railcar VT 95 pre-series DB 724 Prüfwagen Indusi

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Note: An AC three wire version of this model is planned for release at a later date. This date has not yet been set.

The idea of using light road buses on rails and thus operating traffic on secondary routes at low cost fascinated and convinced from the start. The first attempts of this kind go back to the state railways and the DRG era, but it was not until 1949 that the lightweight construction was consistently taken up. Waggonfabrik Uerdingen, known for their lightweight superstructures, and Büssing, as a specialist in underfloor motors, quickly developed an innovative concept for the young Deutsche Bahn (DB) - the rail bus.

The aim was to serve secondary routes with inexpensive vehicles and thus reduce the operating costs of normal buses. In August 1949, the DB ordered ten railcars (VT) and five matching sidecars (VB). These rail buses had a very short wheelbase of 4.5 m in order to avoid complex chassis designs. It was driven by a Büssing U9 underfloor motor with a continuous output of 110 hp. This 6-cylinder pre-chamber diesel was used in the 5000 T omnibus type, so that the railcar and bus were comparable in terms of size and weight. At 3 m, the rail buses were also half a meter wider than conventional buses and, with trailers, had a total mass of around 29 tons. The first vehicles of the new VT 95 series were handed over to the DB for testing on March 22, 1950 and officially put into operation on May 2, 1950. The production included ten identical motor cars VT 95 901 to 910 and six sidecars VB 140 701 to 706. Two other motor cars deviated from the standard design - the VT 95 911 had four doors like all sidecars, while the VT 95 912 had a longer wheelbase of 6 .0 m, which was later also used in the series version VT 95.9.
VT 95 railbuses were initially equipped with a simple truck coupling, which was used to connect the railcar and sidecar. However, they were later converted to Scharfenberg couplers to ensure compatibility with the main series cars.

In the early years, the new railcars were mainly used in southern Bavaria (Kempten, Nördlingen, Schongau) and in the far north (Husum, Neumünster, Lübeck). With the increasing availability of production vehicles, all pre-production vehicles were brought together in the north in 1956.

The life of the VT 95 series was comparatively short, however. The VT 95 901 and 902 were taken out of service as early as 1962, followed by the other vehicles in 1964/65. An exception was VT 95 906, which was converted into an Indusi test vehicle in 1964 and is now the only survivor from the pre-series vehicle fleet, waiting for a possible refurbishment in Gerolstein.
The success story of the light railbuses was not limited to Deutsche Bahn. The CFL in Luxembourg and German private railways also recognized the advantages of these innovative vehicles and used additional railcars and sidecars.
The VT 95 rail buses thus left a lasting mark in the history of rail transport and are still regarded today as a pioneering example of economical operation on branch lines. Their combination of lightweight construction, efficiency and flexibility set new standards and had a lasting influence on the development of rail transport.