Hilding Carlsson diesel in SwedenCalabro Lucane Railway (FCL) railbus Emmina M1c.82 in ItalyModern-day railbus, built originally by Ferrostaal, entirely rebuilt and redesigned in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar with an automotive engine.[1] It shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels (2 axles) on a fixed base instead of on bogies. Originally designed and developed during the 1930s, railbuses have evolved into larger dimensions with characteristics similar in appearance to a light railcar, with the terms railcar and railbus often used interchangeably. Railbuses designed for use specifically on little-used railway lines were commonly employed in countries such as Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.[2]
Today, railbuses are being replaced by modern, light DMU railcar designs.[citation needed] Modern diesel-electric railcars, which can be run coupled as multiple units, like the Stadler RS1, the RegioSprinter of Siemens, or the successor Siemens Desiro, share the role and specifications with railbuses (albeit with improvements in noise, low floor design, fuel efficiency, speed, and other measures), but are usually not referred to by the term "railbus" any longer.
Usage by country
Argentina
Locally manufactured TecnoTren railbuses are in use around Argentina, most notably on the University train of La Plata. They are mostly used in rural parts of the country where the tracks have not yet been repaired and so can't handle the weight of regular trains.[3]
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Australia
In 1937, the NSW Department of Railways added six Waddington-built four-wheel streamlinedFP Paybuses to serve on small branch lines out of Cowra and Harden that did not have enough passengers to justify a rail motor.[4][5] Powered by a Ford V8 engine, they were given the designation FP1 to FP6. When the railbus service wasn't popular, several of the buses became mobile pay cars used to pay railway employees at stations and working on tracks.
In December 1941, one of these railbuses (FP 5) was destroyed when dynamite was placed on railway tracks near Yanderra. The three-man crew of the railbus were killed in the explosion. Though £2,000 of loose cash was taken, the safe in the railcar could not be opened by the robbers. No one was prosecuted for the offence.[6]
The first railbus, FP1, has been restored where it is on display at the NSW Rail Museum in Thirlmere. Another seven were built by Comeng in the 1960s.[7]
In Queensland, "RailBus service" refers to road bus service running parallel to portions of some railway lines, substituting for commuter train.
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Germany
Two-engined Uerdingen railbus of Deutsche BundesbahnVT 2.09 of Deutsche Reichsbahn
In Germany, the Schienenbus was developed in the 1930s to fulfill the need for an inexpensive rail vehicle. It was built to standard specifications on Germany's Reichsbahn (the predecessor to DB) to meet the demand for cost-effective services on light railways or Kleinbahnen (the Wismar railbus was a pioneer in those days.) After the Second World War, the eventually ubiquitous Uerdingen railbuses were developed by Deutsche Bundesbahn in single-engined and double-engined versions. The latter were powerful enough to haul through coaches and freight cars. Matching trailers and driving trailers were developed as well. These railbuses were a predecessor of the modern diesel multiple units. In the late 1950s, Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR developed the single-engined class VT 2.09 with matching trailers and driving trailers, built by Waggonbau Bautzen.
A number of serious accidents in Germany in the late 1970s involving railbuses resulted in the specification and development of larger, more robustly designed diesel railcars. Although these cars were more similar in size to the U.S. produced diesel railcars, they would not have complied with current FRA requirements, and, like their North American cousin rail diesel cars, are largely railroad-derivative designs. The DB Class 628 exemplifies the contemporary German diesel railcar. This type of car replaced the Schienenbus and locomotive-hauled train consists where possible on branch-line and main-line assignments during the 1980s and 1990s. Both the Uerdingen Schienenbus and the Bautzen railbuses have virtually disappeared from regular revenue service, but its diesel rail car successors are still widely used. DMUs of a third generation in succession after the Schienenbus are now being ordered by the hundreds in a variety of modular design combinations.[8]
Hungary
Árpád railbus in 1937
The first railbuses appeared in Hungary in 1925, made by Ganz Works. From 1934, MÁV started to use railbuses called Árpád, which were also manufactured by Ganz. These vehicles ran on the Budapest-Vienna line. In 1975, the last Árpád was scrapped.
