Mr_Tilt

Surely, and they say the boozing was 'attributed' and yet the Beeb people themselves were there doing it! How two-faced is that? So it has. that's good news anyway. Will they change the numerous other errors on it though? I doubt it. I expect someone from Virgin was onto them like lightning over the Pendelino/Super Voyager error

The only problem is that most of it is total rubbish! Even the pic of the 'Pendelino' is a Super Voyager! I'm glad you think like that Ian, thanks very much. I'm very evangelical about the whole APT project and it was never given a proper chance by both the powers that be or the blasted ignorant media, so I try my best to put the facts straight. It's particularly good to have been involved in the Rapido E-Train project from the very start and to have been able to make sure it's right. Jason and Bill's approach, to make it JUST like the real thing with no punches pulled, is wonderfully refreshing and the model will do the train proud I'm sure. And I'm pleased you guys put up with my constant barrage of 'NO! It wasn't like that, it was like THIS!' comments.

Nonononono, mine's the Subaru Legacy Estate, and it would out run AND out corner any Saxo for sure.

A couple of pics I took back in 2008 while at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Many, many years before, in 1964 or so, I'd been on holiday there and had travelled every possible mile of the IoW Railway and somewhere I have a 35 mm slide of the Ventnor Tunnel Mouth taken from the platform end, complete with one of the tank engines emerging from the tunnel in a cloud of steam. Needless to say I can't find it now. In 2008 I spent a day on the Island while waiting for some parts to arrive for a customer I was working with on the mainland, and I trekked around the Island recalling my earlier holiday. I tried to find Ventnor Station, but even the locals seemed to have differing ideas about its location, but eventually I tracked it down. Nowadays it's a small industrial estate and it's very difficult to see any connection with railways at all! The first pic shows the view from the access road and you can just see the old tunnel mouth behind my car, and the second one shows it taken from the gate. While I was taking that one some jobs-worth came and shouted at me for taking the pic. He got short shrift I can tell you!

It was good meeting you on Sunday Richard, nice to speak to someone who has some good and practical ideas about any extra trailer cars. It's no mistake that the VIP compartment in TC1 only went half way along the coach, no-one would have wanted to be sitting alongside, or even just nearby, to the tilt pack sticking up there. Even though both Trailer Car tilt packs lived inside sound deadening boxes they were still noisy and smelt oily too. OK in an environment like TC2 where we were all engineers and expected stuff like that, but not in a passenger carrying environment. I'd suggest that you adjust history and have us develop the APT-P Mk 5 tilt packs, which were low and flat and fitted underneath the floor of the vehicle, a little earlier That way you could chop out the Mk 2 pack inside your extra TCs and imagine there's a Mk 5 under each floor. I could provide a dimensioned drawing so you could engrave the new access panel if you like. We did actually think about fitting a Mk 5 under TC1 at one stage but it was decided to retire the whole train to the NRM in the middle of 1976 and we installed the first Mk 5 under the floor of PC4, one of the POP-Train vehicles, while retaining its standard Mk 2 pack in the original position, thus giving us the chance to directly compare the performance of the two tilt packs on the same vehicle. Some pics of the first Mk 5 under PC4 below. PC4 with the Mk 5 tilt pack hanging underneath. Note the skin over the vehicle's structural tubes at this stage of the train's life and the H4X bogie to the left. Loading a Mk 5 pack under PC4. The same method was used on all APT-P Trailer Cars. Poor Ray Sivitar trying to dis-connect the 'quick release' hose fittings on the first Mk 5 pack. We moved them on the production versions to make things easier, needless to say.

I don't think Jason has the word 'compromise' in his dictionary.

