Forgotten pioneer of DMU trains, Automotor Malaxa

[ixulescu]

I was looking today for the history of DMU trains, but I couldn't find what company produced them in numbers for the first time.

Incidentally, I know a Romanian company, MALAXA, that produced large numbers of DMU railcars in late 1930s. The cars looked very futuristic for 1930s. The drivetrains came in many versions, some were bought from the Hungarian company Ganz. Ganz also experimented with DMUs early. They even tried to sell Malaxa units to Egypt before the war, but the deal didn't go through. Ganz successfully sold their own models after the war: 100 railcars went to Argentina for the newly built Patagonia rail lines.








some preserved cars:



another Malaxa model:




This is Malaxa factory in the 1930s (it was nationalized under the name FAUR in 1949):






Ganz DMUs sold to Argentine in 1946

[ixulescu]

some period interiors of these trains (1940):






sometimes shorter trains were connected with no gangways between carriages as seen here:






engineers's cabin:

[Chesterfield]

It looks cute lol

[ixulescu]

It looks cute lol

it really was, compared to most trains in service back then, which were steam powered:

[The Lawspeaker]

The Netherlands saw a very heavy use of DMU units during the 1930s and 1940s and later on up until the 1990s.



From Blue Angels to Buffaloes to the contemporary Stadler GTW operated by Arriva. You name it, we've had them. I still remember this beautiful baby:

[ixulescu]

The Netherlands saw a very heavy use of DMU units during the 1930s and 1940s and later on up until the 1990s.

Cool DMU, I love those early streamlined trains.

This has me interested. What kind of DMUs were in use in the Netherlands before WW2?

[The Lawspeaker]

Cool DMU, I love those early streamlined trains.

This has me interested. What kind of DMUs were in use in the Netherlands before WW2?

I will need to look that up for you. Gimme a sec:

Mat '34 "Dieseldrie" and the Mat '40 "Dieselvijf"







And a Mat '34 1934 pattern second class interior shot:

[ixulescu]

I will need to look that up for you. Gimme a sec:

Mat '34 "Dieseldrie" and the Mat '40 "Dieselvijf"

Streamlined art deco beauty

I wasn't aware of it, it has no page on English wiki (it's only on Dutch Wikipedia).
Too bad many of these old trains have no pages (true for Malaxa and Ganz trains as well).

[The Lawspeaker]

Streamlined art deco beauty

I wasn't aware of it, it has no page on English wiki (it's only on Dutch Wikipedia).
Too bad many of these old trains have no pages (true for Malaxa and Ganz trains as well).

Those trains are not particularly not well known outside of the Netherlands (and there only along affectionado's and those who are old enough to remember them). I think we could learn a thing or two from art deco streamline design. Hell: I think we should modernise the general idea and bring it back.

[The Lawspeaker]

In fact.. after the war.. we had those streamliners with us for a long, long time (and they evolved from diesel to electric): from the Mat '46 (the first electric streamliners were the Mat '35 and Mat '36) to the Plan X (Blauwe Engel) and Kameel to the famous Mat '54. Later models like the Mat '64, DE3 and DE4 retained many of their characteristics but are no longer designated as streamliners but technically speaking the Mat '54 was our first high speed train as a test in 1958 led to one train reaching 160 km/h. The last of these Mat '64's retired in 2016 so I have very vivid memories.