Art News

Historic Locomotive Arrives in Coventry’s Electric Railway Museum

COVENTRY.- One of the fastest and most influential trains in the world has been welcomed into its new home at Coventry’s Electric Railway Museum. The Advanced Passenger Train Prototype’s non-driving power car, number 49006, arrived on loan from the National Railway Museum and will undergo restoration work by Electric Railway Museum volunteers. The Advanced Passenger Train Prototype (APT-P) was the first to successfully implement an active tilt mechanism, increasing speeds significantly on tight rail curves. The most powerful domestic train to have operated in Britain, it set the UK rail speed record of 162.2 mph in December 1979 – a record that stood for 23 years. The power car was built by British Rail in Derby in 1983 and saw service until 1985 on the West Coast Main Line, between London Euston and Glasgow. It was then used for electric locomotive development work, resulting in the Class 91 de