Here's some detail shots of the various vehicles in the train. Locomotion Models have another APT-E model on their stand, to the same production standard as the one on the Rapido stand, but theirs is shown in 3-car form with the TC2 model split apart to show the interior and the mechanics of the Joint Module connecting assembly. PC1 showing the much enhanced panel lines and rivets over and above previous versions. TC2 showing the instrumentation visible through the windows. This one has a mis-printed 'TC1' title. TC1 showing the VIP seats in the LH end and the storage/spares area in the RH end. The amazing panel line and rivet detail on the roof of the Trailer Cars. # TC2 interior, with my normal seat and control desk. The colours may not remain the same on full production models. E1 power bogie E1T articulated bogie and Joint Module E1T bogie and connector block. What I forgot to mention was that the model has the full DCC sound chip and speakers installed, and after Bill rustled up some track and a DCC control unit most of the day was spent to a background of diesel APUs and turbines running, with lights going on and off and horn sounds every now and then too.

You're not kidding! Once again while helping out on the Rapido stand I didn't stop talking for the entire day, tomorrow I'll have a complete box of Strepsils in my pocket to ensure my voice keeps going! It was great to meet so many people who are really enthusiastic about APT-E and can't wait to get their hands on their models. It seems to me that this coming summer will see a veritable fleet of APT-Es on exhibition layouts across the country, and that counts GWR branch lines as well! What I found surprising was the number of people who have ordered large numbers of extra Trailer Cars for their E-Trains, one in particular who has SIX extra TC1s on order! That means his APT-E will be a 2+8 configuration, which is getting close to how the train was originally envisaged in 1969. Looking forward to seeing more of you tomorrow.

In a while we'll be able to reproduce this in OO gauge then.

E-Train was only ever a 4-car set, although we did do some tests in 3-car form early in the programme while TC1 was undergoing a lengthy period of vibration testing. And for a mad hour so we ran in TWO car form, when the two Power Cars were coupled back-to-back (sorry Mr. Network Rail, it was my idea.... ) when we moved them from the NRM to Thrall Works in York before loading them onto road trailers to get them up to Shildon. It was very handy that we had the last SA bogie free to support one end of TC1 as otherwise we'd have had to improvise something. At the time we were told that there had to be a 30 ft gap between the two halves of the train, due to 'Fire Regulations'. This turned out to be a load of cobblers of course (WHAT a surprise...) and if we get the chance elsewhere we'll put it back in the correct 4-car formation, with the vehicles in the correct order AND the right way round too, which they aren't now!

Nonononono, the Rapido model is wholly accurate as regards the sandwich as it depicts the train as it is now, or as it was just prior to being handed over the NRM in 1976 anyway. If you check the video above you'll see that the train is running on the benighted Swinging Arm (SA) bogies and that was the ONLY test run it ever made with the SAs. It was hauled over the Loco works later on for Rebuild 1 (by an 08 for goodness sake!) on the same bogies but they were removed and promptly scapped, which was a good thing really, they weighed TONS and didn't work at all well! During Rebuild 1 the train was fitted with the much better E1T articulation bogies, which used the Steering Beam and wheelsets from the SAs but that was about all. Doing that sorted the hunting issues of the SA bogies so the train didn't need a 'Hunting Monitor' so I was out a job. Luckily I had other strings to my bow..... The sole remaining SA bogie is presently holding up the south east end of TC1 at Shildon, and it survived only because it was the centre bogie on POP Train and we didn't swap that for an E1T. As it happens that was very handy as it enabled us to mount TC2 on an E1T and the SA bogie for its time in the Great Hall at York, and the NRM used it as a 'slave' bogie to move TC2 around when it was in 'The Works' section of the museum, Note the differences between the bogies below. SA bogie under TC1 E1T bogie under TC2. It looks MUCH smarter now thanks to the work by the Support and Conservation Group. So have no fear that your E-Train model will be inaccurate due to sandwiches or bogie types, but you may need to change history on your layout by a year or two. If anyone wants to modify their model to the 'First Run' configuration you've got a REAL job on your hands, and it's not just a matter of scratchbuilding three SA bogies either, there's lots of small differences as well. If there wasn't we'd have been wasting our time from 1972 to '76. In passing, if anyone wants to talk about E-Train I'll be on the Locomotion Models stand at Warley tomorrow and maybe Sunday as well. You'll easily find me as I'll be wearing my pukka APT-E sweat shirt and a classy Rapido hi-viz vest, as well as my 'Mr. Tilt' badge. [Later] Actually it looks like Jason and Bill have their own stand this year so I'll be on the Rapido Trains stand, C12, rather than Locomotion Models.

