Talk:British Rail railbuses

Someone has put a reference to the Diesel Multiple Unit in the article. I think this is misleading as the early railcars (AC, Park Royal, W&M) were not as I understand it capable of multiple unit operation (i.e. coupled together as a train and driven from the front cab). Although the later Pacer units have this function I think this distinction should be made. Britmax 09:33, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Historic Routes

As far as I know the 79960-64 were used on the Audley End to Bartlow Branchline (or at least some of them were) until its closure. Is this sort of information useful enoguh to include? to check - http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/b/bartlow/index.shtml

15:33, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Crew

How many crew were on a railbus and how did this compare to the steam hauled trains which they replaced ( driver, fireman and guard)? Tabletop (talk) 03:56, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Hauled railbus?

I removed this sentence; "However, no further hauled railbus vehicles were produced as locomotive haulage was falling out of fashion" from the article as it makes no sense. A railbus is by definition self powered. The name of a hauled railbus, ie not one self powered, is a "carriage". The reason no more railbuses were built is that the tiny lines that used them were nearly all gone and the higher expectations of sector management led to all build after the Pacer/Skipper family being to main line standard (ie the Class 150 Sprinter).

LEV1, two vehicles or one ?

Most sources seem to say that LEV1 started off as an unpowered test vehicle (built late 1977 to early 1978) and then had an engine and transmission added in 1979, i.e. it was the same vehicle.

However Colin Marsden`s book (Second Generation DMUs) say`s :

Initially an unpowered short underframe four wheeled trailer......... was put together and first seen by the public and railway press in June 1977.

In 1979 an actual demonstration vehicle was assembled at the EDU (Engineering Development Unit - Derby), this had a slightly different body style, was a bit longer and only had one pair of folding passenger doors on each side. (as opposed to two pairs on the same side, which the initial "trailer" test vehicle had, the photographs also show this, though it would be possible to add this modification to the original unit).

This implies that it wasn`t the same unit.

What is the truth of the matter ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by JustinSmith (talk • contribs) 19:28, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

A paper by Alistair Gilchrist (Head of Mechanical Engineering Research for BR, second in command to the Director of Research) "A history of engineering research on British Railways" Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History quoted on p54 :

"LEV was first tested in 1978 in unpowered and unbraked form..........the vehicle was rebuilt with power equipment and brakes and re-emerged in self-propelled form in 1979"

http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/irs/irshome/academic/leaflet_transport_hist_files/IRS%20WP10%20Engineering%20Research.pdf

That proves that the unpowered and powered LEVs were the same vehicle.--JustinSmith (talk) 22:12, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

First and Second generation

This article is missing the first generation British Rail railbus (the ACV - AEC/British Leyland) units. As a result it has a "first" and "second" generation that are in fact "second" and "third".

See http://www.brindale.co.uk/ach/prv_site/site_index/prv_site_frames.htm?http://www.brindale.co.uk/ach/prv_site/prv_rail_buses_images.htm and also "A Pictorial Record of British Railways Diesel Multiple Units"

81.2.110.250 (talk) 10:58, 18 March 2013 (UTC)