1934 Railton Terraplane, Registration BPL 48 (7943297638)

Railton Straight Eight University saloon 1935

Railton was a marque of British automobiles made by Fairmile Engineering Company in Cobham, Surrey between 1933 and 1940. There was an attempt to revive it by a new company between 1989 and 1994 in

Alcester Alcester () is a market town and civil parish of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England, approximately west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Reddit ...

, Warwickshire.

History

The company was started by

Noel Macklin Sir (Albert) Noel Campbell Macklin (28 October 1886 – 1946) was an innovative British car maker and boat designer. He founded Eric-Campbell in 1919, Silver Hawk in 1920, Invicta in 1925 and Railton in 1933. In 1939 he founded Fairmile Marine ...

who was looking for a new car-making venture after he sold his Invicta company in 1933. The name came from

Reid Railton Reid A. Railton (1895–1977) was a British automotive engineer, and designer of land and water speed record vehicles. Biography Reid Antony Railton was the son of a Manchester stockbroker: Charles Withingon Railton and his wife Charlotte Eliza ...

, the world speed record car designer, but his input was probably small although he did receive a royalty on each car sold.

1933 - Railton Terraplane

The first car was made by fitting a British body made by coachbuilder John Charles Ranalah to a 4010 cc, 100 bhp, 8-cylinder

Hudson Terraplane The Terraplane was a car brand and model built by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, between 1932 and 1938. In its maiden year, the car was branded as the Essex-Terraplane; in 1934 the car became simply the Terraplane. They were ...

chassis. The high-performance car has been described as a pre-war

Shelby Cobra The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a sports car manufactured by British company AC Cars, with a Ford V8 engine. It was produced intermittently in both the United Kingdom and later the United ...

. The car was at first available as a two-door tourer. Being lighter than the original, it had for the time exceptional performance, with a 0–60 mph time of 13 seconds. A saloon-bodied version was soon added to the range, and the cars were priced at £499.

1935 - Railton 8

In 1935 the original Terraplane chassis was replaced by the one from the Hudson Eight, the engine grew to 4168 cc producing 113 bhp. A wider range of bodies from several coachbuilders were available from at least seven different vehicle coachbuilders including; Ranalah, R.E.A.L,

Carbodies The London Taxi Company was a taxi design and manufacturing company based in Coventry, England. It formerly traded as London Taxis International and Carbodies. It operated a coachbuilding business on Holyhead Road, Coventry. After half a c ...

and Coachcraft. Two special lightweight models were made in 1935 and, with a 0–60 time of 8.8 seconds, were claimed to be the fastest production cars in the world. Altogether 1379 of the Railton 8s were made.

1937 - Railton Cobham

A smaller six-cylinder car, the 16.9 was added in 1937 using a 2723 cc Hudson 6-cylinder engine and chassis, but only 81 were made in saloon or drophead coupé form and priced at £399.

1938 - Railton 10

An even smaller Railton, the 10 hp, joined the range in 1938 built on a Standard Flying Nine chassis and with either saloon or drophead coupé bodywork was claimed to be "A famous name in miniature". 51 were made selling at £299. In 1938 ''Motor Sport'' tested a 28.8 h.p. Railton Cobham saloon, FPH 970, offered for sale at £698.

1939 - demise

Noel Macklin turned his attention to powerboats in 1939, and he sold the company to Hudson Motor Car Company of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, who transferred production to their Brentford, London works. However, the outbreak of war in 1939 stopped production. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

a few cars were completed using pre-war parts, and a new model was built and shown at the 1949 London Motor Show. However, at nearly £5000 the car was incredibly expensive, and it never went into production.

1989 - Railton revival

The name was revived by a new company called Railton Motor Company, founded in 1989 in

Wixford Wixford is a hamlet and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District of Warwickshire, England, situated south of Alcester. The population at the 2011 census was 155. The area is largely agricultural with no large employers in the area, most ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

. The idea and design for a new car were by

William Towns William Towns (1936–1993) also known as Bill Towns was a British car designer. Design career Towns began his training as a designer at Rootes in 1954, where he was mainly involved in the styling of seats and door handles. Later he was also i ...

, an automobile designer and engineer, who worked for the Rootes Group, Rover, and Aston Martin. Towns met John Ransom to finance the venture. Two convertible models, the F28 Fairmile and the F29 Claremont were announced in 1989. Both were styled by Towns and were based on

Jaguar XJS The Jaguar XJ-S (later called XJS) is a luxury grand tourer manufactured and marketed by British car manufacturer Jaguar Cars from 1975 to 1996, in coupé, fixed-profile and full convertible bodystyles. There were three distinct iterations, w ...

running gear with new original aluminium bodywork. An objective was to have Jaguar dealerships sell and service the vehicles since the base XJS mechanical and interior were unchanged with only the "aluminium skin tacked on the top" of the cars. By 1991, two cars were built "from scratch". The F28 Fairmile was painted burgundy and featured exposed oversized rear wheels and the F29 Claremont was done in blue with full rear

fender skirts Fender skirts, known in Australia and the United Kingdom as spats, are pieces of bodywork on the fender that cover the upper portions of the tires of an automobile. They are usually used on rear wheels only, but some models have them on all ...

. In 1994 the rights and tooling were purchased by an entrepreneur, Graham Pierce, but the firm was officially reported as a dormant the following year and fully dissolved on 4 July 2000. British motoring journalist

Paul Walton Paul Walton is a British motoring journalist and photographer. He started his career in 1999, working for ''Classic Cars'' magazine before moving to BBC Top Gear'' magazine in 2002. Highlights during his time at the two magazines included a twin ...

has written about the Railton F28 Fairmile.

References

External links

{{commons category, Railton vehicles
The revived RailtonThe Railton owners clubJaguar based Railtons
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Vehicles designed by Reid Railton Hudson Motor Car Company Defunct companies based in Surrey