ROAD AND RAIL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 68, 21 March 1931, Page 15

ROAD AND RAIL

NEW TYPE OF VEHICLE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 29th January. A ucw type 'of vehicle which runs on the" rails and also on the roads has been tried out by the-Lqndon, Midland, and.Scottish Railway. It is called the ."Ep-railer." • . ■ The new vehicle, to the casual observer, seems but an ordinary road motor-coach of the one-deck type. ' Inspection reveals, however, that in addition to" tlic ouuds. pneumatic-tired road wheels, the coach, is fitted'with flanged rail wheels. The pneumatic^tired wheels aro mounted on eccentrics, fitted .to an extension of the axles through the rail wheels. "When on the' road the' road wheels are locked concentrically to the rail wheels, which are'of smaller diameter and are clear of the road. The "fo-railer" is the .first attempt to. combine in one' vehicle the great safety" find."cheap operating costs of rail haulage, together with the door-to-door, transport of the road vehicle. It can be .changed-from road to rail or Vice versa at any.' place where. a road or. yard adjoins the railway. . No._special equipment -other, than that incorporated" in the design of the vehicles is required, except that at the point of exchange the ground must, for a distance, of a few yards, be made up to the level of- the top 'of the rails. -The system is applicable to practically any type of motor vehicle, either passenger or goods and to. tractors and trucktra.ctors. The new vehicle has been designed for use-on branch lines generally and, in particular on those branch lines where towns and villages are distant from the railway. It is considerered that the *'ro-railer" may prove of value in dealing with week-end traffic to the seaside. • . ■