Hornby R40018 Avanti West Coast, Pendolino Motor Standard (MS)

OO Gauge HornbyR40018 Avanti West Coast, Pendolino Motor Standard (MS) Brand new item direct from our new Yorkshire shop.
Product InfoDuring the 1970s, British Railways had pursued the conceptof tilting train technology for the West Coast Main Line through the Class 370Advanced Passenger Train concept, allowing for higher speeds to be takenthrough curves. By minimising lateral forces on the passengers, the tendency toslide sideways was reduced, which allowed passenger comfort levels to bemaintained at higher speeds.

Even with the cancellation of the APT project, the idea of train tilt was stillbeing considered in the 1980s for the InterCity 225 project and again duringthe 1990s for the aborted InterCity 250 concept. In 1997, when Virgin Trainswere awarded the franchise to operate the West Coast Main Line following theprivatisation of British Rail, it was on the proviso that new rolling stock wasto be introduced, replacing the ageing Class 86/87/90 locomotives and Mark 2/3coaches.

A £500 million order was placed with Alstom/Fiat Ferroviaria to constructfifty-four, eight-car tilting train sets. These later increasing to nine andthen eleven car sets. The current Pendolino fleet of 52 sets comprises 31eleven-car sets and 21 nine-car sets and all have been transferred to AvantiWest Coast, the operating name for the new West Coast Partnership betweenFirstGroup plc and Trenitalia UK that took over the operation of the existingWest Coast Main Line services on 8 December 2019, from Virgin Trains.