The company Linke-Hofmann-Busch, which now belongs to Alstom, developed the LINT in the 1990s, which stands for “Leichter Innovativer Nahverkehrs-Triebwagen” (“Light Innovative Local Transport Railcar”). These are diesel railcars, which are available in four variants, each consisting of one to three car bodies. The variants are denoted by a number that indicates the approximate length in meters. The variants can be coupled to each other and enable the simultaneous operation of up to 17 units. Worth mentioning is the iLINT powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which will be described in a separate article.

The smallest variant is the LINT 27, which consists of only one four-axle car and operates as the class 640. Like all LINTs, it is powered by a horizontally installed six-cylinder from MTU, which here has an output of 315 kW and drives both axles of a bogie. In contrast to all other variants, however, the power is not transmitted mechanically but hydraulically. A special version is used on the Upper Ruhr Valley Railway, in which most of the seats have been exchanged for bicycle spaces and which is used in combination with larger LINTs.

The two-car LINT 41 is used as class 648 and, thanks to a central Jakobs bogie, only needs three bogies in total. It achieves the largest number of units and is also listed as class 1648 or 623 by some private operators. Optionally, this and the two larger variants can be ordered with a toilet, luggage compartment and ticket machine. The engines each have 315, 335 or 390 kW and allow a top speed of 120 or 140 km/h. The most powerful variant is used by the Bayerische Regiobahn, which is operated by Transdev GmbH.

vlexx LINT 54 and LINT 81 in December 2018 in Rüsselsheim

Matti Blume

The LINT 54 also consists of two cars, with each car having two bogies of its own. It carries the class number 622 or 1622. Normally, three of the four bogies are each driven by a 390 kW engine. Only the erixx version suffices with two engines and two powered bogies. 

The LINT 81 is offered as a three-car variant, which runs as class 620 and basically corresponds to the 54 model with an additional middle car. This has an additional drive system, which means that it has four engines and eight driven axles out of a total of twelve.

All four variants are used by DB Regio and several private operators. The area of application covers practically all of Germany, with a focus on the less electrified northern parts of the country. Common problems involve the engines, ranging from failed turbochargers to fires. There is also talk of irreparable design errors in the air conditioning systems, which prompted the erixx company to hand out woolen blankets to the passengers.

In order to modernize passenger transport over short distances, British Railways approached the industry in 1954, which was to produce a large number of light diesel railcars. Since there was no standard design due to lack of time, several companies had a relatively free hand in the development and delivered different models, which, however, had many things in common.

All DMUs consisted of four-axle cars, which were usually coupled to form combinations of two to six vehicles. These combinations had only one cab at each end, there were only a few one-car vehicles with two cabs. The individual cars were either motorized with two diesel engines each, each of which drove the inner axle of a bogie, or unmotorized.

Most of the railcars were powered by British United Traction (BUT) diesel engines, each with 150 hp. This was a cooperation between AEC and Leyland, which also manufactured trolleybuses in addition to diesel engines for rail vehicles. The power was transmitted over a mechanical four-speed gearbox. Some classes had more powerful engines from BUT, Leyland or Rolls-Royce with up to 237 hp, some of which worked on a hydraulic gearbox. The maximum speed was 70 mph for all variants.

121032 “Bubble Car” operated by Arriva Trains Wales in June 2019 at Cardiff Queen Street

Hugh Llewelyn

A total of more than 3,400 cars came from a total of ten manufacturers. The most successful variant was Metropolitan Cammell's Class 101, which was used in combinations of two to four cars. Combinations of two cars were made up of either a power car and a driving trailer or two railcars and were then referred to as “Power Twins”. Metro-Cammell supplied nearly 700 Class 101, 102 and 111 cars.

More than 1,100 came from the British Railways' works in Derby. The largest numbers of these were produced of the two- to four-car class 108 and the two- to three-car class 116. The class 116 was one of the variants that were designed for suburban traffic and had doors in each row of seats, which in Great Britain was also known as the “Slam Door Train”. A further 400 examples came from the BR workshops in Swindon. This also included the class 124, which consisted of six cars each, four of which had two 231 hp engines and thus achieved good acceleration.

Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company supplied just over 200 and Cravens just over 300 carriages. The Class 128 from Gloucester and the Class 129 from Cravens were parcel DMUs which had a parcel compartment without windows instead of a passenger compartment. While the 129 class had the standard 150 hp engines, the 128 class had two Leyland Albion engines, each with 231 hp. 

Class 128 parcel DMU in August 1982 at Manchester-Victoria

Hugh Llewelyn

Another notable number of more than 400 came from the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. These consisted of 302 cars for the two- to four-car Class 104, Class 118 and Class 110, the latter with two Rolls-Royce engines of 180 hp. Smaller numbers came from Park Royal, Pressed Steel and D. Wickham & Co.

The large number and variety of classes ensured that the first generation diesel multiple units were used in all parts of the country. Production of the last pieces was already completed in 1963. In the 1980s, the Pacer and Sprinter railcars were developed, which were intended to completely replace the vehicles of the first generation. Since the Pacer was not quite convincing and the number of Sprinters was not quite sufficient, not all railcars of the first generation could be retired in the 1980s. Some examples of class 101 could not be retired until 2003, while the one-car vehicles of class 121 “Bubble Car” were in regular use until 2017.

