Abstract
SIR W. G. ARMSTRONG, WHITWORTH AND CO. has built a Diesel-electric railbus which has been on exhibition at Kings Cross Station, London, since its successful trial run from Newcastle-on-Tyne on July 30. The engine is the Armstrong commercial road vehicle engine and the vehicle has comfortable seats for 57 passengers. According to the Times of August 4, the fuel consumption was thirty-five gallons, the cost of which was 13s. 2d. for the journey of 268 miles from Newcastle to London. The running time was 5 hours 48 minutes and the railbus was stopped eight times at signal checks. This compares with 4 hours 55 minutes the time taken by the Flying Scotsman in its non-stop run from Newcastle to Kings Cross. The same firm has previously built a heavier type of vehicle called a railcoach which is now in regular operation on the north-east coast. The new railbus is the lightest type of self-propelled railway coach of its capacity ever built in Great Britain. It can provide frequent high-speed local services, frequent fast services on branch lines to market towns, and feeder services for main line connexions. The railways can buy these vehicles at about the same price as an ordinary railway coach and can run them frequently and quickly on lines where they are suffering from parallel competition on the roads. The first costs and running costs are said to compare favourably with those of the ordinary Diesel-engined road motor-coach. They have the advantage of superior speed, reaching 50-60 miles an hour, with a 100 horse-power engine, and 70-75 with a 150 horse-power engine.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Coming of the Railbus. Nature 132, 235 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132235a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132235a0