In 1986, due to the lack of ČD 810 trains, Ikarus converted an Ikarus 260 bus into a railbus on behalf of MÁV. This model was called Ikarus 725.[9] Its variations 725.01, 722.01 and 723.01 were sent to Malaysia in 1988.[9]
India
A railbus near Bangarpet (state: Karnataka)
Indian Railways operates many railbuses on its branch lines. These railbuses are being replaced by EMUs due to increase in passengers.
There is railbus on the Kalka-Shimla route (train number 72451), Mathura to Vrindavan (train number 72175) and Merta Jn to Merta City (train number 74804), Khajjidoni - Bagalkot as well, among others.
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The president of JNR visited West Germany in 1953 and was introduced to railbusses there. JNR subsequently drew up a plan for railbus introduction plan in JNR, and a prototype was built in 1955. However, JNR found railbuses less reliable in daily operation as compared to standard rail equipment and discontinued their use in the 1960s. Railbuses produced by Fuji Heavy Industries were operational on the Nanbu Jūkan Railway from 1962 until the line ceased operations in 1997, though the preserved units can still be seen at Shichinohe Station.[14]
Motorization soared in Japan from the 1970s on, reducing consuming passenger numbers on local private railways. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. in 1982 began development of an "LE-Car" that incorporates significantly the structure of the bus, deficit local lines of JNR has been adopted by many of the railway company that local governments and private companies are operated by joint investment.
Railbuses entered service in Sri Lanka in 1995, using Tata Dimo buses, and later Lanka Ashok Leyland buses. The buses, originally built for road use, were modified to be used on rails and connected back-to-back like a DMU. Railbuses are used in various areas with little passenger demand, including from Kandy to the suburb of Peradeniya and the Kelani Valley line in Colombo.[16] Services where railbuses are used are not indicated on the Sri Lankan Railways website. The route from Maho Junction to Polghawela in North Western Province is also serviced by Lanka Ashok Leyland railbuses.[17]
British Rail produced a variety of railbuses as a means both of building new rolling stock cheaply, and to provide services on lightly used lines economically.
A variety of railbus known as Pacers, which were constructed in the 1980s, remained in service until 2021,[18] they were phased out as a result of their failure to comply with accessibility requirements.
There are records of bus bodies being fitted to special Mack Truck chassis built with small four-wheel bogie trucks under the engine and hood, and larger flanged steel drive wheels, as early as 1903. Osgood Bradley Car Company built one of the more popular bodies during the 1920s. Fairbanks-Morse, later a locomotive builder, offered similar conversions fitted to Dodge truck chassis in the mid-1930s, preferring to fit the truck chassis with van bodies and supply a small matching passenger coach trailer. Some railroads built their own bodies on truck or large, powerful luxury passenger car chassis. Most continued the pattern of a small two axle truck in front, and a single drive axle in the rear. One example from the 1930s, built on a White Truck chassis, is preserved at the National Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri.
The use of railbuses in the United States allowed railroads in the 1920s to run frequent and reliable passenger service on branch lines for a fraction of the cost of running steam locomotives, allowing some lines to directly compete with road transportation. The railbuses were well-liked by passengers and able to stop and start more easily than dedicated trains.[19]
After World War II a number of more modern light train concepts appeared. Few were successful, as many railroads cooperated with highway bus services to eliminate passenger trains from their branch lines. Some, like the American Car & Foundry Motorailer, blurred the line between railcar and railbus. Others, such as the Mack FCD, landed firmly in the railbus camp. Ten of the Macks were purchased by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad during 1951–1952. By the time they were delivered, however, a new president was in charge, and he had little interest in serving branch lines. Only one saw regular service. All were sold to other entities such as Sperry Rail Service, or to overseas railroads.
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also generally classed as DMUs. Diesel-powered units may be further classified by their transmission type: diesel–mechanical DMMU, diesel–hydraulic DHMU, or diesel–electric DEMU.
A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit (MU) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train control.
A railcar is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach, with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railway companies, such as the Great Western, termed such vehicles "railmotors".
Pacer was the operational name of the British Rail Classes 140, 141, 142, 143 and 144 diesel multiple unit railbuses built between 1980 and 1987. They were inexpensively developed using a passenger body based on the Leyland National bus on top of a chassis based on the HSFV1 research vehicle. The railbuses were intended as a short-term solution to a shortage of rolling stock, with a lifespan of no more than twenty years. As modernised replacements were lacking, the Pacer fleet remained in service on some lines until 2021, 37 years after their 1984 introduction.
