In 1923, Sentetsu received four steam railcars from Kisha Seizō which were designated Shiki1. They were combined of a small 2-2-0T tank locomotive and a passenger coach with a bogie at one end. After complaints about vibrations, one was scrapped in 1924 and the other three were rebuilt to regular locomotives without a coach. In this form, they were used until at least 1940.

In 1929, two steam railcars followed from Sentinel-Cammell which were designated Shiki2. In these, the steam engine and vertical high-pressure boiler were integrated into the car body. Six cylinders transmitted their power via a gearbox, creating an output of 30 hp. These two vehicles were also used until at least 1940.

The class 1000 EMUs were built between 1972 and 1997 for Seoul Subway Line 1. As South Korea did not have experiences in the design and manufacturing of EMUs at that time, Japanese manufacturers took over. The electric part was taken from the JNR class 415, while the design of the carbody came from the class 301. On the Seoul Metro section these trains operated at 1,500 V DC, what changed do 25,000 V AC on the national Korail network.

Korean manufacturers took over in 1976. Multiple generations were built over the years, which also differed in the appearance of the front ends. Originally the sets consisted of six cars each and were first lengthened to eight and then ten cars. While the six-car sets had four powered cars, the longer sets had six. The oldest were retired in the late nineties and the last ones followed by 2020.

The class 210000 designates a series of six-car multiple units that are used for the faster ITX-Saemaeul train type. Because of their speed of 150 km/h they are also called “EMU-150”. Three of the six cars have a 250 kW traction motor on each axle. Multiple working is possible with several other South Korean trains, but has not yet been used.

The first 24 sets were manufactured by Hyundai Rotem in 2013 and have been in use since 2014. In 2018 another order was placed with Woojin Industrial System Company Limited for 34 sets. Only seven of them will be made up of six cars each, as before, the remaining 27 will only consist of four cars each.

The class 311000 was developed alongside the classes 341000 and 351000 and was intended to replace the older class 1000 trains that originated from the 1970s. They each consist of ten cars and, unlike their predecessors, had regenerative brakes. In addition, thanks to a higher motor output, only five powered cars were needed. A total of 1,125 individual cars were built in four generations between 1996 and 2021. The shape of the head ends differs significantly depending on the generation. Also, the first two generations have GTO thyristors while the last two have IGBT thyristors.