Pedrail Machine


The Pedrail Machine was an experimental British armoured fighting vehicle of the First World War. It was intended initially to be used as a personnel carrier on the Western Front but the idea was dropped in favour of other projects. Work was on the machine was re-directed so that it could be used as the basis of a mobile flamethrower but it was never completed and saw no action.

Development

Following discussions by Captain Murray Sueter and Diplock of the Pedrail Transport Company, the machine was designed by the British engineer Colonel R.E.B. Crompton on behalf of the Landship Committee. The brief was for a vehicle that could carry a unit of troops - a "trench storming party of 50 men with machine guns and ammunition"- under protection across No Man's Land. Crompton's design as presented to the committee used two sets of pedrails in a vehicle around long, weighing around 25 tons and armed with a 12-pdr gun. Protection was of armour to the sides and on top. Two Rolls-Royce engines drove the machine.
This led to an order for twelve machines placed with the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company in Birmingham. The Committee realised the design as supplied would not be able to readily manoeuvre through French villages and it was reworked to articulate it in the middle. At the same time the armour protection was increased to. The original order for 12 was reduced to one and then Metropolitan asked to be removed from the project to concentrate on other war work. The task of finishing the single vehicle went to William Foster and Co. at Lincoln but with other more promising armoured vehicle projects coming along even the building of a single Pedrail was cancelled by the authorities.
In July 1916 work on finishing the machine was transferred to Stothert & Pitt in Bath intending it to be repurposed as a mobile flamethrower. The finished chassis was handed over to the Trench Warfare Department in August but nothing came of it.