By: Dave Abrahams
Sheffield Park, Sussex - It's an old cliché that a well-engineered car will hold its line through a corner “like it's on rails”.
And because rail networks are more direct, point to point, than roads, a train is often faster than, say, a new Smart ForFour.
So, just to show that it's possible to combine the best of both, Smart, with some help from specialised train engineering firm Interfleet of Derby, created a unique Smart - the ForRail!
It may look like a slightly modified ForFour but it's actually a fully certified passenger train. Despite what you see in the movies, it's not that simple to do; it took Interfleet - which normally works on 16-litre, 70-ton diesel locomotives - six months of computer aided design modelling and painstaking metalwork.
THE SMALLEST TRAIN ON THE TRACKS
To stop it going 'off the rails', the normal steering system was disconnected, and the front wheel hubs were locked in the straight-ahead position with aluminium struts. And to give it the necessary traction, the road wheels were replaced with specially made, solid steel, flanged rims, each 560mm in diameter and weighing 80kg.
Finally, not without some misgivings, the 999cc, one-ton ForRail - the smallest train on the tracks - took to the rails on the privately-owned Bluebell Railway in Sussex at the weekend, with a qualified train-driver at the wheel, for the 16km run from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead.
But it handled the trip like a veteran, much to the surprise of the regular trainspotters, who were there for a model railway exhibition, even giving a few bemused commuters the opportunity to avoid the congested roads while still travelling by car.
And then the Interfleet guys jacked it up, refitted the steering rack, replaced the road wheels - and drove it away!