Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: DMU

I took this on New Year's Eve, after getting to Cardiff in the nick of time to meet my friends. I took several other cameraphone shots along the way, although nothing to speak of. I originally had hoped to get the number of this unit, but again I was using a cameraphone, so the exposure from the headlights was too much. This had been my first trip on Great Western after it reverted to its pre-1948 name, after having operated as "First Great Western" (in reference to First Bus) since privatization, and the creation of the train operating companies (TOC's) in 1996.

I woke up during the switching move in Berlin Ostbahnhof, and took some cameraphone shots. I was surprised to see a DMU in service so late a night, although it may have been on a training run. It's also possible that there really are 24-hour local services into Ostbahnhof, but generally local services throughout Europe are cut back during the night to accomodate freight and MOW trains. I'm not sure of the class, but it appears to be a 646. At first I thought that it was an EMU, since we were in electrified territory, but none of the EMU photos on the European Railway Server seem to match it.

Here's another Coradia shot, but from the trip back. I got this one with my cameraphone.

This is an Alstom (BR) Class 175 Coradia DMU. They were intended as a new generation of DMU that could operate at 125 m.p.h., although this was quickly downgraded to 110 and then to 100. 125 m.p.h. DMU's were eventually produced (in the form of the Virgin Voyager and BR Class 180), but the 175 Coradia never ended up filling such a role. Originally introduced in 2000 on First North Western, they have since been transferred to Arriva Trains Wales. Given the absurdity of the BR privatisation scheme, they have never been owned by a railway or Train Operating Company (TOC), but are instead owned by Angel Trains and leased to the TOC's, at much greater expense to the taxpayer. On this trip, I was on my way to Abergavenny for some hiking.

Kladno is a junction for local and commuter services in and out of Prague from the Northwest, and this Class 854 DMU had just brought me from Prague. There is also a small airport here, which I visited on my trip.

This is one of the Seimens RegioSprinter DMU's used by Vogtlandbahn for cross -border services between Germany and the Czech Republic, particularly the Northwest of the Czech Republic. I wasn't expecting to see one of these, but given where Karlovy Vary is I shouldn't have been surprised.

#830090-7 is an 830 Class DMU, originally classified as an M242 DMU. These units were produced from 1949 to 1960 by Tatra, CKD, and Kralovopolska, and could operate at up to 90Km/h. The class stayed in use on CD until 2008, and many examples, like this one, have been preserved.

M131.1238 is an M131 Class railbus, later reclassified a Class 801 under the 1988 renumbering scheme. These units were produced from 1948 until 1956 by Tatra, eventually totalling 549 for the fleet, a very large number when you consider that none remain in service today, as all were withdrawn by 1984, a service lifespan of only 36 years, with some serving less than 30. Their small size may have had something to do with this, as they could only seat 48 people to a modern 810 Class's 55, plus 40 standees, along with their maximum speed of 60Km/h compared with 80Km/h for an 810. Other antiquated features would have been their mechanical transmissions (compared to the 810's hydraulic transmission), and their antiquated Tatra T 301 engines, which were based on the old Tatra T111 from Tatra's World War II-era trucks, that in spite of having 14.8 liters displacement from 12 cylinders, only produced about 155-160 horsepower.

This is a Class M240 DMU, used on suburban and rural branchlines up to the present day. Built by Skoda between 1959 and 1964, these DMU's are old, so they probably don't have too many years left in service. I looked the fleet up on Wikipedia, and only two were listed as still in service as of 2009, one of them in MOW service. Therefore, the remainder are heritage units like this one.

This is a Class M262 DMU, common on many suburban and rural CSD branchlines in the 1950's-1980's. Introduced in 1949 and produced until 1960 by Tatra, a few of them are still used for excursions, but as far as I know none of them operate in regular service anymore, as the last were officially withdrawn in 2008.

Unhost has at least some serious traffic, albeit all of it diesel. Here an 854 Class runs express through the station.

Neratovice is a mid-sized town near Prague that's sort of a suburb, although it's not officially part of Prague. Here a northbound (I think) local is worked by a Class 854 DMU, with the yard mostly buried in snow.

This was the rather retro-looking interior of our 842 Class DMU. Ceske Drahy has a number of different DMU's, of both diesel-hydraulic and diesel electric classes. 842's are electric, although since this is the passenger compartment it isn't obvious.

I didn't get the number of this DMU as we were passing Chlumec, basically because I was using the cameraphone, but it should be a 852 Class, at least.

This was my train to Cardiff, on the left. It's obviously a rebuilt Intercity 125, but I don't remember if this was one of the reengined ones.