A REVOLUTIONARY vehicle designed and built in Sedbury to help Railtrack's successor clean up its act has just been launched on its new career at Lydney.

The hybrid, which can adapt equally well to life on the road and on the country's rail network, is one of two just completed by engineers Allan Fuller Ltd of Sedbury.

"It has hydraulically driven sets of rail wheels which can be lowered into place when the vehicle is driven onto a level crossing," explained designer Keith Fuller as he watched the first trial of the new system on 'real' rails at Lydney Junction crossing.

"With the road wheels lifted it can then set off on the rails under its own power."

The vehicle is an 18-tonne Volvo truck fitted with a jumbo tank and high-powered pumping and suction equipment to help clean out gully pots and drains on Britain's railways.

These operations are vital to stop tracks becoming waterlogged and perhaps subsiding.

The firm is hoping several more will be ordered after the initial two, which were built in a joint project with rail work specialists P.S.I. of Andover, said managing director Chris Yateman, who led the work on the project.

He and Mr Fuller watched anxiously as the ingenious rear bogey, which is on a turntable mounting and can move through 90 degrees, dropped into place on the level crossing. A touch of a button lifted the rear road wheels and the front rail wheels could then be moved into position and dropped into place.

The operation was declared a success as the yellow tanker pulled off under its own power to a Lydney Junction platform where railway inspectorate officials started a rigorous series of tests to ensure it is 'railworthy'.

As a maintenance vehicle it will be limited to 20mph while running on the rails but on the roads it can travel at normal speeds and be dropped in place at any level crossing, making it highly mobile and versatile.

Allan Fuller Ltd is currently expanding and will shortly be erecting additional factory space on the site – and recruiting to work on a busy order book for refuse trucks, tankers and drain treatment machinery for local authority customers.