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 mpgimp), 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 Most of the lines they worked on were closed following the Beeching Cuts and, being non-standard, they were all withdrawn in the mid-1960s, so they were never classified under the TOPS system.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 112 bhp at 1,700 rpm
 * 79960–62/64, Büssing, 150 bhp at 1,900 rpm
 * 79963, AEC A220X
 * 79965–69, Meadows 6HDT500 of 105 bhp at 1,800 rpm
 * 79970–74, AEC, 150 bhp
 * 79975–79, AEC, 150 bhp

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.