I came upon this photo and was wondering what's the story with this railbus.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32686180@N08/3148559431/

First time I've ever seen a "hoodlebug".........It appears to be an old schoolbus. I have seen something similar, though. Back about 1980, at the urging of then Dry Gulch Junction master mechanic Sam Lanter, I took a rather long drive in my trusty MGB. I visited Hiltons Va. where a gentleman whose name I don't remember had started the "Southwest Va Scenic RR" on a section of the old V&SW. He was looking for employees for the season, and gave me a grand tour of the facility. The locomotive was former Kelly Island Lime 0-4-0 #11, which I think he was leasing from a gentleman named Jacobson. He owned a school bus building business, and the coaches were new school bus bodies mounted on trucks made from M of W speeder components. As the pay was pretty much non-existent, and Hiltons is at least 35 miles past the middle of nowhere, I decided against the job. The railroad struggled along for a couple of seasons, but suffered from "location, location, and location". I'm not sure what happened to the "coaches" after the locomotive went to South Dakota

http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomo ... splay=1125

The railbus was an attempt to provide excursion service in the off season when patronage did not warrant operation of the steam train. To the best of my knowledge it was a assembled locally out of odds and ends; I was told the story once but I no longer recall the details. The K&K 2002 brochure shows railbus operation from Kane to Kinzua in May and November. That was the year Kinzua Viaduct was taken out of service for repairs and without access to the wye the bus probably did not run that fall. It subsequently lanquished at Marienville and was sold prior to the auction; I believe it is now stored at a freight car repair shop in Warren, PA.

Alan Maples

What the Knox and Kane built would be called an Autoferro on the Guayaquil and Quito Railroad in Ecuador. In 1989 I had the pleasure to visit this time machine of a railway. Spanish built, Alco licensed diesels, and Baldwin Steamers built from 1901 to 1945 ruled the rails at that time. For service on lines that could no longer support the weight of the standard railroad equipment, or lighter runs, the railroad had a fleet of bus bodies mounted on railroad wheels. These were called Autoferro's. The rear axle was a single wheel where the rubber tires would be. The front wheel was replaced by a small 4 wheel truck. Newer units were large Thomas bus bodies like the K&K unit, older units a varied collection of misc manufacturers and sized bus bodies.

One final note, the G&Q is a 42 inch narrow guage line.

Steve Heister

I wonder how many other modern day railroads have tried using this sort of idea for tourist service here in the states. I seem to remember hearing about another railbus but I can't remember the details.

Some details (hope the link works): http://www.nashuacitystation.com/print.php?city=bostonmaine&content=railbus

I don't think this thing has operated at CTM since it was acquired but I could be wrong.

I don't know about other contemporary conversions, but bus bodies were used for self-propelled railcars more than once by short lines in an earlier era.

Narragansett Pier Railroad had one: http://www.trainweb.org/kin/NPRR_Rolling_Stock/pages/NPRR-36_Mickey-Dink.htm

Alan Maples

Tom, there is at least one I know of using similar on a routine basis...

http://www.asvrr.org/Pages/Railbus.html

I don't think they rebuilt the engine yet.

It's been many years since I visited the British Columbia Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan BC (on Vancouver Island), but I recall riding a coach with a school bus body on narrow gauge trucks. Motive power was a Plymouth "critter" with (as I remember) a Ford V-8 engine, so the buses were not self-propelled. The train went in a loop, so having fixed seats all in the same direction wasn't a problem.