NER 1903 Electric Autocar Trust

A brief history.

The North Eastern Railway pioneered alternatives to steam. In 1904 the Tyneside suburban area was electrified. Electric engines followed, taking power from overhead lines hauled some goods trains. There was even a proposal to electrify the east coast main line and appropriate electric locomotives were built. In 1919 a main line diesel engine was planned.

One of the most dramatic departures from convention and one that laid the foundation for most of today’s trains was a pair of petrol electric ‘autocars’ that was built in York in 1902. They looked like railway coaches but within was a petrol engine driving a generator to power electric motors on a bogie. They entered service in 1903, a global first. Both were withdrawn by 1931.

The body of the first of the pair, 3170, was sold to a North Yorkshire landowner and made in to a holiday home. No. 3170 benefited from an engine replacement in 1922, giving it sufficient power to pull a conventional carriage and carry more people. It worked on lines around the Harrogate area, Selby, Hartlepool and the North Yorkshire coast. As a holiday home the body was well protected and, following five years of disuse, was offered to carriage restorer, Stephen Middleton.

A charitable organisation has now been formed to restore, operate and interpret this unique survivor. It is hard to over estimate the importance of this vehicle in transport history. It was fifty years ahead of its' time, as similar rail transport did not really take off until the 1950s.