I am grateful to Andy Knott for kindly sending me the photograph below. It is of a Park Royal Railbus on the Hitchin to Bedford service circa 1960. This rare picture has prompted me to include a page on this unusual period of PRV developments.
This
atmospheric photo
was actually taken by Colin Thurstance, brother of Andy's friend the late Eric
Thurstance, who lived near the line and provided the image to Andy. The
line has
since been closed and the area is now occupied by an housing estate.
In 1957 Park Royal were one of five firms given contracts by the British Transport Commission to build railbuses for delivery in '58. Of the twenty-two vehicles ordered PRV were to build five using AEC engines and other products from a host of suppliers. The PRV railbuses were initially used in the Bedford area and in Scotland.
Railbuses were four-wheeled self contained Diesel-engine powered carriages that could seat fifty, or thereabouts, passengers on local services where the use of traditional trains was, at the time, considered uneconomic. Whilst the introduction of railbuses was therefore hailed as a great step forward in rail travel, the "career" of the units was far from illustrious and the mixture of negative passenger attitudes, generally poor performance and poor financial price-performance, ensured their sad decline. Within ten years all twenty-two had been withdrawn.
The PRV units in particular were prone to mechanical failures and poor winter performance so their time-tabled journeys were often replaced by traditional steam trains. None of the PRV units are preserved. The last ended its days as a "Lamp Store" in Scotland but, although there was talk of it being preserved, due to it being contaminated with blue asbestos it had to be destroyed by being disposed of in a landfill site.
Are there any more pictures of these rare vehicles out there? Do you recall them in their heyday? Do you have any anecdotes about them? Please let me know.
The Railcar Association has an extremely detailed and fascinating history of all the UK railbuses and also information on the PRV built Class 103 Railcoaches. The site is well worth visiting.
The Railcar Association - Park Royal Vehicles Railbus
The Railcar Association - Park Royal Vehicles Class 103
Also the Helston Diesel Group (part of the Helston Railway Preservation Society) has some rare preserved Class 103s. The Helston Railway Preservation Society's aim is to restore to running order, and reopen as a heritage railway, as much of the old Helston Branch Line as possible. The websites offer an interesting and valuable insight into the bygone heydays of branch line travel. (Helston is in Cornwall and is the most southerly town on the UK mainland.)