Vehicle 79977
AC Cars Railbus
Builder: AC Cars
Layout: Railbus
Length: 36ft
Coupling Code: None
Coupling Type: None
Gangway Type: None
Lot Number: 30479
Diagram: 614
Allocations
| w/e 04/10/58 | New to | 82C (Swindon) | |
| Mar-64 | Stored | - Noted still running on the Cirencester / Kemble branches until the last day on 5 April 1964. | |
| circa Apr-64 | Reinstated | 84B (St Blazey) | |
| Apr-66 | Transferred to | 84A (Laira) | |
| 29/01/67 | Transferred to | 66A (Polmadie) | |
| 5w/e 04/02/67 | Transferred to | 67C (Ayr) | |
| 05/02/67 | Transferred to | 65F (Grangemouth) | |
| 03/02/68 | Withdrawn from | 65F (Grangemouth) |
Disposal
Scrapped by RB Hepburn, on location at Millerhill
Some sample formations the vehicle has been noted in:
Images:
5th August 1963
W79977 seen just east of Tetbury with the 12.20pm Tetbury - Kemble service on August 5, 1963, a Bank Holiday Monday. Michael Mensing.
5th August 1963
W79977 is working the 3.14pm Tetbury-Kemble when seen just after passing Trouble House Halt on the 1963 August Bank Holiday Monday, 5/8/63 Michael Mensing.
4th April 1964
W79977 in loop at Kemble having arrived from Swindon to replace W79976 on the Cirencester branch for the afternoon of 4th April 1964 the last day of service. Robert Thomas.
Unknown date
No details with this image, but this vehicle is in platform 1 of Stirling station, and the W prefix with yellow panel means it's probably 79977. Stuart Mackay Collection.
30th December 1967
Falkirk Grahamston on 30/12/1967 with AC Railbus W79977 awaiting departure for Grangemouth. John Clark.
20th January 1968
AC Cars railbus W79977 at Larbert on 20 January 1968. It would be withdrawn two weeks later, just after the passenger services to Grangemouth ended. It was one of only two of the five vehicles to have a yellow panel on the cab fronts, slightly narrower than the one 79979. It was also easy to tell them apart as this one had a white roof dome. Stuart Mackay Collection.
27th January 1968
W79977 seen at Throsk on the 27th January 1968. WS Sellar.
27th January 1968
W79977 between Alloa Jct and Airth on 27/1/68. WS Sellar.
April 1969
Photographed in April 1969 W79977 lies at the south end of Millerhill Yard. It was withdrawn from service at the end of January 1968 when passenger services ended between Alloa and Falkirk / Grangemouth and was cut up on site by R B Hepburn in April 1969. John Clark.
The vehicle is mentioned in the following images:
Date: 20th January 1968
An unknown AC Cars vehicle (probably W79977) crosses the "other" Forth Bridge on 20th January 1968, only a few days before withdrawal. WS Sellar.
Date: 10th August 1969
W79976 was built by AC Cars in 1958 and delivered to the Western Region for staff training in August of that year. Alongside classmates W79975, W79977 and W79978, it was put to work on the Kemble-Cirencester Town and Kemble-Tetbury branch lines from February 1959 until closure in April 1964. W79976 and W79975 were used on services between Yeovil Town and Yeovil Junction starting from December 1964. When Yeovil Town closed in October 1966 the services continued through to Yeovil Pen Mill but the railbuses soon found themselves displaced by larger DMUs. As with the other AC Cars railbuses, W79976 was transferred to Scotland in January 1967 and operated around Ayr, chiefly on the branch line to Kilmarnock. However it did not last long in service and in January 1968 it was officially withdrawn. This Agfachrome transparency I took at Ayr TMD on 10th August 1969. Following withdrawal from BR and storage at Ayr TMD it entered preservation. Gordon Edgar.