DMU
 

When did the DMU first enter service

Cheers Tony:)

I can't remember Tony but I burst into tears.
Stuart

I cant remember where i first saw one , i think it may have been Chesterfield Station , i thought its 2 coaches with no train !!!!!
But that all we see on the Robin Hood Line passenger wise

The first DMU I rode on, was in late 1950's/early 1960's and between Upminster and Romford, Essex.

What about the GWR rail cars of the 1930s ?

Were not the railcars single units ?

DMU implies more than one coach.:D

The North Eastern Railway ran Autocars with a Petrol engine.
Used on services around Tyneside and York.
http://www.electricautocar.co.uk/

The first generation DMU's built under the 1955 Modernisation Plan started to appear in service in late 1956. They were built by several builders including; Cravens , Metro Cammel, BR Derby and BR Swindon. All were distinctive and easily recognised as products of a particular builder. (Just like cars were individual before streamlining, now the only way to tell them apart is by the badge).

These terms are often misunderstood. The Rulebook is quite clear fortunately.

Traction Unit = one or more vehicles capable of moving under its own power.

Multiple Unit = A Traction Unit capable of working in multiple with other Traction Units

From this it follows that a Railcar is a unit, and if it can work in multiple with anything else then it is a mutiple unit.

The biting question here then is.....could a 1930 Railcar work in multiple with anything else ?

HTH

I was sitting on a stile by the Wirksworth Branch one day and this coach came ghosting down all by itself. Just a hole cut in the end for the driver's windscreen as I remember it (long time ago) It was the test bed for the mechanism that was to be fitted to the Derby Lightweights, most of which were also tested on the branch.

In general they were two and four car sets, but one of the two single units returned to the BR Research, when I was there, and christened "Iris", and is now in retirement on the branch, operated by the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. So she and I are old friends.