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Engineers from the Railway Technical Centre, Derby, today (Wednesday, 22 June 1977) took delivery of the first vehicle of the three pre-production Advanced Passenger Trains (APT-Ps) now under construction.
Built at the famous Derby Locomotive Works of British Rail Engineering Limited, the vehicle, a 4,000 horsepower power car, is the first of six power cars which will be emerging at regular intervals in the next few months. The electric power cars are the driving force for the trains which are designed to be capable of running at 150 mph.
Production is also well in hand at BREL's other works in Derby on the building of the passenger carrying trailer cars and the driving vehicles whose stylish front-ends will give the APTs their distinctive appearance. First deliveries of these vehicles will start shortly.
Before the first power car is 'switched-on' however, it will become a familiar sight in the Derby area whilst it is undergoing an extensive programme of main line test running. For these trials, the APT power car will be hauled by one, or both, of the prototype diesel-engined power cars which pioneered the development of the 27 High Speed Trains now operating daily 125 mph passenger services.
In the autumn of this year, this somewhat unusual looking 'power car test train' will move to the Crewe area when the APT power car will go 'live' for the first time.
Early 1978 will see the first test runs of a power car with three APT trailer vehicles to be followed quickly by the first proving runs of a complete APT-P train. For these trials, the train will be based in the Glasgow area.
Later in 1978, driver training runs will start with a second APT-P and, when the equipment has been proved and sufficient crews trained, an APT-P will be substituted for one of the standard 100 mph London to Glasgow trains in daily passenger service.
In 1979, a second such substitution will be made and then later in the year both trains will run to scheduled 125 mph timings to cover the 401 miles between Glasgow and London in 4¼ hours.
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