Between 1907 and 1911, the Bavarian State Railways and the Salzburg Railway and Tramway Company (SETG) jointly procured a series of two-axle electric railcars for 1,000 volts DC that were to be used in cross-border traffic. The vehicles were characterized by the fact that they were almost identical in terms of vehicle construction and were mostly manufactured by MAN, but the electrical equipment came from the respective country of the operator.

The carriages were constructed in a manner similar to that seen on typical interurban trams at the time. The car body thus resembled the short, two-axle passenger cars. The differences consisted of the pantograph on the roof, the electrical equipment under the cab floor and the traction motors on both axles. It was also possible to carry trailers of about the same size.

The Bavarian railcars received the electrical part from AEG. The engines had an hourly output of 60 hp each and a continuous output of 50 hp each. In order to save on import duties for this equipment in Austria, only the car bodies were supplied by MAN and the equipment from the Austrian Siemens-Schuckert works was installed into them. Because these engines were more powerful, these vehicles could tow three trailers instead of two. A total of eleven vehicles were built at MAN for Bavaria and ten for Austria, and three more were manufactured at Simmering for SETG.

When the Deutsche Reichsbahn took over the Bavarian cars, they were designated ET 184⁰. From 1938 the section from Berchtesgaden to Hangender Stein was shut down and four years later the rest of the line was switched to alternating current. Most of the vehicles were handed over to the Hohenfurth electric local railway, which is located in what is now the Czech Republic. The remaining three were handed over to the SETG, where they were modernized in 1950 and received, among other things, more powerful motors.

The three Ce 2/4 were the first railcars that the BLS procured in 1910. They were four-axle, each with two bogies, and one of their requirements was to also carry passenger cars. The requirement was that 45 km/h could be achieved either with a 160-tonne train at 2.7 percent or with a 240-tonne train at 1.55 percent. The car body construction part came from the Swiss wagon factory Schlieren, while the electrical part came from Oerlikon and Siemens-Schuckert. The construction was based on the vehicles of the Hamburg-Altona city and suburban railway. Although it was technically planned to equip both bogies with two traction motors each, the construction was carried out with only two traction motors in one of the bogies for reasons of weight. When used on the Spiez-Frutigen test track, they were the first railcars to be used on high-voltage alternating current.

The car body was made of wood with metal paneling. The toilet room was in the middle and behind the driver's cabs was an open vestibule. There were front doors for connecting to the train, and a second railcar could also be entered with them when operating in double. In 1936, all three railcars were converted to the Ce 4/4, which had become possible as a result of advances in electrical engineering. Four traction motors with a total of 590 instead of the previous 330 kW could now be installed, which were lighter overall than the two old motors, and the two new transformers were now significantly smaller and lighter. At the same time, the chassis was modernized and the running characteristics improved. Another modernization took place in 1950, in which the nose-suspended motors were replaced by quills. Nevertheless, their use ended in 1953 and 1954, but some parts of the electrical equipment installed in 1936 were installed in the newly built BCFe 4/8.

After the First World War, the Reichsbahn operated the route in the Giant Mountains between Hirschberg (today Jelenia Góra) and Polaun (today Korenov) in cooperation with the CSD. The Prussian EG 551/552 to EG 569/570, which were actually designed for freight trains, were used for passenger transport, which was a major cost factor in relation to the very low passenger density in some sections. In addition, on the Czechoslovak section of the route, the CSD billed the usage fees according to axle-kilometres. This economic imbalance was to be ended by the introduction of railcars.

For the first time, a self-supporting car body in all-steel construction was realized on a railcar. The transformer with an output of 500 kW was located in its own compartment in the middle of the car body. A maximum of 468 kW of this went to the two suspension motors, which were each located on the inner axle of the two bogies. At the ends of the carriages, in addition to a gangway door, there was also the wiring for multiple controls and an electric train heater. The passengers quickly gave the railcars the nickname “Rübezahl”, after a mountain spirit from the Giant Mountains.

