Pedrail Machine

It was intended initially to be used as an armoured personnel carrier on the Western Front, but the idea was dropped in favour of other projects.

Following discussions by Captain Murray Sueter of the Royal Naval Air Service and Bramah Diplock of the Pedrail Transport Company, the machine was designed by the British engineer Colonel R.E.B.

The brief was for a vehicle that could carry a unit of troops - a "trench storming party of 50 men with machine guns and ammunition"- under protection across No Man's Land.

Crompton's design as presented to the committee used two sets of continuous tracks in a vehicle around 40 feet (12 m) long, weighing around 25 tons and armed with a 12-pdr gun.

The finished chassis was handed over to the Trench Warfare Department in August, and sent for trials to the government research centre at Porton Down.

Trials with the sole prototype on the Salisbury Plain , c. 1917.
Prototype Pedrail troop transport developed as an offshoot of the Landship Committee .