German Reichsbahn No. 801 to 804

The four vehicles with road numbers 801 to 804 were the first two-axle diesel railcars that the Deutsche Reichsbahn procured. They were built in 1927 and, after various rebuilds, especially with regard to the power train, some of them had a very long career in regular service, one example remained in service until 2002.

The car body came from Wegmann from Kassel and had a rectangular shape. Despite an exterior length of just under twelve meters, there were three doors on each side to speed up the boarding and deboarding of passengers on secondary routes with many intermediate stops. It offered space for 43 seated passengers, but later this number was reduced to 30 in favor of individual space.

Initially, it was powered by a four-cylinder diesel engine from MAN with 75 hp. This drove one of the two axles via a mechanical transmission. Since this performance was not sufficient in the long term, the engines were replaced in 1934 with new ones with six cylinders and exactly twice the power. With this conversion, the number 803 was the only one to receive a new hydraulic transmission. 

After the Second World War, two pieces each came to the Bundesbahn and Reichsbahn. The latter did not last very long, as one was converted into a trailer in 1950 and was later only used in construction trains. The other railcar was also retired in 1960.

The two Bundesbahn vehicles were given the numbers VT 70 900 and VT 70 901. They were sold to the Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft in 1954 and used there to pull trailers. For this purpose, they were equipped with new engines several times, most recently both received two 210 hp units, each driving one axle. As mentioned, one of these two was retired in 2002 after the line on which it was used was closed. The other is still in use today as part of the museum service of the so-called Teuto Express.