British Rail Class 370

British Rail Class 370 Advanced Passenger Train – Prototype
Class 370 at Carlisle
First-class saloon in a preserved vehicle. (The plain blue seat covers are post-withdrawal replacements for the original tartan material.)
In service	1980–1986
Manufacturer	British Rail Engineering Limited
Built at	Derby Works[1]
Family name	Advanced Passenger Train
Constructed	1977–1980[2]
Entered service	1979[3]
Number built	3 full sets (6 units plus 2 spare vehicles)[3]
Number preserved	7 vehicles
Formation	7 cars per unit: DTS-TS-TRSB-TU-TF-TBF-M (full set is 2 units back-to-back)
Diagram	DTS vehicles: LE201 TS vehicles: LH201 TRSB vehicles: LK201 TU vehicles: LH401 TF vehicles: LH101 TBF vehicles: LJ101 M vehicles: LC501
Fleet numbers	370001–370006[3]
Operators	British Rail InterCity
Depots	Shields Road (Glasgow)[4]
Lines served	West Coast Main Line
Specifications
Car body construction	M vehicles: steel Others: aluminium
Train length	147 m (482 ft)[5]
Car length	DTS vehs.: 21.440 m (70 ft 4.1 in) M vehs.: 20.400 m (66 ft 11.1 in) Others: 21.000 m (68 ft 10.8 in) (all including gangway portions)
Width	2.720 m (8 ft 11.1 in)
Height	M vehicles: 3.397 m (11 ft 1.7 in) Others: 3.510 m (11 ft 6.2 in)
Wheelbase	Over DTS/TBF veh. pivot centres: 14.850 m (48 ft 8.6 in) Over articulated vehicle pivots: 15.900 m (52 ft 2.0 in) Over M vehicle pivot centres: 13.000 m (42 ft 7.8 in)
Maximum speed	125 mph (200 km/h)
Weight	DTS vehicles: 35 t (34 LT; 39 ST) TBF vehicles: 33 t (32 LT; 36 ST) M vehicles: 67.5 t (66.4 LT; 74.4 ST) Others: 24 t (24 LT; 26 ST)
Traction motors	4 × ASEA LJMA 410 F
Power output	3,000 kW (4,000 hp) continuous
Electric system(s)	25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead
Current collector(s)	Pantograph
UIC classification	2′(2′)(2′)(2′)(2′)(2′)2′+Bo′Bo′
Bogies	M vehicles: BREL BP17 At articulations: BREL BT11 Others: BREL BT12
Minimum turning radius	91 m (300 ft)
Braking system(s)	Hydraulic and hydrokinetic[6]
Safety system(s)	AWS C-APT[7]
Multiple working	Within class (max. 2 units)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Notes/references
Specifications given for seven-car units as at August 1981,[8] except where otherwise noted. A full set train would be formed of two units coupled back-to-back.

British Rail's Class 370 tilting trains, also referred to as APT-P (meaning Advanced Passenger Train Prototype), were the pre-production Advanced Passenger Train units. Unlike the earlier experimental gas-turbine APT-E unit, these units were powered by 25 kV AC overhead electrification and were used on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Glasgow Central. The APT-P is the most powerful domestic train to have operated in Britain, the eight traction motors fitted to the two central motor cars giving a total output of 8,000 hp (6,000 kW). This enabled the train to set the UK rail speed record of 162.2 mph (261.0 km/h) in December 1979, a record that stood for 23 years until broken by a Eurostar Class 373 on the newly completed High Speed 1 line.^[9]

The APT-P was unveiled to the public on 7 June 1978 and continued to be used for testing into 1986.^[10] Due to ongoing technical problems with these pre-production units, and a lack of cash or political will to take the project forward, the planned APT-S (Advanced Passenger Train Squadron Service) production-series units were never built, but did influence the design of the later InterCity 225 sets designed for the East Coast Main Line electrification. The influence is strongest with the Class 91 locos which took many features from the APT power cars. The technology was later sold to Fiat Ferroviaria and used for improving their second generation Pendolino trains which are used worldwide, including on the West Coast Main Line as the Class 390.

Units were numbered 370001-370006 (plus two spare cars labelled 370007)^[3] and were formed as follows:

• 48101-48107 - Driving Trailer Second
• 48201-48206 - Trailer Second
• 48401-48406 - Trailer Restaurant Second Buffet
• 48301-48306 - Trailer Unclassified
• 48501-48506 - Trailer First
• 48601-48607 - Trailer Brake First
• 49001-49006 - Non-Driving Motor^[3]

Side Profile

A full train was made up of two units running back-to-back, with the two motor cars adjoining. The motor cars had no seating accommodation or through-gangway, so the two halves of the train were unconnected for passengers.

