bottom edges of the short bit of chassis over the bogie to get it to fit inside the body profile. You'll notice in the photo that one of the exhaust blisters is missing but you can see the holes in the roof that it plugged into, and these gave access to the screws holding the body in place.

 

I used an Ibertren Talgo train to make the articulated bogies and joint module and they fit together with an 'Upper and Lower' tounge and pin arrangement which worked suprisngly well. I'd built the backbone chassis for both trailer cars but not skinned them when we ran the thing at Gloucester Model Railway Club, and we timed it at around 220 scale mph, so it was plenty fast enough on only one Power Car! I've got the second power bogie, chassis and ECM motor assembled but that's as far as it went. I think I better get on and finish it after, after 20-30 years.....

 

To answer some queries in the thread, E-Train only ran in three forms, a 4 car set, as Jason and Co. are modelling it, a 3 car set with TC1 removed, and for a very short distance as a 2 Power Car set when we moved it from NRM York to the Thrall Yard prior to the road trips to Shildon. The maximum speed on that run was only a giddy15 mph though.

 

While it'll probably be possible to replace the instrumented TC2 with another TC1 you'd only have half a saloon's worth of seats in each coach as TC1 only ever had half of its length fitted out with carpets, seats and air-con, the other half was, and still is, used as a storage area, not to mention that there's a SOCKING great tilt pack sticking up out of the floor!

 

E-Train only ran on the Midland Main line, from St Pancras to Duffield, with a few side excursions to Beeston Freightliner Yard. the short section from Syston Jct to Melton Mowbray to get the Old Dalby test track and on the test track itself of course. We also ran round from the Midland Main line to Old Oak Common for the Western Region high speed runs and got as far west as Swindon sometimes. The last ever (powered...) run took us up to York of course, but that was that. Because the Power Cars were, and still are, the longest single unit locos that BR ever had there were some limitations on where we could run anyway, and I think we had to work 'wrong line' en route to York in a couple of places because of that.

 

The reason why E-Train has two power cars for just a short train as that our power/weight ratio was all important to shorten aceleration times. Each of the Leyland Turbines gave 300 bhp to start with, and later 330-350 bhp after the heat exchangers were removed, giving us a maximum of 3500 bhp (on a good day when they all ran and it was cool enough...)

 

And lastly, no, the model DOESN'T have a 1/76 me aboard! There were some scurrilous rumours going about that they were going to 3D scan me at Shildon but I managed to avoid that. While it was true that I had vastly more hair back then than I do now the worst thing to model would have been my trousers, remember that the 70s were the period of 'The Flares', and mine were SERIOUS flares!

[roundhouse]

What does a gas-turbine powered train sound like?  I imagine something like an annoying biz jet, but secretly hoping it sounds more like some kind of Thunderbird sci-fi malarkey.

I suppose that it isnt that much different to the Union Pacific Gas Turbine locos??

 

Ian

Edited June 26, 2014 by roundhouse

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Lots of good E Train stuff (and other interesting things) on this site:

 

Edited June 26, 2014 by Dr Gerbil-Fritters

[Ron Ron Ron]

......the tilt system is something I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing!......

 

Not a lot has been said about the tilt-mechanism.

Hopefully it won't be anything like the ridiculous arrangement in the Hornby Eurostar and Pendolino, which causes tilt at all times whenever the bogies turn. Although admittedly those are really aimed at the toy market.

Is there any detail on whether or not this feature will only work realistically?

 

Also, is there still no definitive answer on the question about the number of sound decoders being used in the DCC fitted version?

 

.

 

 

 

. 

[Mr_Tilt]

Aaaaaghhhhh, the Clayton !

 

Its front engine caught fire when I was mile-post spotting in the cab southbound on the test track once. The secondman grabbed an extinguisher and swung himself out of the cab onto the footplate and zapped the fire through the access doors! We didn't even slow down from the giddy 30 mph we were doing....

 

The E-Train's turbine sound was quite a bit higher pitched than a UP Big Blow, perhaps because there were ten small turbines as opposed to one giant one? I always thought E-Train sounded like a Boeing 707 from the outside, at least if you were on the lineside listening to it run by rather than standing alongside it with the engines running.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Mr_Tilt

[Mr_Tilt]

Not a lot has been said about the tilt-mechanism.

