The

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

(LMS) Karrier Ro-Railer was a British experimental road-rail (rail)

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

built by

Karrier Karrier was a British marque of motorised municipal appliances and light commercial vehicles and trolley buses manufactured at Karrier Works, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, by Clayton and Co. (Huddersfield) Limited. They began making Karrier moto ...

in 1931. Its road registration was UR7924. Based on a Karrier Chaser bus with

Cravens Cravens Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited was a railway rolling stock builder in the Darnall district of Sheffield, England. Founded by brothers named Craven and known as Craven Brothers, later Cravens Limited, it remained a family busi ...

bodywork, it could run on the road on tyres or on

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

track. It had a 6-cylinder petrol engine. Initially used on the

Nickey Line The Nickey line (also known as the Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead branch railway) is a disused railway that once linked the towns of Hemel HempsteadThe exact location of Hemel Hempstead station is: and HarpendenThe exact location of Harpenden sta ...

, a branch line running from

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,674 in the 2021 census, while the population of the civil parish was 31,128. Harpe ...

, it was transferred to

Stratford-on-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-west of ...

in 1932 for services from

Stratford Old Town railway station Stratford Old Town railway station was a railway station that served the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. On the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway, the station was built in 1873, adjacent to the Old Town dist ...

to the

Welcombe Hotel Welcombe Hotel occupies a 19th-century former country mansion house near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, which was previously known as Welcombe House. It is a Grade II* listed building. History Some of the lands at Welcombe, which are recor ...

. The front axle broke after only a few weeks service. Finally it became a vehicle used to transport

track ballast Track ballast is the material which forms the trackbed upon which railroad ties (UK: sleepers) are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to bear the compression load of the railroad ties, rails, and rolling stock; ...

on the

West Highland Line The West Highland Line ( – "Iron Road to the Isles") is a railway line linking the ports of Mallaig and Oban in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow in Central Scotland. The line was voted the top rail journey in the world by readers of indepen ...

.L A Summers, ''British Railways Steam 1948–1970'', Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2014.

References

External links

Article at Warwickshire Railways website

SMJ Society
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728035630/http://thesmjr.ning.com/page/the-rorailer , date=28 July 2018 Experimental vehicles Railcars of the United Kingdom Individual buses Road–rail vehicles

See also

References

External links