47137

Has anyone received their model with an additional centre car? I gather these are going to be the last to be sent out and as mine is one of these I was wondering if I am the only one missing out on APT-E fun at the moment!

I am in the same boat as you, DCC ready plus extra coach.

I received my two extra coaches this morning by UPS. I ordered them in August 2014, so I guess some others are on their way.

- Richard.

I took these photos at Shildon in April 2009, might be useful...

Edit: Thank you to Kit (his post below) for the caption details

- Richard.

Photo A - TC2 with one of the E1T bogies

Photo B - TC1 with the only Swinging Arm bogie

Does anyone know when the APT-E first appeared in spotters books?

 

Spotters.jpg

 

By the way, this is number 3 - probably the first non-sound one and so worth beeeelllions in eBay. And I don't care - IT'S MINE!

Thanks for this Phil - rather timely for me.

I ordered two trains ages ago, a DC-ready and a DCC, with the DCC one being something to put away for a rainy day when I get a DCC controller. The DCC one arrived a week or so ago and I'm delighted with it. Furthermore, it runs (after a fashion) on DC.

Having slept on this for a while, I phoned Sandra at Locomotion models. She was happy to refund the order including the postage, she has a waiting list and doesn't envisage models remaining unsold.

At the end of the day, I could let it arrive, sell at an online auction, pay their fees and chance my luck with a winning bidder who "cannot assemble the train", or receives it "damaged in transit" or mysteriously "breaks it fitting a decoder" or any of dozens of potential ills. Or stand to make an clean fifty quid or so (this is the DC ready version). Or I could take the viewpoint, anyone selling at auction right now is plain greedy. Hmmm.

- Richard.

Edit: I'll never know what the s/n was.

Mines down to 128

I feel sure there should have been a "196" setting

- Richard.

Here is some advertising copy for a fresh listing on eBay, which probably says more about the writer than they really intended:

Can someone please say what F16 is? Those of us who didn't purchase are beyond teased now I believe.

Please no!

Some of us have a DCC train with an analogue controller, and want to find out in our own time :-)

1.What are most people using : the 148 (whisker equivalent of the number 5) or the 158 (scale head, slightly smaller) ? Having recently held both of them in my hand for the first time I was surprised at how little difference there is.

 

2. What metric screw should be used for the Kadee couplers ; is it an M2 X 6mm self tapper or M1.5 ? I am sorry if this was covered earlier.

The "scale head" couplers are "scale size" for H0. I reserve these for use on my H0 models. Most of my models in 00 and H0 end up with the larger head because at the moment you can only get the NEM socket versions (17/18/19/20) and the over- and under-set versions with the larger head. You can however bend the shafts of 158s to put in a small offset if need be.

I've used M2 machine screws with both the 148s and 158s - these aren't self tappers but they often end up going into plastic. A M2 taper tap is cheap to buy if needed.

- Richard.

The three-car set threaded its way through my layout this afternoon with no fouling points:

This is a c. 1:20 gradient with a 24-inch curve at the bottom, no problems. I have however banned the train from the mine branch (the higher level) because the nose actually bottoms out at the foot of the gradient, but I can't imagine this affecting many other modellers.

I think the model is fabulous, so one more photo:

- Richard.

We sat on the sofa last night watching one of those "improving" videos by Woodland Scenics.

At the end, the voice beside me said "it only took her an hour"

Followed by my blank look

And then her follow-through: "you've been at it for over a year"

- Richard.

I spent my weekend building a 68-inch extension to my layout, the longest I could manage into the corner of the room:

I don't want to labour the point, but with a power car taking 12 inches of track and a trailer nearly 11 inches, I have a chance of trying out the two extra trailers when they arrive :-)

- Richard.

Going back to display options - 

I'm not too fussed about getting mine in a hurry, mainly because I've got nowhere to run it! It could shuttle backwards and forwards a foot or so on my shunting plank layout, but that's hardly going to do it justice. And I don't have a suitable test track either at the moment, as there isn't space in my study and work in the loft is nowhere near complete. I don't even have cabinet space for it when assembled - the longest shelf is around 30 inches, which isn't room for a four-car set. So it will stay in the box for a while, until circumstances change.

If you assemble the train as the 3-car set (minus TC-1), it measures a shade under 35 inches from nose to nose - and it sits nicely on a one yard of length of SMP or similar. Would be an excuse to put up a 3-foot shelf.

