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British Rail Railbuses
British Rail produced a variety of railbuses, both as a means of acquiring new rolling stock cheaply, and to provide economical services on lightly used lines. Terminology Railbuses are a very lightweight type of railcar designed specifically for passenger transport on little-used railway lines. As the name suggests, they share many aspects of their construction with a bus, usually having a bus body, or a modified bus body, and having four wheels on a Wheelbase#Rail, fixed wheelbase, rather than bogies. Some units were equipped for operation as diesel multiple units. First generation In the late 1950s, British Rail tested a series of small railbuses, produced by a variety of manufacturers, for about £12,500 each (£261,000 at 2014 prices). These proved to be very economical (on test the Wickham bus was about ), but were somewhat unreliable. Most of the lines they worked on were closed following the Beeching Axe, Beeching Cuts and, being non-standard, they were all withdraw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a York Minster, minster, York Castle, castle and York city walls, city walls, all of which are Listed building, Grade I listed. It is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of the wider City of York district. It is located north-east of Leeds, south of Newcastle upon Tyne and north of London. York's built-up area had a recorded population of 141,685 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. The city was founded under the name of Eboracum in AD 71. It then became the capital of Britannia Inferior, a province of the Roman Empire, and was later the capital of the kingdoms of Deira, Northumbria and Jórvík, Scandinavian York. In the England in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages it became the Province of York, northern England ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Park Royal Vehicles
Park Royal Vehicles was one of Britain's leading coachbuilders and Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturers, based at Park Royal, Abbey Road, in west London. With origins dating back to 1889, the company also had a Leeds-based subsidiary, Charles H. Roe. Labour problems and slowness of production led to its closure in 1980.Ron Phillips. ''A History of the Leyland Bus'', Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2015. History Park Royal Coach Works Limited was registered as a private company on 12 April 1930 for the purposes of building and dealing in carriages, vehicles and conveyances of all kinds. It was a leading manufacturer of single and double-deck bus, omnibuses and trolley buses. During World War II, Park Royal produced large quantities of vehicle bodies for the Ministry of Supply, the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Aircraft Production. It also was involved in aircraft construction. After the war, it returned to producing composite and metal frame public service bodies for customers such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacer (British Rail)
Pacer was the operational name of the British Rail Classes , , , and diesel multiple unit railbuses built between 1980 and 1987. They were inexpensively developed using a passenger body based on the Leyland National bus on top of a chassis based on the High Speed Freight Vehicle, HSFV1 research vehicle. The railbuses were intended as a short-term solution to a shortage of rolling stock, with a lifespan of no more than twenty years. As modernised replacements were lacking, the Pacer fleet remained in service on some lines until 2021, 37 years after their 1984 introduction. All Pacer trains were scheduled to be retired by the end of 2019, as the PRM-TSI requires that all public passenger trains must be accessible to disabled people by 2020; however, the Pacer units were given dispensation until the end of 2020. Only one Pacer (the modernised 144e) met this requirement, and the remainder were, therefore, planned to be withdrawn by that date. Furthermore, a decision in 2015 by the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Speed Freight Vehicle
The High Speed Freight Vehicle was a generic term for a number of prototype four-wheeled rail vehicles which were fitted with various experimental suspensions developed by the British Rail Research Division in the late 1960s. The development was part of the investigation into the riding of vehicles and the interaction between wheel and rail. HSFV1 was intended for fundamental empirical research into wheel-rail interaction and suspension dynamics to be better understood, following from work on wheel tread profiles. It was regularly run at speeds of up to on the Vehicles Laboratory's roller rig. It also performed at whilst under test on the main line. Its suspension had two vertical coil springs and two vertical and one lateral hydraulic damper at each corner of the vehicle. This was at a time when few freight trains travelled at more than and most passenger trains averaged about . It supported theories of vehicle design which led to most later designs of train. A similar con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leyland National
The Leyland National is an integrally constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Company and British Leyland. Buses were constructed at a specially built factory at the Lillyhall Industrial Estate, Workington. Styling was carried out by the Italian vehicle stylist Giovanni Michelotti, previously commissioned by both Triumph (Herald, TR4, GT6, 2000/2500, 1300, Dolomite and Stag) and Scammell lorries (Routeman GRP cab). It was intended to replace all the rear-engined single-decker buses offered by British Leyland, including the AEC Swift, Bristol RE, single-deck Daimler Fleetline, Daimler Roadliner and Leyland Panther. Design The Leyland National was built with integral, modular construction and a rear engine. All components were designed for ease of construction and replacement. Until 1978, it was always ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Rail Research Division
