Railbus

A railbus is a very lightweight type passenger rail vehicle (typically non-articulated or rigid frame) that shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, usually having a bus, or modified bus, body and having four wheels on a fixed base, instead of on bogies. These railbuses, a design developed in the 1930s, have evolved into larger dimensions, performance and characteristics similar in appearance to a light railcar, and today the terms railcar and railbus are often used interchangeably.

Railbuses designed for use specifically on little-used railway lines were commonly employed in countries such as Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Today railbuses are being replaced by modern light DMU railcar designs.

British Rail produced a variety of railbuses as a means both of building new rolling stock cheaply, and to provide services on lightly used lines economically.

A variety of railbus known as Pacers, which were constructed in the 1980s, are still in common use today, although they are being gradually replaced.

The Great Northern Railway of Ireland produced railbuses at the Railway Works in Dundalk.

In Germany, the Schienenbus was developed in the 1930s to fulfill the need for an inexpensive rail vehicle built to standard specifications on Germany’s Reichsbahn (the predecessor to DB) to meet the demand for cost-effective services on light railways or Kleinbahnen, and the Wismar railbus were pioneers in those days. These were followed after the Second World War by the eventually ubiquitous Uerdingen railbuses which generally ran in pairs and were a predecessor of the modern diesel multiple units.

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