The sandwich wasn't present I'm afraid as all the footage of the E-Train there was of the work-up runs in the RTC Yard and of the very first run on July 25th '72. The sandwich din't appear until the Old Dalby runs in late '73. While I was present on that first run and both TC1 and TC2 had had their tilt systems commissioned by then, 'higher authority' had deemed that they shouldn't be active on that first day. I considered that a bit of a slap in the face as the Tilt Development team, all five of us, had worked our tails off to get the two Trailer Cars tilting in time for the run. As I'd experienced the SA bogies hunting on the POP Train at first hand (it was HORRENDOUS!) Tony Hobbs, who was in charge of suspension development, asked if I would lie face-down on the floor of the TC1-TC2 Joint Module with my head hanging down underneath where the flexible floor panel would have been had we not removed it. This was so I could give a warning over the intercom if there was any sign of wheelset hunting. In the event we didn't actually go fast enough for any hunting to occur, but at least I played a vital part in the proceedings. The only two people I recognise in that film were Roy Hartle, who was Head of Instrumentation, and Malcolm Wilson, who was the Senior Instrumentation Engineer aboard E-Train for most of the project. Roy is the one with the glasses and the serious beard, and Malcolm is the one with the equally serious moustache. Malc still works on the train to this day, and together with Barrie May restored the Instrumentation and computer racks in TC2 to the superb level that they are today (maybe even with flashing lights..... ) He also has a really wonderful sense of humour and he was one of the main reasons why we spent so much time laughing during the project.

If we did replace one It was probably as the result of the first one catching fire! And I was in the monster cab milepost spotting at the time, NO fun at all! The pic above was rather early in the test programme as the test train only has PC3, PC4 and Lab 3 in the consist, later on we added a dedicated generator coach, usually a BSK which eventually became Lab 10 (I think....)

The two Claytons we had on the RTC fleet were all-over BR blue with yellow ends IIRC. There's a few B&W pics of the one we used to haul POP Train with somewhere on this thread I think, or else on the 'Deadman's Lane' thread elsewhere on RMWeb. The second Clayton wasn't a runner, it was used as a mobile power plant, and it had that title painted on the cab side. I may have a pic of it somewhere.... I've searched and searched and I can't find it anywhere. Colin Marsden's two books on the RTC should be worth looking through though, as he photographed every single vehicle we had there in the 70s-80s. [Later] No sooner do I close my browser down when I find this pic....... This is the runner that we used for the POP Train tests, rather obviously as it's hauling POP Train in this pic! It was taken during a lunch stop at Widmerpool on the Old Dalby Test Track. I think it was 8502 from some rather blurred B&W pics I have of it.

Exactly. I spent the 30 years after my time at BR working in that field, but for the motor industry rather than the railway, and almost every car manufacturer has 2-3 such simulators, some have many more. The primary problem to doing it is removing any danger to the passengers due to high vertical accelerations, but it's not insurmountable, given enough money.

Funny you should say that.......... We're thinking about re-configuring the tilt jacks on TC1 in the Locomotion museum so that we can reproduce a slight feeling of travelling on the tracks. We'd have to get it past the Health and Safety spoilsports of course, but it's technically possible.

