The "sound" of an APT

[370001]

I have scoured the internet for clips of the APT where I can hear what the APT sounded like a) pulling off a station and b) at full speed.

Alas, most of the clips don't have sound...

Can anyone give me an idea of what the APT sounded like? Did it sound like a Class 91? Perhaps a 373?

 

[sprinterguy]

There’s a youtube video somewhere demonstrating the range of prototypical sounds that can be produced using a DCC soundchip fitted to a Hornby APT model. The range of sound effects, and it seems to be quite a wide range, were recorded from the preserved APT-P at Crewe. Naturally, one of the sounds that it was not possible to reproduce was the sound of the motors and traction equipment in action, so the owner of that Youtube video (and of the model APT featured) has stated that they have used the sound of a class 91 as it is the closest thing to the APT sound, given that much of the traction equipment fitted to the class 91s was derived from the APT-P power cars.

 

[John55]

There’s a youtube video somewhere demonstrating the range of prototypical sounds that can be produced using a DCC soundchip fitted to a Hornby APT model. The range of sound effects, and it seems to be quite a wide range, were recorded from the preserved APT-P at Crewe. Naturally, one of the sounds that it was not possible to reproduce was the sound of the motors and traction equipment in action, so the owner of that Youtube video (and of the model APT featured) has stated that they have used the sound of a class 91 as it is the closest thing to the APT sound, given that much of the traction equipment fitted to the class 91s was derived from the APT-P power cars.

It is often said that there was much carried forward from the APT-P power car design into the class 91 locomotive but I am not convinced the traction equipment was part of that. The class 91 was designed by GEC (not BR) although BREL was the principal sub-contractor and was responsible for some parts of the design and the assembly of the locos at Crewe.

According to the write up in Modern Railways in April 1988 the configuration of the loco was similar to the APT-P power cars but everything in it was either new or off the shelf GEC equipment from other projects. The understanding I have is the mechanicals might have been similar (and as BREL were heavily involved in this bit that makes sense) but the traction equipment was a new design. Specifically the control system, transformer, power converter, traction motor and final drive were all GEC (or Voith/David Brown) designs not the ASEA equipment in the APT-P.

It would be interesting if anyone who was involved could shed more light on this.

None of the above means the locos sounded different to the APT-P power cars as different suppliers using the same types of technology could easily produce similar sounding equipment. In any case it is often the traction motor blowers that make the dominant noise on starting!

 

[route:oxford]

I have scoured the internet for clips of the APT where I can hear what the APT sounded like a) pulling off a station and b) at full speed.

Alas, most of the clips don't have sound...

Can anyone give me an idea of what the APT sounded like? Did it sound like a Class 91? Perhaps a 373?

Try in charity shops.

Back in the 80s the NRM used to sell audio tapes of various engine sounds.

 

[dcd]

At about 47 minutes in on last nights the Age of the train there is the APT going by. It is available on iPlayer BBC Four.


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