All six units were withdrawn during 1985–1986, and most cars were quickly scrapped. The remaining cars are exhibited at Crewe Heritage Centre, a museum located next to Crewe station.^[1]

• Of these, six cars are formed into a single train:
  • 48103 - Driving Trailer Second
  • 48404 - Trailer Restaurant Second Buffet
  • 48603 - Trailer Brake First
  • 49002 - Non-Driving Motor
  • 48602 - Trailer Brake First
  • 48106 - Driving Trailer Second
• A single Non-Driving Motor car does not form part of the train and is exhibited separately:
  • 49006 - Non-Driving Motor (not part of the above train) was on loan to the Electric Railway Museum in Coventry from July 2011 until its closure in October 2017 and moved back to Crewe Heritage Centre in March 2018.^[11]

In 1980, Hornby Railways produced a OO gauge five-car set model available as a train set with plain yellow fronts,^[12] which was released as a five-car train pack with black fronts and window surrounds in 1981, until appearing in the 1983 catalogue when the train set was last produced. In 1984 it was discontinued from the Hornby range. However, it was featured in the 1985 catalogue, although no new models were produced that year.^[13]

In 2020, Hornby Railways announced that as part of their centenary year range - and both the 40th anniversaries of the year it entered service and the original Hornby model a newly tooled OO gauge model of the BR Class 370 Advanced Passenger Train would be launched.^[14] The APT-P will be available as part of a five-car train pack consisting of sets 370 003 and 370 004 with plain yellow fronts included are DTS, TFB, NDM (motorised), TFB and DTS^[15] and a seven-car train pack included is the APT U Development coach, consisting of sets 370 001 and 370 002 with DTS, TBF, NDM (motorised), NDM (dummy), TBF and DTS in APT livery with black front and window surrounds^[16] with the additional SKU' coaches available separately in four sets of two including TS, TU, TRBS, and TF^[15][16] with the additional NDM (motorised)^[2][17] and the APT U Development coach,(for the five-car pack)^[18] for each set to form a realistic complete full rake train for both train packs.^[15][16]

• British Rail Class 91
• List of high speed trains

• Boocock, D.; Newman, M. (1976). "The Advanced Passenger Train". Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 190 (62): 653–663. doi:10.1243/PIME_PROC_1976_190_069_02.
• Marsden, Colin J. (1983). Motive Power Combined Volume. Ian Allan. ISBN 0711012849.

• APT-P: The Intercity Development Train Publisher: British Railways
• The Shape of Travel to Come Publisher: British Railways
• British Rail's Advanced Passenger Train Publisher: British Railways
• APT Course Notes Publisher: British Railways Scottish Region

• Body, Geoffrey (1981). Advanced Passenger Train. Weston-super-Mare: Avon-Anglia Publications. ISBN 9780905466378. OCLC 16538327.
• Clough, David N. (2016). APT: The Untold Story. London: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 9780711038240.
• Derrick, Kevin (2010). Eighties Spotting Days, Out of the Ashes. Strathwood. ISBN 9781905276301.
• Haresnape, Brian (1983). British Rail Fleet Survey 5: High Speed Trains. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 9780711012974. OCLC 153032242.
• Marsden, Colin J. (1982). EMUs. Motive Power Recognition. Vol. 2. Ian Allan. pp. 54–57. ISBN 9780711011656. OCLC 16537600.
• Nock, O.S. (1980). Two Miles a Minute. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 9780850594126. OCLC 7173075.
• Williams, L.H. (1985). Advanced Passenger Train: A Promise Unfulfilled. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 9780711014749. OCLC 16684893.
• Trains in the Eighties, 1: Inter-City 125s & APT. London: Ian Allan. 1980. ISBN 9780711010918. OCLC 43747550.
• Kelly, Peter (February–March 1982). "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a total failure". Rail Enthusiast. EMAP National Publications. pp. 38–40. ISSN 0262-561X. OCLC 49957965.
• Allen, Geoffrey Freeman (February–March 1982). "Why APT is running nine years late". Rail Enthusiast. EMAP National Publications. pp. 41–43. ISSN 0262-561X. OCLC 49957965.
• "End of the line for prototype APT". Rail Enthusiast. EMAP National Publications. May 1983. p. 16. ISSN 0262-561X. OCLC 49957965.
• "APT: BR puts the record straight". Rail Enthusiast. EMAP National Publications. November 1983. p. 19. ISSN 0262-561X. OCLC 49957965.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to British Rail Class 370.

• Wickens, A., (1988) APT - With Hindsight Newsletter of the Friends of the National Railway Museum, No.84, Summer 1988
• The Manufacturer (24, February 2004) The great train robbery