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.
The British Rail Class 104 diesel multiple units were built by Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company from 1957 to 1959.
The Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC), also known as the Budd car or Buddliner, is a self-propelled diesel multiple unit (DMU) railcar. Between 1949 and 1962, 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The cars were primarily adopted for passenger service in rural areas with low traffic density or in short-haul commuter service, and were less expensive to operate in this context than a traditional diesel locomotive-drawn train with coaches. The cars could be used singly or coupled together in train sets and controlled from the cab of the front unit. The RDC was one of the few DMU trains to achieve commercial success in North America. RDC trains were an early example of self-contained diesel multiple unit trains, an arrangement now in common use by railways all over the world.
The British Rail Class 144Pacer is a diesel multiple unit (DMU) passenger train built at Derby between 1986 and 1987. British Rail, seeking to procure improved derivatives of the earlier Class 141, placed an order with the manufacturers British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) and Walter Alexander to construct their own variant, the Class 144. A total of 23 units were constructed. All units have now retired from mainline service, though the majority of the units have been acquired for preservation on heritage railways and in other uses. As of December 2022, 19 out of the 23 units have been purchased following withdrawal for this purpose, of which 14 units are in operational condition.
The British Rail Class 142 Pacer are diesel multiple-unit passenger trains built for British Rail (BR) from 1985 to 1987. They were built with a high level of commonality with the widely used Leyland National bus. They are part of the Pacer family of railbuses. The last set was withdrawn from service in 2020.
The British Rail Class 143 is a diesel multiple-unit railbus, part of the Pacer family of passenger trains introduced between 1985 and 1986.
The British Rail Class 155 is a diesel multiple unit passenger train. These DMUs were built by Leyland Bus at Workington between 1987 and 1988 as part of BR's replacement of its ageing first-generation diesel fleet. 42 units were originally built, of which only 7 remain; the other 35 units were converted to Class 153 railcars.
The NZR RM class Midland railcar was the first successful railcar, and first diesel-powered vehicle, to enter revenue service in New Zealand. Two were built, RM 20 and RM 21, and they ran for five years from 1936 to 1941 before being replaced by larger Vulcan railcars. They operated primarily on the Midland Line and the Greymouth-Hokitika portion of the Ross Branch
The British Rail Class 140 was the prototype of the Pacer diesel multiple unit.
The British RailClass 141 is the first production model of the Pacer diesel multiple unit (DMU) railbus.
A motor coach or motorcar is a self-propelled passenger rail vehicle also capable of hauling a train. With multiple unit train control, one operator can control several "motor coaches", possibly even combined with locomotives, efficiently in the same train, making longer trains possible.
The Uerdingen railbus is the common term for the multiple units which were developed by the German firm of Waggonfabrik Uerdingen for the Deutsche Bundesbahn and private railways after the Second World War. These vehicles were diesel-powered, twin-axle railbuses of light construction. The diesel motors were built into the chassis underneath the vehicle. The VT 95 and VT 98 of the former Deutsche Bundesbahn in particular, are associated with this concept. These vehicles were employed in passenger train duties on branch lines where steam or diesel train operations were less profitable. Including the units built under licence, a total of 1,492 power cars were built from 1950 to 1971; and the total number of units, including trailer and driving cars, was 3,306.
The 'Hanover version' of the Wismar railbus was developed in the early 1930s as a light railbus for economical passenger services on branch lines in Germany.
PT Industri Kereta Api (Persero), abbreviated as INKA, is an Indonesian state-owned rolling stock manufacturer.
Diesel multiple units and railcars are trains, usually with passenger accommodation, that do not require a locomotive. Railcars can be single cars, while in multiple units cars are marshalled together with a driving position either end. As of December 2010, 23 percent of the rail passenger cars used on Network Rail are part of a diesel multiple unit.
ŽS series 812 was a diesel motor railbus operated by Serbian Railways. Originally it was the German Uerdingen railbus produced by Goša FOM for Yugoslav Railways (JŽ).
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