- Richard.

end of camera development - http://newcameranews.com/2015/04/01/shocking-nikon-canon-to-end-camera-development/

It's a good one but a day early :-(

- Richard.

Number 3 just landed on eBay

Look at the photos with the eBay listing - the seller placed the order on 12th March, and paid for it yesterday.

Edit: the seller's claim "This limited edition model was produced strictly to order, and has completely sold out to pre-orders" seems a bit ripe.

- Richard.

If they sell on ebay at a higher price than from NRM, surely NRM are not charging a realistic market price. Therefore, as NRM is a charity, then everyone who has bought from them should donate to them the difference between what they paid and the ebay price.

The way I see it, the NRM charged the price for one market - the price everyone paid if they ordered in advance and put down a deposit.

This first market has closed, to be replaced by the first stage of the secondary market. The next stages will be "test run", "run in", "weathered" and so on to eventually become "for spares".

If the model is in high demand, a fixed-price classified ad in a magazine will probably bring a better return than going via eBay and Paypal and their fees ...

- Richard.

Maybe it's just me being a miserable old sod, but I've got nothing but contempt for these people who are selling them on ebay immediately they got them.  Pure greed, wishy washy excuses that "my circumstances have changed" don't wash with me.  This is pure profiteering. Especially when locomotion are essentially a charity.  Unlesss of course these benevolent ebay souls whose "circumstances have changed" are planning on just recouping their outlay and then donating the profits to the NRM?  Come the revolution, up against the wall and all that. 

The NRM have had their whack - so surely, what follows is straightforward speculative investment, which looks like succeeding?

- Richard.

.  .  .

 

Exactly right, that was taken on Syston North Curve fairly early in the test programme as you can see the train is in 3-car form, and it's running VERY slowly indeed, just about walking pace. At that time we hadn't got the Yaw Relaxation LInkage and Dampers set up properly and we had to ensure the Steering Beam, mounted over the top of the E1T articulated bogies, didn't move sideways too much and send the Trailer Car out of gauge. Later on it wasn't a problem and we could take the curve at a dizzy 25 mph!

 

If you assemble the model in 3-car form, dare I suggest you can safely pick up the train in one go, without disconnecting as mandated in the "Do not pass Go" booklet? Would save a lot of wear on couplings on smaller layouts.

- Richard.

Agreed, I need to let our good inwards at work know to expect the parcel and what courier will be delivering it. I've left a couple of messages with Sandra now but have not heard anything.

 

Bit miffed really that folks who did not originally pre-order have received APT-Es already after successfully phoning up and picking up cancellations etc

My second order came today with the card transaction slip from last April stapled onto a copy of the purchase order. If we suppose this attachment happened at the time of ordering, and the orders went into a series of lever arch files, we're looking at a first in / last out process. So I might see my first order (a few days after the initial announcement) in the next week or two.

I realise, Andy Y still got his straight away.

 - Richard.

The sequence in the video must be what Mr_Tilt, was referring to here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/96275-the-latest-apt-e-samples-have-arrived/?p=1872891

 

 

For your R2 curves, apply Rule 1 and say that's just what happened....

 

Incredibly, I left enough space beside my R2 curve (under a high level section) but the nose will foul the tunnel portal near a 24-inch curve. Somehow, making the portal a lift-out item is a lot more appealing than keeping the train in a display case, but this is going to take some time ...

- Richard.

Just to prove there's a prototype for everything!  From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5285nt9kdk

 

APT.jpg

Thank you David there are some excellent shots here of the early days with the 3-car set. I especially like the semaphore signals in the first sequence.

Can someone can tell us, what is the flap hanging down on the trailing PC in the first sequence in this video?

- Richard.

I received a newsletter from Locomotion Models earlier this week, which answers some of the recent questions here. They explain, they are at York this weekend.

Patience.

- Richard.

. . . Scenic section will be about 22" x 10" with the excess for fiddle, essentially an inglenook for locos.

What a nice idea - not a "micro depot", but a simple Inglenook for locos. This sort of project might encourage me to move to DCC.

- Richard. 

A nice diversion while we wait for the parcels to arrive . . . especially good for me because my first car was an Opel Kadett, much the same outside as the Chevette here. I remember a good driver's car, only really let down by its cross-ply tyres, which I let myself trade in too soon. What a fine start to the day.

- Richard.

Locomotion models had a sample in its box on their stand at Ally Pally - Rapido trains have a formidable reputation but this model still exceeds expectations. It looks fabulous.

- Richard.

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.