Steam railcar

A steam railcar is a railcar that does not require a locomotive as it contains its own steam engine. The first steam railcar was an experimental unit designed and built in 1847 by James Samuel and William Bridges Adams in Britain. In 1848 they made the Fairfield steam carriage that they sold to the Bristol & Exeter Railway, who used it for two years on a branch line.

The first steam railcar was designed by James Samuel, the Eastern Counties Railway Locomotive Engineer, built by William Bridges Adams in 1847, and trialled between Shoreditch and Cambridge on 23 October 1847. An experimental unit, 12 feet 6 inches (3.81 m) long with a small vertical boiler and passenger accommodation was a bench seat around a box at the back. The following year Samuel and Adams built the Fairfield steam carriage. This was much larger, 31 feet 6 inches (9.60 m) long, and built with an open third class section and a closed second class section. After trials in 1848, it was sold to the Bristol & Exeter Railway and ran for two years on the Tiverton branch.

In 1883 the Victorian Railways purchased the Rowan steam railmotor. Two similar units were imported from Belgium by the South Australian Railways in 1995.

In 1913, Kerr, Stuart and Company built a boiler, shipped it to Australia and the Victorian Railways assembled the Kerr Stuart steam railmotor.

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