British Railways experimented with 4-wheeled railbus cars from a number of builders in the late 1950s. The German railways had achieved great success with these lightweight, fuel efficient railcars, providing efficient passenger service on remote branch lines with a minimum crew. The single car required a driver and guard, who could also act as conductor, collecting fares. This allowed station staffing to be reduced, trying to bring the costs back in line with the takings.
This model replicates the railbus design supplied by the Park Royal company which had previously been invovled with the development of the GWR railcars and later built DMUs.
Heljan have designed the drive mechanism for the railbus very carefully, with the chassis and motor fitting below the window line, allowing the interior to be modelled and passenger figures to be added if required. The model is supplied with bufferbeam details pre-instaled.