European Railroad Discussion > German railbuses of the 1960's

Germany was an early convert to diesel multiple units, beginning in the 1930's.

German railcar manufacturers such as Waggoneau & Machinenbeau (pardon my spelling) produced two axle railbuses both for the German rail network and for export.

The first illustration shows a DB railbus and trailer at Hof, Germany in 1969.

The second shows a Waggoneau railbus adapted for high platforms and tighter clearances of the UK in preservation on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

Finally, well into their fifth decade of service, a German railbus and trailer are shown at Havana Christina station. Since this image was taken in 2003, the FCC has extensively rebuilt some of the large fleet which DB donated to Cuba.

Cubans are skillful rebuilders, and after a large fleet of Chinese built intercity buses were introduced to replace many branch line trains, the FCC mechanics rebuilt many DB railbuses and returned them to service after the Chinese highway buses proved unreliable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/22 20:14 by eminence_grise.

Nifty! Thanks for the history!

There are HO models available (Marklin?)of the original type of railbus used in Germany.

The concept of the railbus was for use as branchline passenger trains. In Germany and in the UK, many of the lightly trafficked branch lines they were intended for were abandoned in the 1960's and 70's.

Very cool models, thanks for sharing! Really bus like like the name says.

The one in the first picture was re-marketed at Innotrans 2012 fair and seemed to be incredibly popular among the visitors.

I know ROCO makes some nice models of the German one as I have some and here are a couple pics of some super detailed/weathered ROCO models.

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Very life like! Though it is Roco. If you just had taken the pictures outside, it would had looked convincingly realistic...

The Schienenusse spelled doom for many brabchline steamers, so they were not very popular with many railfans until late in their existence. Interseting that the East German (DR) version with the pigs snauts made to Cuba.

ThomasE

I think I rode at least one railbus during my 15 months in Germany 1965-66.

ken15

Posted from Android

AFE in Uruguay also had load of DB Airbus cast offs too.

ken15 Wrote:
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> I think I rode at least one railbus during my 15
> months in Germany 1965-66.
>
> ken15
>
> Posted from Android


The East German DR railbuses were active in the former East in the 1990s. I rode one from Teistungen to Leinefeld in 1997. Unfortunately the line is now closed.

Krokodil Wrote:
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> The Schienenusse spelled doom for many brabchline
> steamers, so they were not very popular with many
> railfans until late in their existence.
> Interseting that the East German (DR) version with
> the pigs snauts made to Cuba.
>
> ThomasE

The Schienenusse delivered to Cuba were the East German version.

The pig snouts or Schweineschnaeuzchen were pre war buses, photos you can find on

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggonfabrik_Wismar_Typ_Hannover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9Wh-EvgTU
http://www.bahnbilder.de/name/galerie/kategorie/deutschland~triebzuege~typ-vt-wismarer-schienenbus-schweineschnauzchen.html

Erwin from Austria