Hopefully it won't be anything like the ridiculous arrangement in the Hornby Eurostar and Pendolino, which causes tilt at all times whenever the bogies turn. Although admittedly those are really aimed at the toy market.

Is there any detail on whether or not this feature will only work realistically?. 

 

It may be difficult to use anything OTHER than the Hornby 'Tilt on curving' system in a scale as small as 1/76.

 

It'd be just impractical to make it work exactly as the real thing, a 1/76 scale servo valve would be about 1.5 mm square after all!   Making it tilt pendulum wise, like a Talgo or a TurboTrain, wouldn't be realistic either as the model would really have to be moving to get it to swing out on the curves and it would need a pivot point up near the roof, the exact opposite of where it needs to be to be accurate.

[Andy Y]

Not a lot has been said about the tilt-mechanism.

Hopefully it won't be anything like the ridiculous arrangement in the Hornby Eurostar and Pendolino, which causes tilt at all times whenever the bogies turn. Although admittedly those are really aimed at the toy market.

Is there any detail on whether or not this feature will only work realistically?

 

 

Unless you employ sensors and servos it's impractical to do much more as Kit says; it's a point we cover in the interview which I hope to post later.

[jessy1692]

Love that story with the clayton! I think an APT E is a must, overtime coming on next pay cheque so theres my deposit.

Made my week has this news!

Cheers

James

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Aaaaaghhhhh, the Clayton !

 

Its front engine caught fire when I was mile-post spotting in the cab southbound on the test track once. The secondman grabbed an extinguisher and swung himself out of the cab onto the footplate and zapped the fire through the access doors! We didn't even slow down from the giddy 30 mph we were doing....

 

The E-Train's turbine sound was quite a bit higher pitched than a UP Big Blow, perhaps because there were ten small turbines as opposed to one one giant one? I always thought E-Train sounded like a Boeing 707 from the outside, at least if you were on the lineside listening to it run by rather than standing alongside it with the engines running.

 

Nice!  Here's your source for sound clips!

[forest2807]

E-Train only ran on the Midland Main line, from St Pancras to Duffield, with a few side excursions to Beeston Freightliner Yard. the short section from Syston Jct to Melton Mowbray to get the Old Dalby test track and on the test track itself of course. We also ran round from the Midland Main line to Old Oak Common for the Western Region high speed runs and got as far west as Swindon sometimes. The last ever (powered...) run took us up to York of course, but that was that. Because the Power Cars were, and still are, the longest single unit locos that BR ever had there were some limitations on where we could run anyway, and I think we had to work 'wrong line' en route to York in a couple of places because of that.

That's interesting; I don't suppose there are any photos of it at Beeston Freightliner Yard that anyone knows about? I'd love to see them if there are.

[Steven B]

 I know I keep saying it until I'm blue in the face, but the 'N' gauge market is one tenth that of the 'OO' market but the costs of producing an 'N' gauge model are even higher, due to the microscopic size of some of the parts.

 

Can someone please show me all these N Gauge models where the parts are microscopic? If a 1x2mm part can be made for a OO Gauge model at a sensible price then a 1x2mm part can be made for an N Gauge model at a sensible price. The only difference is what that part represents on the prototype.

 

The real difference is the size of the market (no-one denies that OO guage modellers are more common) and the cost of R&D/tooling which is little different.

 

Perhaps Jason (who's produced models in 4mm and 2mm scales) can comment on any real differences. A 1:148 version would be great and I'm sure we could live without it tilting! There is a precedent - Bachmann's DP1 was done exclusively for the NRM in OO but as a standard Graham Farish model in N.

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

[Mel_H]

I read the last few updates from the restoration update website and it seemed to imply it is relatively complete?

Remember, it arrived at the NRM as a working exhibit, and came under its own power being driven from Derby. Sadly, over the years the NRM has been poor (for various reasons) at looking after its 'iconic' exhibits. Let's hope it will change this policy before more are lost forever (thinks, 502 also once a working train, as was the 71, 2-BIL etc).