Railcar Renaissance

Even before the Second World War, many branch lines around Britain were failing to cover their costs. For rural districts where passenger traffic was sparse, railway companies developed many different solutions to reduce operating costs; from steam railmotors and push-pull trains to railcars powered by internal combustion engines – at the time a relatively new form of traction for railways.

Necessity, as always, proved to be the mother of invention and some of the poorest railway companies – most notably those running narrow gauge lines in north-west Ireland – devised cheap, efficient diesel railbuses that eventually inspired the British railcar revolution (see page 52). But, as car ownership increased and passenger numbers continued to dwindle, more radical solutions were needed if lines were to stay open.

Under similar circumstances, simple, lightweight railbuses were developed for rural light railways in Germany from the 1920s onwards, for both standard and narrow gauge use. In the early-1950s West German state railway