Class 370 - Advanced Passenger Train

The Class 370 Advanced Passenger Train was an experimental prototype tilting train built and tested by British Rail in the early 1980's. Although revolutionary in it's design and making a number of achievements in it's short life (Including holding the UK railway speed record for over 25 years) the train proved to be generally unpopular with passengers, and the project was abandoned around the late 80's - Although the APT-P trains themselves (Of which six half-sets were produced - Numbers 370001-370006) remained in passenger carrying service until the late 1990's.

Despite it's chequered history, a lot of the technology originally developed for and used on the APT has been used on other trains designed since that time, with some examples being: Additionally, the Class 90 series of locomotives are heavily based on the power cars designed for use in the APT, and the Class 390 Pendolino is a relative decendant of the APT, having been built using research data gained from the Advanced Passenger Train project.
 * Tilting suspension - Which is now used on many high-speed trains throughout Europe,
 * Anti-tilt pantographs - A necessity for electric tilting trains powered from an overhead catenery,
 * Track/Train signalling - The APT used a basic form of passive track/train signalling to display speed limit information to the driver, and to set maximum speed data for the trains on-board computers. This also assisted in the progression and development of RFID technology,
 * Sileage holding - The APT was the first train which held passenger sileage in on-board holding tanks, as opposed to dumping it onto the track.