Notes

I’ll admit, this picture isn’t good (in particular the kilometer post to the left is annoying). However, it is the only one of this particular type of train that I have at all, and I was under the impression that I had none of it before I found it in my archive.

This rather ugly thing is a class 634 DMU, a type of DMU used for regional railways and present for a very long time in the Braunschweig area, to which Vienenburg here belongs. Technically, it is derived from the class 624, which looks exactly the same, and is the predecessor to the class 614, which looks very different but is mostly compatible.

Originally, the 634 had an active tilting mechanism. However, the boxy body shape means that it really can’t tilt without leaving the loading gauge, which is why this was removed pretty quickly (but why couldn’t they have thought of it in the first place?). It also used to have a doorway at the front, similar to many british DMUs, but this was later removed, resulting in this odd window configuration. Nowadays, they are gone from service in Germany, but a number of them can still be found in Poland (picture by abruce6).

Oh, in case you were wondering, no, this train is not smoking that badly. That’s the (currently inactive since there is a lack of money for necessary repairs) 03 1010 hiding behind it.