Multi-Mode vehicle?

[Approach_Medium]

Hi;
Can anyone tell me whether a vehicle that can drive on roads and on the rails exists?
It might make sense to use them in addition to light rail in the US.
The vehicle I am imagining would have rubber tires and a steering wheel to drive on the roads as a bus, then reach a depot and drive onto the rail, like a highway-rail car used for MOW.

FW

 

[lewisner]

CSX MOW Crane Truck.If you search CSX MOW there are some stationary ones and one driveable..

 

[Approach_Medium]

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a passenger vehicle.

FW

 

[teddytoot]

The British LMS railway had a convertable bus in the 1930s and there was an experiment with, I think, a Leyland National bus. I have seen a site on this latter but I'm afraid I can't give you any further information. I have a feeling there may have been others that I cannot recall at the moment. However like most attempts at combining things they ended up as unsatisfactory compromises.

 

[Tokkyu40]

There's one that runs on the north coast in Hokkaido, Japan.
http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/japanese_dualmode.htm
A 16 page PDF file from JR Hokkaido...
http://www.japanrail.com/pdf/news/059/JR_Bulletin_vol_59.pdf
And this article has a Youtube video.
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1570

Britain is trying to do something called a Blade Runner. Don't expect to see Harrison Ford driving it. http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/bladerunner1.htm

Here's the parent site with all the dual mode vehicles the man could find.
http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/dualmode.htm

Claude

 

[magickmaker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk65PqPe3oI


neat to watch it go around curves.

 

[gfisher]

I can see it now....TOFC passenger service. Just drive those buses up the ramp and...

 

[Approach_Medium]

I can see it now....TOFC passenger service. Just drive those buses up the ramp and...

I'm thinking more along the lines that the bus itself drives on the tracks, using overhead, 3rd rail, or locomotive power. Kind of like Road Railers, except that these buses would have their own engines for driving the roads.
Here in NJ, riders cherish the 'one seat ride' to NYC. NJT build a beautiful new station in Secaucus NJ to allow passengers riding the lines that don't go directly into the city to transfer from and to lines that do. It's a success, but people would really like to see a direct rail connection, which is coming (supposedly) by 2012.

The concept of street buses riding the rails would give that coveted one seat ride to many others who don't live near a train station.
It would be a fantastic thing to model in HO scale (or any other scale).
Maybe the next version of Trains will include such capability?
Then, I won't HMB for the next version of TRS!

FW

 

[nismit]

RUF and MaxiRUF

Posting Deleted

 

[Tokkyu40]

A dual mode test run in Fuji.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1GBcAlm-8&feature=related

Claude

 

[teddytoot]

Some more information on the 1980 UK experiment with a Bristol LH bus (not a Leyland National) is here. There are also a lot of interesting photos here as well.