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.

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.