Railton Cars, Cobham, Surrey. UK 1933 - 1940

Hudson Motors Ltd., Chiswick, London. UK 1940 - 1950

The driving force behind the Railton car was Noel Macklin who having sold his interest in Invicta saw the possibilities of using an American chassis with a more British style of coachwork.

Reid Railton had made his reputation designing chassis for World Land Speed Record cars and sports cars at Thomson & Taylor in Cobham and so would have been the natural choice for Macklin to consult on a suitable basis for the proposed new car. Also the use of his name would give it the image of a fast sporting car.

The choice was the Hudson Essex-Terraplane, which in 6-cylinder form had already received a favourable press in the previous September, but it was the straight-8 cylinder engined chassis of 1933 that became the basis for the Railton.

The engine was a simple side valve design without pressure lubrication, the big ends being oiled from scoops which dipped into troughs in the sump. The chassis was a well engineered design with beam axles at both ends to which Andre Hartford Telecontrol dampers were added and the whole car only weighed in at 2,260lbs, so that with nearly 100bhp from the 4,010cc engine it had a very lively performance.

The Railton-Terraplane had an imposing radiator designed by Gordon Crosby, the famous motor sports artist, and similar lines to the Invicta. The first cars were fitted with open touring bodies and at £499 they were exceptional value. A few were purchased by Police departments for traffic duties.

By 1934 the car was called, simply, Railton and used the Hudson 8 chassis as the 8-cylinder Terraplane had been discontinued. The engine was still an 8-cylinder side valve, but the capacity had increased to 4,168cc and the power to 113bhp. The chassis was 3 inches longer at 116 inches and the front axle was articulated inboard of the springs with an upper and lower beam. Bodies were now available from a range of coachbuilders including Carbodies, Coachcraft, Motor Bodies and Ranalah. There were sports, drophead coupés and saloon versions and in 1935 the Light Sports Tourer. The latter had a very simple two seat body without doors and a chassis in which the engine had been repositioned further back to improve the handling. In this guise the Railton was even faster and could achieve a zero to 60mph time of under 10 seconds in road trim or 8.8 seconds stripped. A number of poor replicas have been built on Hudson chassis but without the repositioned engine. 1935 was also the peak year of Railton production with 377 cars sold.

For 1936 the Hudson range was available in two chassis lengths and so Railtons were either 120 or 127 inches wheelbase. Other changes were a late move to 12 volt electrics, duo-hydraulic brakes and a remote gearchange. The range of body styles was also more varied and there was even a limousine from Coachcraft.

In 1937 the chassis were again lengthened to 122 and 129 inches and the Railton radiator was restyled with vertical bars instead of the previous wire mesh. By now the extra weight was having an effect on performance and although they were faster than the equivalent Hudson they had lost their main selling point.

1938 saw the introduction of a 6-cylinder Railton, based on the short 117 inch Hudson chassis and with an engine of 2,723cc capacity to bring it below the 17hp RAC rating tax break. In addition there was a "baby" Railton built on the Standard 10 chassis. Costing nearly £300 these were not very successful, and only 37 drophead coupés and 14 saloons, were built with Coachcraft bodies.

The only new model for 1939 was a 3.5-litre 6-cylinder car based, as before, on the Hudson. By this time Noel Macklin was concentrating on his boat building business and so eventually Railton Cars was sold to Hudson Motors Ltd., who continued to assemble a handful of cars at their facility in Chiswick.

The enterprise had produced about 1,500 cars and always been profitable, unlike most of the similar Anglo-American cars.

After the war a few pre-war chassis were bodied as Railtons, by Carbodies, Martin Walter and Whittingham and Mitchel. A new drophead bodied Railton was shown at the London Motor Show by University Motors, who had taken over Coachcraft, with independent front suspension and a price tag of £4,750. In 1950 there was another expensive drophead, this time by Airflow Streamline. The problem was that Hudson no longer made a separate chassis onto which coachbuilt bodies could be fitted and also the cost of such hand made bodies was uneconomical when a Jaguar could be had for under half the price. The ultimate constraint was imposed by the British government, which forbade the regular import of chassis even had they been available.

In 1991, William Towns attempted to revive the Railton marque with an idiomatic re-bodied Jaguar XT-S, priced at £105,000. The demise of the project was assured by Towns' untimely death, shortly afterwards.

There is an active Railton Owners Club who can be contacted through the Secretary :

Barrie McKenzie, Fairmiles, Barnes Hall Road, Burncross, Sheffield, S35 1RF.

E-mail : barrie@fairmile-1.freeserve.co.uk