British Rail railbuses

British Rail produced a variety of railbuses, both as a means of acquiring new rolling stock cheaply, and to provide economical services on lightly-used lines.
==Terminology==
Railbuses are a very lightweight type of railcar designed specifically for passenger transport on little-used railway lines. As the name suggests, they share many aspects of their construction with a bus, usually having a bus body, or a modified bus body, and having four wheels on a fixed wheelbase, rather than bogies. Some units were equipped for operation as diesel multiple units.
==First generation==
In the late 1950s, British Rail tested a series of small railbuses, produced by a variety of manufacturers, for about £12,500 each (£261,000 at 2014 prices). These proved to be very economical (on test the Wickham bus was about 9 mpg‑imp (31 L/100 km)), but were somewhat unreliable. Most of the lines they worked on were closed following the Beeching Cuts and, being non-standard, they were all withdrawn in the mid-1960s, so they were never classified under the TOPS system.
In addition to those railbuses, BR ordered three for departmental (non-revenue earning) service. The full list of passenger and departmental units is set out below.
Table of orders and numbers
Lot No.	Manufacturer 	Diagram	Qty	Fleet numbers 	Service life	Length over body 	Seats
30483 	Bristol / Eastern Coach Works 	610 	2 	Sc79958–79959 	1958–1966 	42 ft 4 in (12.90 m) 	56
30482 	Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth railbus	611 	5 	E79960–79964 	1958–1967 	45 ft 10 in (13.97 m)	56
30481 	D Wickham & Co 	612 	5 	Sc79965–79969 	1958–1966 	38 ft 0 in (11.58 m) 	48
30480 	Park Royal Vehicles 	613 	5 	Sc79970, 79974
M79971–79973	1958–1968 	42 ft 0 in (12.80 m) 	50
30479 	AC Cars 	614 	5 	W79975–79978
Sc79979	1958–1968 	36 ft 0 in (10.97 m) 	46
 	D Wickham & Co 	 	1 	RDB999507 Elliot	1958–1997 	 	
 	Drewry Car Co. 	 	2 	RDB998900-998901	1950–1990 	 	
====Engines====
*79958/59, Gardner 6HLW of 112 bhp (84 kW) at 1,700 rpm
*79960–62/64, Büssing, 150 bhp (110 kW) at 1,900 rpm
*79963, AEC A220X
* 79965–69, Meadows 6HDT500 of 105 bhp (78 kW) at 1,800 rpm
*79970–74, AEC, 150 bhp (110 kW)
*79975–79, AEC, 150 bhp (110 kW)
==Second generation==
thumb|right|RB004 at the Telford Steam RailwayBritish Rail returned to the idea of railbuses from the mid-1970s, and a prototype four‐wheel vehicle was developed jointly by British Leyland and the British Rail Research Division. Several single and two-car railbuses were built and tested, in co-operation with Leyland (hence the generic term for these vehicles as LEV (Leyland Experimental Vehicle) railbuses). The first three single-car prototypes were essentially Leyland National bus bodies mounted on a modified HSFV1 four-wheeled rail chassis. The prototype two-car railbus was allocated Class 140 and is dealt with on that page, but the prototype single-car railbuses were not classified and are set out in the table below:
Number 	Identity	Builder 	Introduced	Withdrawn
RDB 975874	LEV1 	Leyland/BREL Derby	1978 	1987
— 	LEV2/R3 	Leyland/Wickham 	1980 	19??
RDB 977020	R3 	Leyland/BREL Derby	1981 	1990
— 	RB004 	Leyland/BREL Derby	1984 	19??
— 	RB002 	Leyland/BREL Derby	1984 	19??
In 1978, tests were carried out with a modified double-ended Leyland National bus body placed on an unpowered wagon chassis derived from HSFV1, this was LEV1 (Leyland Experimental Vehicle 1). Whilst in its unpowered state this vehicle never left the Railway Technical Centre in Derby. In 1979 a powertrain was added to LEV1, the engine being a Leyland 510 diesel, and the transmission a mechanical type with self-changing gears.
