Builder: AC Cars
Layout: Railbus
Length: 36ft
Coupling Code: None
Coupling Type: None
Gangway Type: None
Lot Number: 30479
Diagram: 614
Aug-58 | New to | 82C (Swindon) | |
Mar-64 | Stored | ||
Oct-64 | Reinstated | 84A (Laira) | |
Jul-66 | Transferred to | 82A (Bristol Bath Road) | |
29/01/67 | Transferred to | 66A (Polmadie) | |
05/02/67 | Transferred to | 67C (Ayr) | |
08/12/67 | Withdrawn from | 67C (Ayr) |
Scrapped by TW Ward, Inverkeithing
79975 | Noted 26/03/1963 - Working Tetbury to Kemble branch | ||||||||
79975 | Noted 25/03/1964 - Working Tetbury to Kemble branch, pictured at Kemble platform with 79977 stabled behind |
W79975 is seen being removed in a somewhat unconventional manner from the AC Cars Taggs Island factory in Thames Ditton, the building of the body complete. Reportedly the wall of the building was removed each time a completed railbus body was dispatched! Everly Brothers were the hauliers. The scene was captured by an apprentice cabinet maker at AC Cars. Geoff Rixon.
W79975 in Falkirk. The image is undated, the vehicle moved to Scotland in January 1967 and was withdrawn by the end of the year. Stuart Rankin.
An AC Cars railbus travelling north at Leominster. This was not a normal operating area for them, the three crew in the front and no sign of passengers suggests an empty move. This is likely one of the Western Region vehicles on transfer to Scotland in January 1967. Of these three still had whiskers - 79975, 79976 and 79978. Stuart Mackay Collection.
W79976 was built by AC Cars in 1958 and delivered to the Western Region for staff training in August of that year. Alongside classmates W79975, W79977 and W79978, it was put to work on the Kemble-Cirencester Town and Kemble-Tetbury branch lines from February 1959 until closure in April 1964. W79976 and W79975 were used on services between Yeovil Town and Yeovil Junction starting from December 1964. When Yeovil Town closed in October 1966 the services continued through to Yeovil Pen Mill but the railbuses soon found themselves displaced by larger DMUs. As with the other AC Cars railbuses, W79976 was transferred to Scotland in January 1967 and operated around Ayr, chiefly on the branch line to Kilmarnock. However it did not last long in service and in January 1968 it was officially withdrawn. This Agfachrome transparency I took at Ayr TMD on 10th August 1969. Following withdrawal from BR and storage at Ayr TMD it entered preservation. Gordon Edgar.