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Arailcar (not to be confused with the generic termrailroad car or railway car) is a self-propelledrailway vehicle designed totransport passengers.[1][2] The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to atrain consisting of a singlecoach (or carriage, car, unit), with a driver's cab at one or both ends. In its simplest form, a "railcar" may also be little more than a motorizedrailway handcar,draisine orrailbus.
Some railway companies, such as theGreat Western, termed such vehicles "railmotors" (or "rail motors"). Self-powered railcars were once common in North America; and termedDoodlebugs.
Self-propelled passenger vehicles also capable of hauling a train are, in technical rail usage, more usually called "rail motor coaches" or "motor cars" (not to be confused with the motor cars, otherwise known as automobiles, that operate on roads).[3]
In Australia, the term is sometimes also used as an alternative name for the small types ofmultiple unit which consist of more than one coach.[4] This can be the case inIreland when referring to anydiesel multiple unit (DMU), or in some caseselectric multiple unit (EMU).[citation needed]
In North America the term "railcar" has a much broader sense and can be used (as an abbreviated form of "railroad car") to refer to any item of hauled rolling-stock, whetherpassenger coaches orgoods wagons (freight cars).[5][6][7]
Railcars are economic to run for light passenger loads because of their small size, and in many countries are often used to run passenger services on minor railway lines, such as rural railway lines where passenger traffic is sparse, and where the use of a longer train would not becost effective. A famous example of this in the United States was theGalloping Goose railcars of theRio Grande Southern Railroad, whose introduction allowed the discontinuance of steam passenger service on the line and prolonged its life considerably.
Railcars have also been employed on premier services. InNew Zealand, although railcars were primarily used on regional services, theBlue Streak andSilver Fern railcars were used on theNorth Island Main Trunk betweenWellington andAuckland and offered a higher standard of service than previous carriage trains.
InAustralia, theSavannahlander operates a tourist service from the coastal town ofCairns toForsayth, andTraveltrain operates theGulflander betweenNormanton andCroydon in theGulf Country of northernQueensland.
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William Bridges Adams built steam railcars atBow, London in the 1840s. ManyBritish railway companies tried steamrail motors but they were not very successful and were often replaced bypush-pull trains.Sentinel Waggon Works was one British builder of steam railcars.
InBelgium, M. A. Cabany ofMechelen designed steam railcars. His first was built in 1877 and exhibited at a Paris exhibition. This may have been theExposition Universelle (1878). The steam boiler was supplied by theBoussu Works and there was accommodation for First, Second and Third-class passengers and their luggage. There was also a locker for dogs underneath. Fifteen were built and they worked mainly in theHainaut andAntwerp districts.
The Austro-HungarianGanz Works built steam trams prior to the First World War. TheSanta Fe Railway built a steam poweredrail car using a body byAmerican Car and Foundry, a Jacobs-Schupert boiler and a Ganz power truck in 1911. Numbered M-104, the experiment was a failure, and was not repeated.[8]
In 1904 the Automotor Journal reported that one railway after another had been realising that motor coaches could be used to handle light traffic on their less important lines.[9] The North-Eastern railways had been experimenting “for some time” in this direction, andWolseley provided them with a flat-four engine capable of up to 100 bhp (75 kW) for this purpose. The engine drove a main dynamo to power two electric drive motors, and a smaller dynamo to charge accumulators to power the interior lighting and allow electric starting of the engine. The controls for the dynamo allowed the coach to be driven from either end. For further details see1903 Petrol Electric Autocar.
Another early railcar in the UK was designed byJames Sidney Drewry and made by theDrewry Car Co. in 1906. In 1908 the manufacture was contracted out to theBirmingham Small Arms Company.
By the 1930s, railcars were often adapted from truck or automobiles; examples of this include theBuick- andPierce-Arrow-basedGalloping Geese of theRio Grande Southern Railroad, and theMack Truck-based "Super Skunk" of theCalifornia Western Railroad.
While early railcars were propelled bysteam andpetrol engines, modern railcars are usually propelled by adiesel engine mounted underneath the floor of the coach. Diesel railcars may have mechanical (fluid coupling andgearbox), hydraulic (torque converter) orelectric (generator andtraction motors) transmission.
Electric railcars and mainline electric systems are rare, since electrification normally implies heavy usage where single cars or short trains would not be economic. Exceptions to this rule are or were found for example inSweden orSwitzerland. Some vehicles ontram andinterurban systems, like theRed Car of thePacific Electric Railway, can also be seen as railcars.