While most regional divisions of the British Railways procured diesel-mechanic multiple units from 1957, the Southern Region built diesel-electric multiple units. The English Electric 4SRKT with turbocharger and 600 hp was used as the engine. The nickname “Thumper” came about because of the exhaust sound of the big four-cylinder. Two- and three-car units had a total of one engine and six-car units had two engines. For faster passenger exchange, some cars had doors in each compartment. The 201 to 204 and 206 classes were retired between the late 1980s and early 1990s and the 205 and 207 classes remained in service until 2004.

When it became clear that the first generation DMUs had reached the end of their service life and that the development of a full-fledged successor would take a long time, the Pacer was developed as a cheap temporary solution. The body of the Leyland National bus was used and placed on a two-axle underframe intended for a high-speed freight car. These two- or three-car vehicles were designed for a maximum service life of 20 years. Since the Sprinters could not replace them, almost all Pacers were still in use in 2015. From the passengers they got the nickname “Nodding Donkeys”, as they had very uncomfortable suspension characteristics and a high noise level. In 2019 and 2020, almost all were phased out, mainly due to new accessibility requirements. In June 2021, the last Transport for Wales vehicles ran for the last time.

In addition to the Pacers, the Sprinters were developed to replace the first-generation diesel multiple units. The name summarizes a family of several vehicles which were built between 1984 and 1993 by different manufacturers. They were designed for slightly longer distances than the Pacers and, in contrast to these, had four axles in bogies, which made for better driving comfort. The name was intended to draw public attention to the better running performance compared to the first generation.

Most variants had a Cummins diesel and a Voith T 211 r hydraulic transmission per car. The transmissions are characterized by the fact that they work as a torque converter up to nearly two-thirds of the top speed and the rated power can be called up regardless of the speed. Only in the upper speed range does it switch to more economical clutch operation, with the engine speed being proportional to the running speed. With the performance thus achieved, British Railways were able to set up new, faster timetables.

East Midland Trains 156414 in September 2009 in Peterborough

Peter Skuce

The first variant of the Sprinter was the British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) class 150, which prevailed against the Metro-Cammell class 151. They were created for commuter traffic on shorter routes and therefore have double doors. The top speed of 75 mph allows for good acceleration. After the two prototypes of the class 150/0, 50 production vehicles of the class 150/1 were built, each of which consisted of two cars, had five seats per row and had no gangways at the ends. In the 85 class 150/2 vehicles, there are only four seats per row and gangways.

From 1987, 42 British Leyland 155 class “Super Sprinters”, also two-car units, followed. Manufacturing methods used in the buses from this company were used in the construction of the car bodies. A total of 35 of these vehicles were converted into 70 class 153 vehicles by Hunslet-Barclay in 1991 and 1992 by separating the cars and retrofitting each with a second driver's cab. These were intended for routes with low passenger volume. The 114 two-car class 156 trains from Metro-Cammell, which basically correspond to the Class 155, were also referred to as “Super Sprinters”.

South West Trains 159011 in April 2010 at Salisbury

mattbuck

For longer distances, the class 158 “Express Sprinter” was built from 1989, which has a higher engine power and can reach a speed of 90 mph or 145 km/h. In contrast to all previous Sprinters, it also has air conditioning. There were 133 units with Cummins engines and 47 with Perkins engines. 17 of the units have an additional center car, which is also powered. The conversion of 22 Class 158 units in 1993 resulted in the three-car class 159/0 “South Western Turbo”, which also has a first class. Another seven followed in 2007, becoming the class 159/1.

The Sprinters brought many improvements, especially with their running performance, although the lack of air conditioning in most variants became a point of criticism quite early on. Thanks to their automatic BSI couplings, all Sprinters can not only be coupled to each other, but also together with the Pacer and the Turbostar. The class 150 units, which were used intensively in commuter transport, in particular, wore out quickly. Some were refurbished, others were replaced with new Turbostar and Coradia trains at the beginning of the millennium. The better-serviced class 158 and 159 trains are also being replaced by the new generation of multiple units since around 2020.

Larger multiple units consisting of two four-axle cars were developed as successors to the railbuses on branch lines. There are several sub-variants, with most vehicles having only one engine in one of the two cars. They were used all over Germany, with the variants with two engines being used more in mountainous regions. Since the turn of the millennium, they have been increasingly replaced by more modern vehicles that have better acceleration and air conditioning. Today, most of the remaining vehicles are used by the Südostbayernbahn in Lower and Upper Bavaria.

These vehicles were a series of 16 diesel powered railcars designed for high speed local service. They were given the numbers 137 326 to 331 and 137 367 to 376 by the Reichsbahn. Since they were only delivered after the outbreak of war, they were no longer used as planned in the Szczecin area. In order to keep up with the time, the requirements stipulated that the entire propulsion technology be housed under the floor and that the power be transmitted with a hydrodynamic transmission. Therefore, various manufacturers developed boxer engines, all of which had the same dimensions of the engine mounts. Each railcar consisted of two parts, each of which had an engine which acted on the front axle of the front bogie. 

During the war only test runs took place, whereby the engine power turned out to be insufficient. This problem could be solved by providing the engines with turbochargers and thus increasing the output from 275 to 400 hp each.

Nine railcars survived the war and came to both German railways. At the Bundesbahn they were designated VT 45⁵ and received new transmissions from Voith. In 1960 they were modernized and, in addition to new, weaker engines, also received a new interior design. They were decommissioned in 1969. The preserved vehicles were used by the Reichsbahn in the areas of Berlin, Stendal and Dresden. Although a few vehicles with damage in the propulsion system were converted to trailers at the beginning of the sixties, they were withdrawn from service by 1967. Only one survived longer and was assigned to the class 197.