Railton was a marque of British automobiles made by Fairmile Engineering Company in Cobham, Surrey between 1933 and 1940. There was an attempt to revive it by a new company between 1989 and 1994 in Alcester, Warwickshire.
Railton was a marque of British automobiles made by Fairmile Engineering Company in Cobham, Surrey between 1933 and 1940. There was an attempt to revive it by a new company between 1989 and 1994 in Alcester, Warwickshire.
The company was started by Noel Macklin who was looking for a new car-making venture after he sold his Invicta company in 1933. The name came from Reid Railton, the world speed record car designer, but his input was probably small although he did receive a royalty on each car sold.
The first car was made by fitting a British body made by coachbuilder John Charles Ranalah to a 4010 cc, 100 bhp, 8-cylinder Hudson Terraplane chassis. The high-performance car has been described as a pre-war Shelby Cobra. [1] The car was at first available as a two-door tourer. Being lighter than the original, it had for the time exceptional performance, with a 0–60 mph time of 13 seconds. [2] A saloon-bodied version was soon added to the range, and the cars were priced at £499.
In 1935 the original Terraplane chassis was replaced by the one from the Hudson Eight, the engine grew to 4168 cc producing 113 bhp. [3] A wider range of bodies from several coachbuilders were available from at least seven different vehicle coachbuilders including; Ranalah, R.E.A.L, Carbodies and Coachcraft. Two special lightweight models were made in 1935 and, with a 0–60 time of 8.8 seconds, were claimed to be the fastest production cars in the world. Altogether 1379 of the Railton 8s were made. [2]
A smaller six-cylinder car, the 16.9 was added in 1937 using a 2723 cc Hudson 6-cylinder engine and chassis, but only 81 [2] were made in saloon or drophead coupé form and priced at £399.
An even smaller Railton, the 10 hp, joined the range in 1938 built on a Standard Flying Nine chassis and with either saloon or drophead coupé bodywork was claimed to be "A famous name in miniature". 51 were made selling at £299. [2] In 1938 Motor Sport tested a 28.8 h.p. Railton Cobham saloon, FPH 970, offered for sale at £698. [4]
Noel Macklin turned his attention to powerboats in 1939, and he sold the company to Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, who transferred production to their Brentford, London works. However, the outbreak of war in 1939 stopped production.
After World War II a few cars were completed using pre-war parts, and a new model was built and shown at the 1949 London Motor Show. However, at nearly £5000 the car was incredibly expensive, and it never went into production.
The name was revived by a new company called Railton Motor Company, founded in 1989 in Wixford, Warwickshire. The idea and design for a new car were by William Towns, an automobile designer and engineer, who worked for the Rootes Group, Rover, and Aston Martin. [5] Towns met John Ransom to finance the venture. [5]
Two convertible models, the F28 Fairmile and the F29 Claremont were announced in 1989. Both were styled by Towns and were based on Jaguar XJS running gear with new original aluminium bodywork. An objective was to have Jaguar dealerships sell and service the vehicles since the base XJS mechanical and interior were unchanged with only the "aluminium skin tacked on the top" of the cars. [6]
By 1991, two cars were built "from scratch". [6] The F28 Fairmile was painted burgundy and featured exposed oversized rear wheels and the F29 Claremont was done in blue with full rear fender skirts. [5] In 1994 the rights and tooling were purchased by an entrepreneur, Graham Pierce, but the firm was officially reported as a dormant the following year and fully dissolved on 4 July 2000. [7]
British motoring journalist Paul Walton has written about the Railton F28 Fairmile. [8] [9]
The Terraplane was a car brand and model built by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, between 1932 and 1938. In its maiden year, the car was branded as the Essex-Terraplane; in 1934 the car became simply the Terraplane. They were inexpensive, yet powerful vehicles that were used in both town and country. The Terraplane name was used for both cars and trucks.
Lance Noel Macklin was a British racing driver from England. He participated in 15 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 18 May 1952. He was infamously involved in the 1955 Le Mans disaster, starting the initial chain reaction.
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Invicta is a British automobile manufacturer. The brand has been available intermittently through successive decades. Initially, the manufacturer was based in Cobham, Surrey, England, from 1925 to 1933, then in Chelsea, London, England, from 1933 to 1938 and finally in Virginia Water, Surrey, England, from 1946 to 1950. More recently, the name was revived for the Invicta S1 sports car produced between 2004 and 2012.
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The London Taxi Company was a taxi design and manufacturing company based in Coventry, England. It formerly traded as London Taxis International and Carbodies.
SS Cars was a British manufacturer of sports saloon cars from 1934 until wartime 1940, and from March 1935 of a limited number of open 2-seater sports cars. From September 1935, their new models displayed a new name: SS Jaguar. By then, its business, which was founded in 1922, was run by and largely owned by William Lyons. Lyons had been partner with 1922 co-founder William Walmsley until Walmsley sold his shareholding in January 1935.
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The Grose was an English automobile built between 1898 and 1901, Grose also built bodies for cars, buses, ambulances and commercial vehicles until the late 1950s.
The MG SA or MG 2-litre is a sporting saloon that was produced by MG from 1936 to 1939. Launched as the 2-litre, it only later became known as the SA, the car had been originally planned as an advanced performance saloon to rival the likes of SS Cars and even Bentley with all independent suspension and was given the factory code of EX150 and designated the S-type. A prototype was made but with the amalgamation of MG with Morris Motors in 1935, development stopped. The Cowley drawing office picked up the project again but a much more conservative car appeared with conventional live rear and beam front axles.
The MG WA is a sporting saloon that was produced by MG between 1938 and 1939 and was at the time the largest and heaviest car the company had built. Although similar to the SA the car had a wider track at the rear allowing a larger body to be fitted.
Sir (Albert) Noel Campbell Macklin was an innovative British car maker and boat designer. He founded Eric-Campbell in 1919, Silver Hawk in 1920, Invicta in 1925 and Railton in 1933. In 1939 he founded Fairmile Marine and supplied boats to the Royal Navy throughout World War II, for which effort he was honoured with a knighthood.
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The Eric-Campbell was a British car made from 1919 to 1924 by Eric-Campbell & Co Limited of Cricklewood, London. The company was formed by H Eric Orr-Ewing and Noel Campbell Macklin.
Silver Hawk Motors of Cobham, Surrey, England, was a motor manufacturer from 1920 until 1921. It was founded by Sir (Albert) Noel Campbell Macklin after he parted company with his Eric-Campbell project, and before he founded both the Invicta and Railton car marques. The cars were built in a garage at Macklin's private home.
The Lagonda V12 is a large car produced by the British Lagonda company from 1938 until 1940. It was first shown at the 1936 London Motor Show but production did not commence until 1938.
John Charles & Co was a British coachbuilding company founded in 1932 and based initially near Kew Gardens, London.
