The History of First Generation DMUs

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The Railcar website provides information on the British Railways first generation DMUs (a.k.a. diesel multiple units / railcars) introduced in the 1950s.

The content of this website

The six key sections of the website are:

• Types - looks at each type of DMU in detail
• Topics - features articles on different aspects of the vehicles and personal recollections
• Technology - describes the technical details of how they work
• Data - various lists of numerical details
• Images - galleries featuring DMUs
• In Print - details the books and other printed materials made available over the years that have relevance

Details of railcars in preservation can be found on The Railcar Association website.

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Date on DMUs

Vehicle / Set Data

To view details of a particular vehicle or set enter the number below:

Vehicle:

       

Set No:

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DMU Images Wanted!

Do you have photos of First Generation DMUs? The more images we have the better we can tell the DMU story and make it more useful to visitors. Images can be loaded directly onto the site - just register as a user and upload! Alternatively if you have images on flickr or another website I can do the uploads for you - just let me know.

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Scope

This website contains details about the First Generation DMUs. This includes the 4-wheel diesel railbuses, ACV / BUT railcars, the Battery Multiple Unit (BMU) and Blue Pullmans. It covers the period from their introduction to British Railways in the 1950s till their withdrawal and disposal from main-line use, but NOT preservation.

Because of the vast amount of data that this covers and the amount of information I have still to process I cannot include the DEMUs introduced on the Southern Region in the same era, nor Second Generation or later types.

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Updates

June 6th

Added to the headcode pages are five more summaries of those used on the London Midland Region from the Western, Central, and North Western Lines.

May 30th

Some new operation/timetable pages have been started: Long Melford - Bury St Edmunds; Liverpool - Wigan North Western; Monkseaton-Blyth / Newbiggin; Stirling - Dollar - Kinross; and Cardiff - Crewe.

May 23rd

Added to the document archive are the June 1975 amendments for Issue 2 of Standard Examination.

May 16th

Added to the headcode pages are summaries of those used on the London Midland Region Midland Lines in 1961.

May 9th

Some new operation/timetable pages have been started: Colchester / Wivenhoe - Brightlingsea; Lancaster - Barrow-in-Furness; Hull - Brough; Edinburgh - Hawick - Carlisle; and Plymouth - Paignton.

May 2nd

Four Class 101 General Arrangement drawings have been added.

April 25th

Added to the headcode pages are five more summaries of those used on the North Eastern Region (Sections G - L) in 1961.

April 18th

Some new operation/timetable pages have been started: Upminster-Tilbury; Buxton - Millers Dale; Leeds - Doncaster; Rutherglen - Possil / Dalmuir; and Cardiff Queen Street - Cardiff Bay.

April 11th

New in the document archive are the Job Descriptions from Issue 2 of Standard Examination, the 1970s version of maintenance instructions.