3 October 2025, ‘The Adavnced Passenger Train’, by Kit Spackman.

In the early 1970’s Kit was a key engineer in the development of a high-speed train (APT-P) to run on the ECML and the WCML. To be able to traverse curves and steep inclines on the WCML, the concept of a tilting train was born. This would comprise two trailer carriages with a power car at each end using gas turbines. A skeletal frame known as a POP was built and was tested on the Old Dalby test line to test the tilt mechanism. By 1972 the whole train was completed, now known as the APT-E. The first run was in July running on the Derby-Sheffield line. Kit showed a photo of the driving cabin, high tech even by today’s standards.  The APT-E then had sole possession of the  Uffington – Goring line where it reached 153 mph. The final test was a run from St Pancras to Leicester. The aim was to complete the run in a hour which they did at the third attempt. The set was then retired to the NRM.

Further tests were carried out in a converted ‘Hastings’ named LAB4. In 1979 three sets of the ATP-P, with two electric power cars in the middle, were built and were based in Glasgow. Tests were run over the WCML from Glasgow to Crewe. The first run carrying passengers, mostly journalists and TV crew, was on the 7th July 1981.

Soon after Mrs Thacher’s government cancelled the project. One set is now at the ‘Crewe Heritage Centre’.