British Rail Railbuses - Second Generation BR Railbuses

Second Generation BR Railbuses

British 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. A number of 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:

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 the powertrain was addded to LEV1 (p54 of A history of engineering research on British Railways Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History by A Gilchrist), 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 actually used in ordinary passenger service. LEV1 was tested in passenger service at first in East Anglia, and then elsewhere, before being temporarily exported to the USA in the early 1980s. LEV1 was withdrawn and transferred to the National Railway Museum in 1987 (Railway Magazine April 1987 p252), it is currently at the North Norfolk Railway where it is undergoing restoration. LEV2 was built especially for the USA and following export c1981 was used on an experimental extension of MBTA (Boston) commuter service to Concord, New Hampshire. When that experiment was ended in 1981 the LEV 2 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, PA 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, R3 was exported to Canada after its testing phase, before being converted to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) Irish gauge and sold to Northern Ireland Railways. 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 Museum (Second Generation DMUs p12, author Colin Marsden). 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 63-foot (19 m) 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 in order to reduce costs to a minimum. The coach is now preserved at the Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway.

The result of these tests was that British Rail ordered a series of two- and three-car Railbuses, which became known as Pacers (or Skippers on 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.