In 1969, the United Kingdom decided to build a unique train, a high-speed train that did not require the use of special rails for high-speed rail.
While other countries are spending billions on new long, straight, proprietary high-speed rail tracks, the British are designing a high-speed train that not only achieves extreme speeds, but also runs on sharp-bending rails built a few hundred years ago.
It can bend like a motorcycle, taking Britain's old railroad tracks towards the 21st century. Stable, quiet for a perfect ride.
But the British did deliver on the promises they made when they were designed, and they did it better.
This is the "premium passenger train" that saves British rail transport.
In the 1960s, British rail transport was in crisis. After decades of recession, rail passenger traffic in 1965 was even worse than in 1890. Rail lines are gradually closing across the country.
The problem is clear: rail transport in Britain is not only slow, but also old, and steam locomotives are still used in the 1960s.
In contrast, road transport offers unlimited freedom, while air transport is efficient and luxurious.
If British rail wants to compete in the new era, it needs faster trains. Because in other parts of the world, high-speed trains have proven to win back the passenger market.
At that time, the Shinkansen in Japan was a huge success, and 100 million passengers were transported in the first three years of service.
But high-speed rail trains need dedicated rails, long and straight lines with gentle curves. Japan built brand new lines for the Shinkansen, building thousands of bridges and tunnels through the mountain.
For the French, they will also paint the gourd and build hundreds of kilometers of high-speed railroad tracks.
But in the UK, there will be no new rail lines, as the UK already has a vast rail network and most of the railways are idle due to the decline in passenger traffic.
The UK is therefore preparing to develop a new high-speed train that will take advantage of the existing rail network.
But it won't be easy.
Britain's century-old railway network is full of all kinds of sharp bends, and trains can only turn at a certain speed, otherwise it will be difficult to ride. Centrifugal force can cause the cup to fly off the table and even cause passengers to fall.
High-speed railway between Japan and France. With gentle and sloping curves to reduce centrifugal forces, the UK will take another maverick approach – instead of tilting the railway, the UK chooses to tilt the train.
By tilting the train like a motorcycle, the centrifugal force felt by passengers will be reduced, or even completely offset, and the British will come out on top in the dynamic tilt system.
Unlike the earlier tilt suspension systems, this system will use computers and sensors to measure the force, and then use hydraulic ejector bars to actively tilt each car.
British Railways spent almost 20 years developing this technology.
In 1979, they succeeded in building a train that was unique in British history, named the "Premium Passenger Train".
Powered by 8 electric motors from the central power car, the train delivered 8,000 horsepower output, making it the most powerful domestic train in British history, and with its advanced braking system, it can rapidly decelerate in the UK's old signalling system. Thanks to its active tilt technology, corners can be made at twice the speed.
In the 1979 test, the "premium passenger train" reached 261km/h, setting a new British speed record, a record that lasted for 23 years.
New trains in the UK will revolutionize British rail, and there are plans to build 50 sets of trains.
But when the "premium passenger train" went into operation on December 7, 1981, it went from being a future train overnight to being the target of public criticism. From jammed brakes to ineffective tilt mechanisms, the train suffered from a variety of technical problems.
On the third day of operation, a train set even stopped on the way from Glasgow to London.
But the most embarrassing thing is that active tilting has caused nearly a third of passengers to suffer from motion sickness.
Faced with so many problems, British Rail had to stop operating "premium passenger trains" a few weeks later, and it took another 3 years to solve them.
At the same time, British Railways is also trying to reverse the bad reviews. But the media has already given the "high-class passenger train" a fatal blow.
The train was put into operation too early, and it took 15 years to develop and £50 million.
But the idea of designing a train with a speed of 250 km/h that could run on the old rail network was too ambitious for British Rail.
The "Premium Passenger Train" was originally scheduled to be put into operation in 1976, but because there were too many new features to be developed at the same time, project management became a big problem, and at the same time faced a large number of technical problems, and in many cases even completely reworked.
And the "advanced passenger train" was not fully tested, and only 37,000 kilometers were run from the experimental stage to the operation
France, on the other hand, has tested nearly 500,000 kilometers of its high-speed rail program.
Even with the potential of the "premium passenger train" test phase, many British rail insiders are full of doubts about this project, preferring traditional railway technology to the great leap forward in technology.
So British Railways split up some of its resources to develop a more traditional train that didn't require active tilt and wasn't as fast.
Because of these controversies, quality management issues, and wavering political support, the project's fate may have long been predestined.
By 1980, britain was facing a recession and the prototype was forced into operation due to fears that the "premium passenger train" project would be cancelled as a whole.
Three years later, in 1984, when the "premium passenger train" was back in operation, the active tilt mechanism had been improved, reducing passenger motion sickness and becoming reliable.
But that's no longer important, and the "premium passenger train" can no longer achieve its design goals.
With lines and top transmission lines to be shared with low-speed trains, "high-end passenger trains" are slowed down by these old rail networks that should have been overcome. Lacking the impetus to continue development, the "premium passenger train" was quietly decommissioned in 1986.
However, there is still one last hint of irony in the fate of the "high-end passenger train".
In 1982, British Railways sold a patent for dynamic tilt technology to Fiat in Italy, which was also independently developing a set of active tilt trains.
By 2002, Italian-designed inclined trains were sold to British Railways.
Today, these trains operate on the London-Glasgow line, which is exactly what the "premium passenger trains" operated in those days...
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