Even though some of these vehicles carried numbers in the departmental coach series, they were used in ordinary passenger service. LEV1 was initially tested in passenger service in East Anglia, and then elsewhere, before being temporarily exported to the US in the early 1980s. LEV1 was withdrawn and transferred to the National Railway Museum in 1987, before moving to the North Norfolk Railway, where it underwent restoration, then moving in 2012 to the NRM's Shildon site.
LEV2, built especially for the US at 50 ft (15.3 m), was a stretched version of LEV1 and sometimes known as R3. Following export around 1981, it was used on an experimental extension of MBTA (Boston) commuter service to Concord, New Hampshire. When that experiment was ended in 1981 the LEV2 was sold to Amtrak for use on the Northeast Corridor, but it was quickly put out of service after an accident at a crossing. It was subsequently sold to the Steamtown Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania for use as a shuttle, but was damaged during repair and sold for scrap. It was bought from the scrap dealer by the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad, a tourist railroad in West Virginia, and later sold to the Connecticut Trolley Museum, where it was eventually scrapped.
In 1985, SEPTA tested a British Rail railbus on the Fox Chase line as part of an effort to restore service to Newtown. Though the trial runs were relatively successful, ride quality was lacklustre, and SEPTA never purchased the railbuses.
Similarly, the BR version of R3 (RDB977020) was run in service on BR for a few years before eventually being sold to Northern Ireland Railways in late 1982, where it was converted to the 5 ft 3 in Irish gauge. R3, also known as RB003, was withdrawn in 1990 and preserved, initially at the Ulster Transport Museum, then, in 2001, at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway.
Another version, RB004 was built at Derby in 1984. The body was built at the Leyland plant at Workington and BREL Derby C&W were responsible for the underframe and final assembly. It is preserved in running order at the Waverley Route Heritage Association site at Whitrope.Yet another BREL-Leyland product from c1984, RB002, was exported as a demonstrator, going to the US and Canada, then Denmark and Sweden. Afterwards, the RB002 was used in the Netherlands and Germany, for a demonstration of light rail vehicles on the then defunct railway between Enschede and Gronau. It returned to the UK, having gained the nickname, "The Denmark", and was used for a while as a classroom/office by BREL but, somehow, it too ended up in Ireland. Its present location is believed to be at the now‐closed standard gauge Riverstown Old Corn Railway near Dundalk, but it is understood to be in a poor state of repair.
Those railbuses were sent abroad in the hope of gathering export orders, but they never transpired.
In addition, there was an experiment with a loco-hauled Leyland-built vehicle. A National bus-type body was placed on the 63-foot (19 m) underframe from Mk1 BCK coach number 21234. It was numbered RDB 977091 and was run in normal service around the London Midland region, alongside ordinary coaching stock, until withdrawn as being unsuitable. The only direct connection with railbuses was the use of the same type of bus-based body shell to reduce costs to a minimum. The coach is now preserved at the Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway.
===Pacers===
As a result of those tests, British Rail ordered a series of two- and three-car railbuses, which became known as Pacers (or Skippers in the Western Region), and were allocated TOPS Classes 141–144. The next generation of Sprinter units were based on conventional railway design and bogie-mounted bodies.