The British Rail Research Division was a division of the state-owned railway company British Rail (BR). It was charged with conducting research into improving various aspects of Britain's railways, particularly in the areas of reliability and efficiency, including achieving cost reductions and increasing service levels. Its creation was endorsed by the newly created British Rail Board (BRB) in 1963 and incorporated personnel and existing resources from all over the country, including the LMS Scientific Research Laboratory. It was primarily based at the purpose-built Railway Technical Centre in Derby. In addition to its domestic activities, the Research Division would provide technology and personnel to other countries for varying purposes and periods under the trade name "Transmark". It became recognised as a centre of excellence in its field; the theoretical rigour of its approach to railway engineering superseded the ad hoc methods that had prevailed previously. Its research ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Leyland
British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the British government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had a 40% share of the UK car market, with its history going back to 1895. Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar Cars, Jaguar, Rover (marque), Rover, and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, BLMC had a troubled history, leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent part-nationalisation. After much restructuring and divestment of subsidiary companies, BL was renamed the Rover Group in 1986, becoming a subsidiary of British Aerospace from 1988 to 1994, then was subsequently bought by BMW. The fina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Meadows
Henry Meadows, usually known simply as Meadows, of Wolverhampton, England, were major suppliers of Internal combustion engine, engines and transmission (mechanics), transmissions to the smaller companies in the British motor industry. Founded in 1920 in Park Lane, Wolverhampton, as a car gearbox maker, they expanded into petrol engines in 1922 and in the 1930s built a large factory in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton. Products Petrol engines Early production was connected with the move from W.H. Dorman & Co of the Dorman works manager (W.H. Dorman's son, John E. Dorman) in August 1921, and a design engineer Mr R.S. Crump. Dorman had been producing engines from 1903. The early Meadows engines and gearboxes were produced with Meadows-Dorman on the castings. This resulted in a court case between Dorman and Meadows, claiming that this was a misuse of the Dorman name and reputation. Dorman won the case One of the most popular petrol engines was the 1½-litre four-cylinder Type 4ED eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Associated Equipment Company
Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was a British vehicle manufacturer that built buses, motorcoaches and trucks from 1912 until 1979. The name Associated Equipment Company was hardly ever used; instead, it traded under the AEC and ACLO brands. During World War One, AEC was the most prolific British lorry manufacturer, after building London's buses before the war. History Inception The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) was founded in 1855 to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn Coach (carriage), omnibus services then operating in London. The company began producing motor omnibuses for its own use in 1909 with the LGOC X-type, X-type designed by its chief motor engineer, Frank Searle (businessman), Frank Searle, at works in Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow. The X-type was followed by Searle's LGOC B-type, B-type design, considered to be one of the first mass-produced commercial vehicles. In 1912, LGOC was taken over by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, Unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Büssing
Büssing AG was a German bus and truck manufacturer, established in 1903 by Heinrich Büssing (1843–1929) in Braunschweig. It quickly evolved to one of the largest European producers, whose utility vehicles with the Brunswick Lion emblem were widely distributed, especially from the 1930s onwards. The company was taken over by MAN SE, MAN AG in 1971. Heinrich Büssing Heinrich Büssing successfully founded several companies and held approximately 250 patents. One example is an introductory patent by engineer C. Windhausen and Heinrich Büssing from Braunschweig, which relates to the manufacture of new chimney caps. At the age of 60, the Invention, inventor and businessman Heinrich Büssing together with his two sons founded the ''Heinrich-Büssing-Spezialfabrik für Motorwagen und Motoromnibusse''. Büssing, the son of a blacksmith dynasty at Nordsteimke (in present-day Wolfsburg), had studied engineering at the Braunschweig University of Technology, Collegium Carolinum in Braun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revolutions Per Minute
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a physical quantity called ''rotation'' (or ''number of revolutions''), dimensionless, whose instantaneous rate of change is called ''rotational frequency'' (or ''rate of rotation''), with units of reciprocal seconds (s−1). A related but distinct quantity for describing rotation is ''angular frequency'' (or ''angular speed'', the magnitude of angular velocity), for which the SI unit is the radian per second (rad/s). Although they have the same dimensions (reciprocal time) and base unit (s−1), the hertz (Hz) and radians per second (rad/s) are special names used to express two different but proportional ISQ quantities: frequency and angular frequency, respectively. The conversions between a frequency and an angular frequency ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Allan Publishing
Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. It was founded by Ian Allan. In 1942, Ian Allan, then working in the public relations department for the Southern Railway at Waterloo station, decided he could deal with many of the requests he received about rolling stock by collecting the information into a book. The result was his first book, ''ABC of Southern Locomotives''. This proved to be a success, contributing to the emergence of trainspotting as a popular hobby in the UK, and leading to the formation of the company.Ian Allan…the man who launched a million locospotters '' The Railway Magazine'' issue 1174 February 1999 pages 20-27 The company grew from a small producer of books for train enthusiasts and spotters to a large transport publisher. Each year it published books covering subjects such as military and civil aviation, naval and maritime topics, buses, trams, trolleybuses and steam railways, includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
