More APT collectables

There's a lot of talk on model railway forums about the APT-E with the arrival of Rapido's model. Lots of people are collecting a nice box of toy train and raving about it. I'm also waiting, but in the meantime I've acquired a few more bits of the real thing, well, the real APT-P anyway...

First up we have a guards telephone. It weighs a ton but the handset clips nicely in and out of its holder so I can pretend to talk to the driver.

Once I tire of doing this, I can recline on some 1st (Tatty blue) and 2nd (New red) seat covers. The tartan is a delight and so redolent of the period - anyone who has seen the inside of a TR7 will know what I mean. To make things even more comfortable, I have the seat cushions to fit the 2nd class covers.

There are also a few more common souvenirs - bookmark, headed paper and tie - plus a couple of BR photos from the period. 

All this came about after I bought a destination blind from the train - these were fitted in the coach sides by the doors. The seller contacted me and said he'd more stuff in the shed, wanted to clear it out and offered me a very tempting price. I said yes, twice, and two parcels arrived a few days later.

The question is, what do I want it for?

Let's face it, I'm not restoring an APT-P. There's only one and I'm pretty certain it's complete.

For the moment everything will go into store and not be looked at for a while. That's the problem with collecting, you tend to own more than you can display.

Truth is, I don't know. For the moment I'll grab stuff on the rare occasions it turns up. At least this is the sort of collecting that involves the thrill of the chase. Quite what anyone gets from just receiving regular deliveries from a dealer of "collectibles" beats me.

Long term I have ideas about converting an office chair to take the cushions and covers. A bright red tartan chair for me to pretend I'm riding an APT in would be nice as I never saw the real thing move, never mind travelled on it.

Maybe I'm buying nostalgia. When I was a kid, APT-E looked like a spacecraft on rails. APT-P was the future of train travel and when I saw it on Tomorrow's World, it looked exciting. I own a bit of that excitement. Maybe I'm buying the future, just a different future to the one we got.