Eleven power cars and a total of 40 two-axle standard passenger cars were procured as trailers. Usually two railcars with eight trailer cars coupled in between were used and on less frequented sections one railcar was sometimes uncoupled and used alone. From 1934 the vehicles were also used on the Giant Mountain Railway to Krummhübel and the trailers were exchanged for a total of eight driving trailers, which were referred to as ES 89, analogous to the power cars. In 1945 three pieces came to Bavaria, where one of them was used until 1959. After the end of the war, the rest were located in the former German territory in what is now Poland and were not used by the PKP. There, the usable part of the electrics was removed and the rest of the vehicles were scrapped after 1954.

In 1935, the Reichsbahn procured two electric railcars with particularly generous glazing and initially referred to them as elT 1998 and elT 1999. They were built to show passengers the area on public or private special trips and, if necessary, also to increase the attractiveness of the railway in general as it faced increasing competition from road and air transport. In the new scheme from 1940 they became the ET 91.

Many measures were taken during construction to create the best possible view. The car body was glazed as generously as possible on the window fronts and also in the roof area without impairing its strength. The driver's cabs on both sides were located within the passenger compartment without any special separation and could only be separated from this with curtains for journeys at night with interior lighting. Furthermore, the partition walls between the passenger compartment and the entrance area were made of glass in the upper area and the toilet was installed as low as possible so as not to obstruct the view. With the exception of the pantographs, all the electrical equipment was laid under the floor of the car. A bogie was driven by two nose-suspended motors with a total of 390 kW and enabled the railcar to initially reach a speed of 120 km/h. This was reduced to 110 km/h after the installation of a sprung mounting, but in favor of the acceleration.

The two vehicles were based in Munich and were mainly used for tours in the Alps, often also in Austria and Switzerland. ET 91 02 was destroyed in a bomb attack in 1943, after which ET 91 01 was brought to safety about 60 km outside of Munich. This was also used by the Bundesbahn for special trips, right up until the time of the DB AG. From 1968 it received the class designation 491. Despite the increasingly difficult maintenance, it was not parked in the 1990s either. However, its life in service ended in December 1995 when it was badly damaged in a collision with a regional train in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Today it is in the Augsburg railway park in a non-operational condition. The restoration began in 2005, but was not completed due to the major damage.

Under the designation ET 56, the Bundesbahn procured a total of seven three-car multiple units in the 1950s, which were intended for fast local transport. They each consisted of two motor cars and a trailer, which was designated EM 56. From 1968 the motor cars were given the computer numbers 456¹ and 456⁴, while the trailers became the class 846.

A special feature of these vehicles, which were created in the post-war period, was that their technology still came from pre-war railcars, but the exterior was adapted to newly developed locomotives and railcars. The transformers and nose-supended traction motors of some type ET 25, ET 31/32 and ET 55 motor cars were used, which were in the inventory of the Bundesbahn with external war damage.

Since the entire equipment was already installed under the floor, they formed a good basis for modern railcars. The outer bogie of the motor car was driven on both axles and with the gear ratio of the former ET 55 90 km/h was reached. The car bodies in modern design were constructed as load-bearing tubes, which ensured a clean external appearance. The lower part formed skirts in which the aggregates were housed. There was a capacity of 262 seats per train and for expansion, several multiple units could be coupled together and driven in multiple traction.

The first area of application was the Stuttgart area, where they ran until 1970. They then came to Heidelberg, where the gear ratio was changed for a top speed of 110 km/h. The decommissioning lasted until 1986 and today none of the seven trains are left.

The name “Highliner” refers to two generations of double-deck railcars that are very similar in terms of appearance and technology. Each railcar has a length of 85 feet and four traction motors with an hourly output of 160 hp each. The first generation was built to order by Illinois Central for service in southern Chicago. Between 1971 and 1979, 130 and 36 were built by the St. Louis Car Company and Bombardier, respectively, which are no longer in service. The second generation was delivered by Nippon Sharyō between 2005 and 2016.

