British Rail railbuses
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, instead of on bogies. Some, but not all, of the units have been 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. These proved to be very economical, but also somewhat unreliable. The lines they worked on were mainly closed during the Beeching Cuts and, being non-standard, they were all withdrawn in the mid-1960s, before being allocated TOPS classifications.In addition to these railbuses, BR ordered three for departmental service. The full list of passenger and departmental units is set out below.
| Lot No. | Manufacturer | Diagram | Qty | Fleet numbers | Service life | Length over body | Seats | Notes |
| 30483 | Bristol / Eastern Coach Works | 610 | 2 | Sc79958–79959 | 1958–1966 | 56 | ||
| 30482 | Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth railbus | 611 | 5 | E79960–79964 | 1958–1967 | 56 | ||
| 30481 | D Wickham & Co | 612 | 5 | Sc79965–79969 | 1958–1966 | 48 | ||
| 30480 | Park Royal Vehicles | 613 | 5 | Sc79970, 79974 M79971–79973 | 1958–1968 | 50 | ||
| 30479 | AC Cars | 614 | 5 | W79975–79978 Sc79979 | 1958–1968 | 46 | ||
| D Wickham & Co | 1 | RDB999507 Elliot | 1958–1997 | |||||
| Drewry Car Co. | 2 | RDB998900-998901 | 1950–1990 |
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,
Second generation
| Number | Identity | Builder | Introduced | Withdrawn |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. 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, was a stretched version of LEV1 and sometimes known as R3. Following export around 1981, it was used on an experimental extension of MBTA 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 remains to this day.
Similarly, the BR version of R3 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 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. This 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 as a classroom/office by BREL for a while and 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 in Ireland but it is understood to be in a poor state of repair.
These 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 underframe from Mk1 BCK coach number 21234. This 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 these tests, British Rail ordered a series of two- and three-car railbuses, which became known as Pacers, and were allocated TOPS Classes 141–144. The next generation of Sprinter units were based on conventional railway design and bogie-mounted bodies.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
- 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
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.