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 ), 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 Most of the lines they worked on were closed following the Beeching Cuts and, being non-standard, they were all withdrawn in the mid-1960s, so they were never classified under the TOPS system.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.

Engines:
 79958/59, Gardner 6HLW of  at 1,700 rpm
 79960–62/64, Büssing,  at 1,900 rpm
 79963, AEC A220X
 79965–69, Meadows 6HDT500 of  at 1,800 rpm
 79970–74, AEC, 
 79975–79, AEC,

Leyland Experimental Vehicles
British Rail returned to the idea of railbuses from the mid-1970s, and prototype four-wheel vehicles were developed jointly by British Leyland and the British Rail Research Division. These were named Leyland Experimental Vehicles (LEVs) and consisted of double-ended Leyland National bodyshells (chosen for their strength and cost-effective manufacturing) mounted on top of simple 2-axled railway chassis, which were a derivative of those used on the HSFV.

The LEVs spent a substantial amount of time abroad in the hope of attracting export orders, however none were ever made. Domestically, the LEVs were the predecessors of the Pacer DMUs, of which the Class 140 is its closest relative.

In total, five LEVs were built, which are listed below:

Routes 

Lines 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:

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
Pacerailer - prototype railbus built 1960s, by a private company.
Pacer (British Rail)

References

External links

AC Cars Railbus
EM2 Locomotive Society – owners of Drewry railcar DB998901. 
Old Dalby Test Track site – Pictures of the Drewry car RDB998901 in action at BR's test track
Wickham Railbus Group – owners of Wickham railbus DB999507.
Train Testing site – Pictures of the testing and travels of the early railbuses
Train Testing site – Pictures of LEV1 in the US
departmentals.com
The Railbus Trust – Working to protect the future of Single Car Railbuses and Second Generation DMU prototypes.

Railbuses
Railcars of the United Kingdom
Bristol Commercial Vehicles
D. Wickham and Company rolling stock
Park Royal Vehicles multiple units
AC vehicles
Train-related introductions in 1950
Train-related introductions in 1978