The Leyland Experimental Vehicle (LEV)

The forerunner of all those nasty railbuses was the Leyland Experimental Vehicle, a joint venture between Leyland and BR  to combine the worst features of rail and bus. Here are some pictures of the some of the early railbuses at RTC and at the test track.

There were five single car railbuses built on BR for trials and miraculously they have all survived - look here for information and pictures.

Click on the picture for a bigger image

First trials non-powered

The first LEV was un-powered and is shown here in the sidings at the RTC around 1978

BR

Old Dalby A view of the Wickham version of the railbus (known as R3 and built especially for the USA) at the test track. The vehicle had an overall length of 18.3m rather than the LEV1's 12.3m. It is pictured on the straight between the Covered Way and Grimston. This vehicle is still in existence in the USA - look here and here for more info and pictures.

BR

R3 railbus The second BR version of R3 (known as Rb3) pictured at the Control Centre at Old Dalby on test

Alan Rimmer

For more pictures of the various versions look on my train testing site

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