About our Railcars

Part of post-war modernisation for British Railways in the 1950's was replacing older steam locomotives with cleaner, more economical diesel trains. These were to be lightweight, have under-floor horizontal bus engines, and be able to be driven from both ends of a fixed formation (usually two, three or four cars). Each set was also capable of working in multiple with similar sets. Initial testing of the idea in 1954 & 1955 lead to the launch of a £2,000,000 modernisation plan, the first units appearing in service in 1956. These plans lead to over 4,000 individual vehicles being built between 1956 & 1961. Too many vehicles were required for British Railways' own workshops to cope, so several orders were put out to tender, with Metropolitan-Cammell, Park Royal, Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co, Craven Ltd, Wickham, Pressed Steel and Gloucester railway Carriage & Wagon Co all building railcars at this time. The "private builders" had many differences, one of the most noticeable being the design of the front end. Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co, who built all the group's railcars in 1957 & 1958, produced 302 vehicles of this type. They have a unique front end, most had a wooden interior (nearly all railcars were built with wipe-down Formica interiors), and were designated Class 104s. They were delivered in two car, three car, and four car formations, and we have enough vehicles on the CVR to (at some point in the future) authentically recreate a two and three car formation. Unfortunately most of the four car sets allocated to the North East were withdrawn earlier than the others, and only half of a set has been saved (on the Telford Steam Railway).