Bristol / Eastern Coach Works Railbus

These two vehicles were built jointly between the Bristol Commercial Vehicles Ltd and Eastern Coach Works Limited. These two undertakings were owned by the British Transport Commission, which acquired them with the Tilling Group at Nationalisation.

The two chassis were built at the Brislington Works of Bristol Commercial Vehicles, then taken by road the short distance to Brislington station, on the North Somerset branch. There the assembly of the chassis were completed. Temporary cabs were fitted at each end, with a gang-plank and handrail adjoining them. One of them was tested on Sunday 13th April ('58) and the other each night of the following week, from 22:30 to 02:00, after the last train on the branch had cleared, and again on Sunday 20th. The testing was carried out between Brislington and Marsh Jct., and Brislington and Pensford, requiring Pensford signal box to be kept open for tablet purposes. Although a BR driver and inspector rode on them they were driven by BCV employees.

A chassis on test. They were nicknamed "Prairie Schooner". Picture from a contemporary Bristol Commercial Vehicles “Bristol Gazette” magazine.

The chassis were then conveyed by road to Lowestoft by BRS (Pickfords) Ltd. The chassis were off-loaded by mobile crane in the Eastern Coach Works yard where the pre-assembled bodies were lowered by jacks on to the chassis and secured. The completed railbuses were then moved out over a temporary rail link laid into the Eastern Coach Works from the adjacent Great Eastern Line.

Each car had seating for 56 passengers, arranged with a central entrance forming two saloons and luggage space. The design & construction was based on principles used in the manufacture of Bristol-Eastern Coach Works passenger road vehicles and both the upholstery and decoration of the saloon conformed generally to Eastern Coach Works standard bus practice.

The floor was lower than other railbuses, being only about seven inches above the platform when the vehicle was laden. This dispensed with the need for a step, making loading and unloading easier. The wheels were unique to this country, being a resilient type made by Svenska Aktibolaget Bromsregulator of Sweden, and the braking system, also unique to Britain, successfully obviated the tendency for wheel locking on wet or dry rail while maintaining the optimum braking. Developed by the Dunlop Company, it was known as the Dunlop Monitor Brake System. The braking effort was achieved by a monitor brake shoe which initiated and controlled the main braking effort through disc-type brakes.

The vehicles worked on the ScR and were thought of as the worst of the five types. They were withdrawn in '66.