by Mark Found

I have, briefly, mentioned the APT - P on the Crewe page, but worth publicising it again here. Kit Spackman, who was the original designer of the tilting system on the gas-turbine prototype, very kindly gave us an afternoon of his time to chat about the APT -P and tell us why the train was so good, and why it disappeared so suddenly.

The actual train we we’re sitting in has been saved for preservation by Rob Latham and his team and, although it may never run again, it’s still worth, I believe, taking some time to go up to Crewe and see it.

There’s an exhibition on board the train, part of which is a film show which plays the full length promotional film used at the launch of the APT -P, excerpts of which we used in the programme.

The awful irony of our situation only occurred to us as we were filming. Here we were, in the driving cab of Britain’s revolutionary tilting train, filming an item about it’s demise, and we had to keep stopping for sound. The sound, incidentally, was coming from some of the numerous Super Voyagers going past. These, of course, are the ones that tilt!

Many thanks to all the people that helped us with our day shooting in Crewe, Margaret and Anthony from the Railway Age (you must go), local historian Howard Curran, and, of course, Rob Latham from APT-P and Kit Spackman himself.

Trainspotting.links (will open in a new window)

http://www.apt-p.com