British Rail Class 370
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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 25kV AC overhead electrification and were used on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Glasgow Central. 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 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 technology was later sold to Fiat and used as the basis for their Pendolino trains which have been used world wide including the West Coast Main Line.
Units were numbered 370001-370006 (plus a spare driving car labelled 370007) 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
- 48601-48606 - Trailer Brake First
- 49001-49006 - Motor
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 All six units were withdrawn during 1985-1986, and most cars were quickly scrapped. Only a handful of cars have survived; 49006 is at the National Railway Museum's Locomotion annexe in Shildon, while 48103, 48404, 48603, 49002, 48602, and 48106 are at The Railway Age, Crewe.
