The Railcar website provides information on the British Railways first generation DMUs (a.k.a. diesel multiple units / railcars) introduced in the 1950s.
The six key sections of the website are:
Details of railcars in preservation can be found on The Railcar Association website.
To view details of a particular vehicle or set enter the number below:
Do you have photos of First Generation DMUs? The more images we have the better we can tell the DMU story and make it more useful to visitors. Images can be loaded directly onto the site - just register as a user and upload! Alternatively if you have images on flickr or another website I can do the uploads for you - just let me know.
This website contains details about the First Generation DMUs. This includes the 4-wheel diesel railbuses, ACV / BUT railcars, the Battery Multiple Unit (BMU) and Blue Pullmans. It covers the period from their introduction to British Railways in the 1950s till their withdrawal and disposal from main-line use, but NOT preservation.
Because of the vast amount of data that this covers and the amount of information I have still to process I cannot include the DEMUs introduced on the Southern Region in the same era, nor Second Generation or later types.
March 29th
Some more operation/timetable pages have been started: Lowestoft - Yarmouth; Birmingham - Barnt Green; Leeds - Castleford; Lanark - Muirkirk; and Birmingham - Bewdley/Stourport/Hartlebury.
March 22nd
Added is a BR booklet listing all the brakework items along with part and drawing numbers, for Birmingham built diesel railcars. Dated 1959, this only covers the Class 104s. Download PDF (11mb pdf).
March 15th
A page has been created for fault finding booklets, with the first three added from the Eastern Region, 1966 (2.5mb PDF), Scottish Region, 1960 (1.2mb PDF), and Southern Region, 1968 (1.3mb PDF).
March 8th
Some more operation/timetable pages have been started: Witham - Braintree; Wrexham - Chester - New Brighton; York - Scarborough; Corstorphine - Edinburgh; and Reading - Bedwyn.
March 1st
Added to the cyclic diagrams page is another Southern Region Carriage Working Notice for Diesel Trains on the South Western Division, for Summer 1965 (12mb PDF).
February 22nd
Added are a DMU training manual (4mb pdf), courtesy of the Dean Forest DMU Group, and a British United Traction brochure from circa 1953 (3.2mb pdf).
February 15th
Some more operation/timetable pages have been started: St. Margaret's - Buntingford; Nottingham - Lincoln; Leeds - Pontefract; Glasgow - Stranraer; and Newport - Brynmawr.
February 1st
Added to the cyclic diagrams page are two Southern Region Carriage Working Notices for the South Western Divisions, one for Summer 1966 (6mb PDF) and one for Winter 1966 (9mb PDF). These detailed the Western Region DMU sets that worked into the area.
January 25th
Added are some samples of Failure Sheets from the Norwich Division dated August 1968, and information on Great Eastern 2-digit headcodes.
Cab of Pennine unit on Botanic Gardens Depot. Steve Bramley.
Cab photo of a class 124 Trans Pennine unit on Botanic Gardens Depot. Steve Bramley.
The unit having arrived from Cleethorpes at New Holland Pier the passengers are walking down towards the Humber Ferry for the 20 minute trip to Hull Corporation pier. Copied from my slide..
A poster I saved whilst working as station railman on Beverley Station in 1975 advertising the Hull Bridlington Scarborough line. Showing unidentified Cravens unit on service to Hull. Driver the late Botanic Gardens Depot Driver Ken Steel. Steve Bramley.
Rear of leaflet showing the first services to see the Craven units on limited lines from Hull. Steve Bramley.
A Class 120/101/120 hybrid at Machynylleth with 53672 leading on the 4th April 1984. Chris Lings.
On 04/04/1980 a Class 105 (E56466 + E51283) arrives at Heworth, then a relatively new station which had opened to BR services on 05/11/1979. In the background, catenary masts for the Tyneside Metro system have yet to appear, although services started running to Heworth on 15/11/1981. Graeme Phillips Collection.
The Quaintonian shuttle from Aylesbury arriving at Quainton Road on 4/4/83. Robert Frise.
56065 and 51226 passing Thornaby on the 4th April 1982. Jerry Glover.
A Class 108 DMU in platform two of Carlisle station on 4 April 1973. Alistair Ness.