The railcars 800 to 804 were procured for the Ravensburg-Weingarten-Baienfurt interurban tram after it had been electrified in 1910 with 750 V direct current. Although the line was in Württemberg, it was operated by the Bavarian Localbahn-Aktiengesellschaft.

The vehicles had a total length of just over 13 meters and stood on two two-axle bogies, of which the outer axle was driven. Each was driven by a nose-suspended motor with a continuous output of 33 kW, which was initially supplied with electricity by a Lyra pantograph. Later these were first replaced by one and then by two diamond-shaped pantographs. Behind the six windows on each side was a seating group each, four of which belonged to the third class and two to the second class. In the third class there were two people on each side, facing each other, and in the second class there was a transverse, padded bench for three people on each side. This resulted in a capacity of 43 people.

If a higher passenger volume was to be expected, regular narrow-gauge passenger cars could be carried as trailers. The operating conditions and the available motor power limited the train load to two two-axle or one four-axle car. It was not possible to get from the railcar into the trailer while running.

The Reichsbahn started a rebuild in 1928, replacing the air brakes with modern magnetic track brakes. In addition, a few years later, the second-class compartments became third-class, which increased the number of seats to 48. From 1941 they were designated as ET 195 and kept this designation later on at the Bundesbahn. After they were first dark green, then from 1936 lime green with a beige window band and later beige-light red, they were given the typical maroon color scheme at the Bundesbahn. Since the use of newer vehicles from 1954, they were only used as reinforcement trains, but they remained in service until the line was closed in 1959.

South London commuter rail services, operated by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, were electrified from 1908 using overhead AC power. The implementation was carried out with 6,700 volts by the German AEG. As vehicles for these routes, three-car multiple units were ordered from the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd., now known as Metro-Cammell. Because of the competition from the new tram lines, only eight trains were ordered. Each initially consisted of two third-class railcars and a first-class intermediate car. All axles of the power cars were powered by an 115 hp motor.

Later, the trailers were removed and used in locomotive-hauled trains. At the same time, 14 mixed-class driving trailers were manufactured, each coupled to one of the power cars. The two additional power cars were provided as a reserve because they required more maintenance than the driving trailers. From 1928 the routes in south London were operated on 660 volts direct current from a conductor rail, similar to the current system. The Southern Railway, which had operated these routes since 1923, converted the vehicles for the DC system. These units, known as 2SL, each consisted of two former power cars, but only one bogie of one of the vehicles was powered. They were in use until 1954.

The eight railcars of the ET 10 series were manufactured by Krauss in Linz from 1928 for use on the Salzkammergut Railway and on the valley sections around Innsbruck. For cost reasons and to keep maintenance low, electrical components from the class 1170 electric locomotives were used. With two traction motors per car, an hourly output of 500 kW was achieved, but this resulted in an axle load that was too high for some routes. For this reason, an additional carying axle was built into each bogie, resulting in the wheel arrangement 3-A1A. The approximately 20.5 meter long cars held 62 passengers and reached a speed of 80 km/h with nose-suspended motors.

Four-axle 4041.05 in 1984 at the ÖBB open day

TARS631

With the integration into the Reichsbahn they became ET 83 01 to 08, from 1953 they were given the number 4041.01 to 08 by the ÖBB. With the increase in the permissible axle load, the middle axles were removed from the bogies and the wheel arrangement 2-B was created. Multiple controls were also installed during repairs and the front sides were redesigned. In the 1950s they were used as a shuttle train in Vienna, where the railcars ran “wrapped” between passenger cars, but were soon replaced by electric locomotives. The vehicles were decommissioned in 1973 and three were retained as preheating systems for the Floridsdorf repair shop. Thanks to this fact, they were later restored and one example could be used for special trips until the end of the 1990s.