==Routes==
thumb|AC Cars railbus at Tetbury in the 1960sLines regularly served by railbuses include:
===Scotland===
*Ayr – Dalmellington 1959–1964
* Craigendoran – Arrochar 1959–1964
*Darvel 1959–1964
* Devon Valley 1959–1964
*Falkirk – Grangemouth 1967–1968
*Gleneagles – Crieff / Comrie 1958–1964
* Kilmarnock – Ardrossan / Ayr 1962-1964
*Larbert – Alloa 1967–1968
*Lugton – Beith 1959–1962
* Speyside 1958–1965
=== East Anglia===
*Cambridge to Mildenhall railway 
* Witham-Braintree branch line
*Witham-Maldon branch line
*Saffron Walden Railway
===Midlands===
*Bedford – Northampton / Hitchin 1958–1959
*Millers Dale – Buxton 1966–1967
===Western===
*Bodmin – Wadebridge 1964–1967
*Kemble – Cirencester Town and Kemble-Tetbury 1959–1964
* Yeovil Junction – Yeovil Town 1964–1966 – Pen Mill 1966
==Preservation==
A number of the BR railbuses, both first and second generation examples have survived into preservation, as follows:
Vehicle no. 	Builder 	Year built 	Location 	Comments
First generation 	First generation 	First generation 	First generation 	First generation
79960 	Waggon und Maschinenbau	1958 	Ribble Steam Railway 	Formerly North Norfolk Railway
79962 	Waggon und Maschinenbau	1958 	Keighley and Worth Valley Railway 	—
79963 	Waggon und Maschinenbau	1958 	East Anglian Railway Museum 	Formerly North Norfolk Railway, now on loan
79964 	Waggon und Maschinenbau	1958 	Keighley and Worth Valley Railway 	—
79976 	AC Cars 	1958 	Great Central Railway 	Purchased in 1968 without its engine and moved to Bristol and then Bleadon and Uphill museum. Since then it has moved to Bodmin & Wenford Railway, County School railway station, Colne Valley Railway and then Great Central Railway, before moving to Nemesis Rail where it is stored as a sheeted-over carcass.
79978 	AC Cars 	1958 	Swindon & Cricklade Railway 	Sold to North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 1968 It was at the Kent & East Sussex Railway from 1979 to 1984, then moved to the Colne Valley Railway. In November 2019, it moved to the Swindon & Cricklade Railway.
RDB999507 	Wickham 	1958 	Previously Middleton Railway – moved to Lavender Line 2009	Elliot High-speed track-recording unit
RDB998901 	Drewry Car Company 	1950 	Middleton Railway 	Overhead-line inspection car
Second generation	Second generation 	Second generation	Second generation 	Second generation
RDB975874 	Leyland/BREL Derby 	1978 	Wensleydale Railway 	LEV 1
LEV2 	Leyland/BREL Derby 	1980 	Connecticut Trolley Museum 	Was subject to a project to repatriate to the UK but has been reported as scrapped in August 2021.
RDB977020 	Leyland/BREL Derby 	1980 	Downpatrick & County Down Railway in Northern Ireland 	LEV3 aka RB3. Has been regauged to 5'3"
RB002 	Leyland/BREL Derby 	198? 	Riverstown Old Corn Railway? near Dundalk, Ireland 	RB002 aka The Denmark
RB004 	Leyland/BREL Derby 	1984 	Currently at the Whitrope Siding (arrived 31 May 2012) 	Owned by Northumbria Rail Ltd. and The Railbus Trust. Moved from Telford Steam Railway to Llangollen Railway 20 May 2011 and then to Midland Railway Centre 19 August 2011
Additionally, AC Cars railbus 79979 was preserved. It was the first of the railbuses to be delivered and spent all its working life in Scotland. In 1968, it was moved to Craigentinny where the chassis was scrapped, and it was used as a battery store. It was moved to make way for the TMD in 1977 and the grounded body sold to the Strathspey Railway in 1977. It was scrapped by MC Metals, Glasgow, in 1990.
== See also==
*British Rail Class 139
==External links==
*The Railbus Trust – Working to protect the future of Single Car Railbuses and Second Generation DMU prototypes.
==Gallery==
File:The true first pacer.jpg
File:Ribble Steam Railway - railbus E79960.JPG
File:49658502077 d4fc9618c9.jpg
Category:NI Railways
Category:4 foot 8 1⁄2 inch gauge
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Category:British Rail locomotives
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Category:British Rail Railbuses
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