Experiments with battery-electric railcars were conducted from around 1890 in Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. In the US, railcars of theEdison-Beach type, withnickel-iron batteries were used from 1911. In New Zealand, abattery-electric Edison railcar operated from 1926 to 1934. In Ireland, theDrumm Battery Train usednickel-zinc batteries on four 2-car sets between 1932 and 1946 on the coastal andHarcourt Street railway lines.British Railways usedlead–acid batteries in arailcar in 1958. Between 1955 and 1995DB railways successfully operated 232DB Class ETA 150 railcars utilisinglead–acid batteries.
As with any otherbattery electric vehicle, the drawback is the limited range (this can be solved usingoverhead wires to recharge for use in places where there are not wires), weight, and/or expense of the battery.
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A new breed of modern lightweight aerodynamically designed diesel or electric regional railcars that can operate as single vehicles or in trains (or, in “multiple units”) are becoming very popular in Europe and Japan, replacing the first-generationrailbuses and second-generation DMU railcars, usually running on lesser-used main-line railways and in some cases in exclusive lanes in urban areas. Like many high-end DMUs, these vehicles are made of two or three connected units that are semi-permanently coupled as “married pairs or triplets” and operate as a single unit. Passengers may walk between the married pair units without having to open or pass through doors. Unit capacities range from 70 to over 300 seated passengers. The equipment is highly customisable with a wide variety of engine, transmission, coupler systems, and car lengths.
Contrary to other parts of the world, in the United States these vehicles generally do not comply withFederal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations[citation needed] and, therefore, can only operate on dedicated rights-of-way with complete separation from other railroad activities. This restriction makes it virtually impossible to operate them on existing rail corridors with conventional passenger rail service. Nevertheless, such vehicles may soon operate in the United States as manufacturers such asSiemens,Alstom andADtranz affirm they may be able to produce FRA-compliant versions of their European equipment.[citation needed]
Light regional railcars are used by a number of railroads in Germany, and also in theNetherlands,Denmark,Italy,United States andSpain.
Models of new-generation multiple-unit and articulated railcars include:
When there are enough passengers to justify it, single-unit powered railcars can be joined in amultiple-unit form, with one driver controlling all engines. However, it has previously been the practice for a railcar to tow a carriage or second, unpowered railcar. It is possible for several railcars to run together, each with its own driver (as practised on the formerCounty Donegal Railway). The reason for this was to keep costs down, since small railcars were not always fitted with multiple-unit control.
There are alsoarticulated railcars, in which the ends of two adjacent coupled carriages are carried on a single joint bogie (seeJacobs bogie).
A variation of the railcar is therailbus: a very lightweight type of vehicle designed for use specifically on lightly-used railway lines and, as the name suggests, sharing many aspects of their construction with those of a roadbus. They usually have a bus, or modified bus, body and four wheels on a fixed base, instead of running on bogies. Railbuses have been commonly used in such countries as theCzech Republic,France,Germany,Italy,Sweden, and theUnited Kingdom.
A type of railbus known as aPacer based on theLeyland National bus was still widely used in the United Kingdom until withdrawal in 2021. New Zealand railcars that more closely resembled railbuses were theLeyland diesel railcars and theWairarapa railcars that were specially designed to operate over theRimutaka Incline between Wellington and theWairarapa region. InAustralia, where they were often called Rail Motors, railcars were often used for passenger services on lightly-used lines. In France they are known asautorails. Once very common, their use died out as local lines were closed. However, a new model has been introduced for lesser-used lines.
InCanada, after the cessation oftheir mainline passenger service,BC Rail started operating a pair of railbuses to some settlements not easily accessible otherwise.
InRussia, theMytishchi-basedMetrowagonmash firm manufactures the RA-1 railbus, equipped with aMercedes engine. As of summer 2006, theGorky Railway planned to start using them on its commuter line betweenNizhny Novgorod andBor.[10]
The termrailbus also refers to a dual-modebus that can run on streets with rubber tires and on tracks withretractable train wheels.
The termrail bus is also used at times to refer to a road bus that replaces or supplements rail services on low-patronagerailway lines or a bus that terminates at arailway station (also called a train bus). This process is sometimes calledbustitution.
A UK company currently promoting the railbus concept isParry People Movers. Locomotive power is from the energy stored in aflywheel. The first production vehicles, designated asBritish Rail Class 139, have a small onboardLPG motor to bring the flywheel up to speed. In practice, this could be an electric motor that need only connect to the power supply at stopping points. Alternatively, a motor at the stopping points could wind up the flywheel of each car as it stops.
The term "railcar" has also been used to refer to a lightweight rail inspection vehicle (ordraisine).
The dictionary definition ofrailcar at Wiktionary
