Railmotor is a term which was used by several British railway companies for a steam railcar.
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Overview
William Bridges Adams started building railmotors as early as 1848, but only in small numbers. One example was the Bristol and Exeter Railway Fairfield steam carriage.
Around 1900, because of competition from road vehicles and electric trams, there was renewed interest in railmotors and several railway companies, including the London and North Western Railway, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and Great Western Railway began to introduce them.
Designs
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There were two basic designs:
- A small 0-4-0 steam locomotive with one end of a coach hung on it like a semi-trailer.
- A coach with a steam engine built into one end of it. This type would sometimes have a vertical boiler.
These machines were not a great success because they lacked flexibility. Most could haul a single trailer, but no more. This meant they were unable to cope with greater than expected passenger demands – a classic example being busy market days on an otherwise lightly-used rural branch line. They were also unable to haul goods wagons, requiring a conventional locomotive to be stationed on the same line in any case for these duties. For this reason, they were largely superseded by push-pull trains and the GWR converted some of their railmotors into autocoaches for this purpose. The South Eastern & Chatham Railway built its P Class of small, light tank locomotives specifically to replace railmotors in the 1900s.
In the late 1920s there was another revival of railmotors with the introduction of new designs from Clayton and Sentinel with high-speed engines. The London and North Eastern Railway bought over 80 of them but, again, they were short-lived. Some lasted no more than 10 years and all had been withdrawn by 1947.
In the 1950s the diesel railcar made great progress and the railmotor was consigned to history. The diesel's ability to use multiple unit control was a huge advantage.
Fleets
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References
- ^ The Combined Engines and Cars of South Australia Eardley, Gifford Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, April, 1978 pp79-82
- Dempsey, G Drysdale (1857). "Extracts from a Rudimentary Treatise on the Locomotive Engine". Broadsheet (reprinted from book) (Broad Gauge Society) (55): 24–26.
- Kichenside, G.M. (1964). Railway Carriages, 1839-1939. London: Ian Allan.
- Parkhouse, Niel; Pope, Ian. "The Rise and Fall of the Steam Rail Motor". Archive (Lightmoor Press) (3): 39–46. ISSN 1352-7991.
- Mountford, Eric R (1987). The Barry Railway, Diagrams and photographs of Locomotives, Coaches and Wagons. Oxford: Oakwood Press.
See also
- Kerr Stuart steam railmotor (Australian)
- Victorian Railways railmotors (Australian)
External links
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