The steam rail motors (SRM) were self-propelled carriages operated by the Great Western Railway in England and Wales from 1903 to 1935. They incorporated a steam locomotive within the body of the carriage.
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One of the London and South Western Railway's railmotors, from the Southsea Railway, was borrowed for trials on the Golden Valley Line at Stroud. This proved successful and two GWR steam rail motors, designed by George Jackson Churchward, entered service on the same route on 12 October 1903. A further 44 were built during 1904 and 1905, and when production finished in 1908 the fleet numbered 99 carriage units. There were 112 power units which could be changed between carriages to suit maintenance needs.
The rail motors could not only stimulate traffic on branch lines, where small and cheap platforms could be built to serve small traffic sources, but also in towns such as Plymouth where they operated frequent services in an attempt to fight off competition from new electric tramways. On some services they proved so successful that they could not cope with the number of passengers wishing to travel and so extra coaches were needed, but the lightweight rail motors could not cope with pulling trailers on hilly lines. One such example of this was on the Wrington Vale Light Railway where railmotor no.38 (usually of the Yatton - Clevedon line) would stop on the 1 in 50 gradient to raise enough steam to reach the top, however this would happen without a trailer.[1]
There were also problems encountered with maintaining the rail motors in dirty engine sheds, while keeping the passenger sections clean.
Most rail motors were converted into autocoaches and the power units were scrapped. Autotrains offered most of the benefits of rail motors but, because they were operated by "proper" locomotives, were much more flexible in operation and easier to maintain. The first SRM was withdrawn in 1914 but 65 survived in 1922 and the last was not withdrawn until 1935.
SRMs 42 and 49, along with ex-Port Talbot Railway PTR No. 1 (which had been acquired by the GWR in 1908) were sold to the Port of London Authority.
All of the fleet were built with four-wheel vertical-boiler power units and a four-wheel trailing bogie under the carriage. Driving wheels were from 3ft 5in to 4ft (1,041mm to 1,219mm); cylinders were from 9in × 15in to 12in × 16in (229mm × 381mm to 305mm × 406mm).
No steam rail motors survived into preservation, however one of the carriage units which was converted into an autocoach is preserved at Didcot Railway Centre, where it has been rebuilt into its original form. Currently painted in the typical crimson lake livery used on GWR carriages in the Edwardian era, it is possible to ride on the railmotor on certain dates.
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