Wickham car

The “Elliott Track Recording Coach” was commonly referred to as the 'Wickham Railbus' and was built in 1958 by D. Wickham of Ware, Hertfordshire.

It was a self-propelled four-wheel railbus No: DB999507 with one driven axle and had a Meadows 97HP horizontal underfloor engine. It  was used as a track recording car by the Chief Civil Engineer's Department from around 1958, before the BR Research Division was formed .

Its original livery was canary yellow with chocolate brown above the waist line. It had a silver roof with red buffer beams and a black underframe with a lattice girder frame mounted between the axleboxes, which carried the recording equipment.

It was designed to record at 30 mile/h but could transit at up to 55 mile/h.

Here are some pictures of the vehicle in R&DD service and on a special working.

Hartington

 The Wickham at Hartington on the line between Ashbourne and Buxton on 8th September 1962 with a Leicester Branch SLS Special alongside.

R B Parr

In the yard

 A trial 'Wiggly Wire' system laid in the yard at the RTC pictured on March 10th 1965, with RDB999507 the 'Wickham' or Elliot track recording car in the background. The wire was bonded to plastic sheets fixed to the ground.

Author's collection

Nuneaton

 The Wickham railcar at Nuneaton on 24th February 1969 in its original yellow and brown livery

Unknown

Lab 20 at Old Dalby

 Several experiments were carried out utilising the Wickham car for structure gauging using a dual-triangulation system with lights and cameras. This optical method was a big improvement over the existing ways of gauging and was later used on the purpose-built Structure Gauging Train.

BR Official

Mickleover test track

 Lab 20 somewhere on the Mickleover test track on 13th November 1985

Author's collection

Lab 20 Mickleover

 The Wickham car Lab 20 No: RDB999507 pictured crossing the road from Etwall to Radbourne on the Mickleover test track whilst running a rail tour in the spring of 1990.

Les Nixon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wickham was sold to the East Lancashire Railway in 1997 and later moved to the Middleton Railway on 11th June 2003. It is currently based at the Lavender Line in Isfield, East Sussex.

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