This is one of two vehicles built by the Drewry Car Company in 1950 for British Railways for overhead line inspection and maintenance. They were works numbers 2267 & 2268, and were given the numbers DB998900 & DB998901 by British Railways.

The vehicles were offered for disposal on the Eastern Region 'surplus to requirements' list in late 1976. They were duly inspected by Derby Technical Centre staff, who were erecting non-operational overhead line equipment on their test track at Old Dalby in Leicestershire. They decided that one good vehicle could be built from the two and the remains scrapped.

The vehicle is diesel powered and has a maximum speed of 23.1mph! It was originally designed to work at a speed as low as 1.5 mph while inspection of the overhead line is in progress. It was fitted with a hydraulically operated inspection tower for this purpose, though this has been removed in preservation as the vehicle has been converted for passenger carrying use.

In February 2016 OLIVe the railbus was extensively damaged in an arson attack at the Middleton Railway by 3 youths who set fire to her in broad daylight, totally gutting the vehicle. Luckily the alarm was raised in time for the Fire Brigade to put out the fire before it caused irreparable damage - although the interior was completely gutted and significant damage caused to the upper bodywork.