I had maybe 4-5 C90 cassettes stuffed with 1970s stuff, Bachmann Turner Overdrives 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet' was a big fave among the E-Train crew, as well as Rod Stewart's 'Maggie May', or indeed any of his stuff from his 'Every Picture Tells A Story' album. Mrs_Tilt's Registry Girls were were all big Barry White fans so I had a fair amount of his stuff on there too, and our local East Midlands group were Showaddywaddy, who we often went to see at Bailey's in the centre of Derby, so I had some of their stuff too. As an aside to our liking of Rod Stewart, a few of us rode E-Train down to Leicester one afternoon and detrained there to see Rod at the Granby Halls, but we had to return by 'other means'. (For which read bumming a ride in the cab of a 47 back to Derby..... ) Ah nostalgia, it's not what it used to be....

From memory it was Best Belper Mousetrap, as Hugh lived there........... And there's NO way that a disco ball would ever have fitted inside TC2, the roof is too low. We did have the disco music though, I played it on my cassette deck on the Tilt Control table, and either I could listen to it through my headphones or with a click of a switch I could play it to everyone over the train's intercom system. I still have the headphones, complete with the switch......

Only TC2 has the reflective coating on the windows, TC1 has normal glass in both the VIP compartment and the storage area. I don't know what Jason & Co. have in mind for the final production model but Paul and I mentioned that if TC2's windows were as reflective as the real thing all the lovely interior detail, including the cheese sandwich door stop, would be invisible...

I can almost read your mind Shane.

That's because it WAS an aircraft fuselage effectively. Design wise it was a BAC 1-11 fuselage with large windows, and if you can get into the non-passenger part of TC1 at Shildon it's patently obvious as the structure looks just like that. The Mallite floor panels really are standard airliner floor panels, complete with seat tracks etc. Bill, that looks tremendous, all your hard work measuring the rivet sizes has paid off well. I'm most impressed.

I can foresee some enterprising resin moulder making resin all seating interiors for the extra trailer cars. They'll have to figure out what to do with the massive tilt pack in the middle of the coach though. Either that or fit the coaches with Mk 5 underfloor packs from the P-Train............

I hope Bill has the sizes of the rivet heads correct. He noted that there were at least three different sizes that we'd used when he was measuring them at Shildon......

Most of the instrumentation is still aboard TC2, the tape decks and UV recorders are the originals, as is the REDCOR computer on the far right hand end of the console. The instrumentation DC amplifiers are not the originals but they are of the correct vintage and do work if provided with the correct power and input signals. That odd double decker tape deck is a Sangamo-Western item and we had two of them, as well as some more conventional units sometimes. The current state of TC's internals is mainly down to the work of two guys, Barrie May and Malcolm Wilson, both of whom worked on the E-Train project during the 70s and have worked tirelessly in getting hold of some of the bits in there and re-building the rack. They persuaded Bombardier to part with the amplifiers on the grounds that the Support Group needed them for the train and Bombardier didn't! On the far right is a Teletype AR33 that we used to talk to the REDCOR and the original had been WELL trashed, so Barrie and Malcolm got in touch with the Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park and they lent us one on a very long term basis.

No, it was all done in a three week period in July - August 1975 leading up to the record run on August 10th. We went down to Old Oak Common, where we were going to be based for the WR runs, on July 21st, and then ran to Swindon and back a few times on the Thursdays or Fridays of each week at 'normal' speeds. Then on the Sundays we had full occupation of the main line from midnight to noon for the high speed runs. 'Normal' meant up to 125 mph as the HST was cleared for that on the same route anyway. The 252 set was in service running from Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads (or maybe Weston-super-Mare, I'm not sure) during that period and was also based at Old Oak Common, quite often parked in the carriage shed right alongside us as well! The CM&EE's Dept. at Derby weren't that keen that we were photographed alongside their 'wonder machine' at the time but as they were running a timetabled service we always knew where they were going to be anyway. That photo on the cover of Modern Railways was the result of us being a 'little late due to a turbine problem' (yeah, right....) and so we were still waiting at Swindon when the HST arrived. (Oh dear, what a pity, we'll be able to take photos of them both after all...... )