Motor coach (rail)
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A motor coach (International usage) or motorcar (US usage) is a powered rail vehicle able to pull several trailers and at the same time transport passengers or luggage.[1][2] With multiple unit train control, one operator can control several "motor coaches", possibly even combined with locomotives, efficiently in the same train, making longer trains possible. A motor coach is distinguished from a railcar or railbus by not being lightweight.
Motor coaches can replace locomotives at the head of local passenger or freight trains. Especially electrified narrow gauge lines on the European continent often saw this form of operation. Many of these railways closed down, many others changed to electric multiple units. But a few lines in Switzerland, Italy and Austria still work with train consists hauled by motor coaches. It can be expected that the Bernina line of Rhaetian Railway will continue for a long time to be operated with motor coaches pulling passenger and freight trains.
Examples of motor coaches[]
Two motor coaches of RhB in MU pulling the maximum allowed load of 140 t on the Bernina line
An old Bodensee-Toggenburg (Switzerland) motor coach pulling four coaches: not an EMU and not a railcar
Electric motor coach of CEV (Switzerland) with driving trailer
Metre-gauge electric twin motor coach ABDe 8/8 4004 of the MOB in Switzerland pulling two coaches and two cement wagons
A Czech diesel motor coach with a driving trailer
Examples of railcars[]
ARB BCFhe 2/3 6 in Switzerland, oldest operational rack railcar of the world, built in 1911
Soviet railcar AS1A at Museum of the Moscow Railway (Moscow Rizhsky station)
Czech railbus (now nicknamed Regiomouse)
Rack railcars of Gornergratbahn in Zermatt, Switzerland
Examples of multiple units not combined with other vehicles[]
Rack electric multiple units of Gornergratbahn in Zermatt, Switzerland: Two-car-units can work in MU
Two rack GTW of the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya working in MU on the Montserrat line
Two EM class EMUs in New Zealand
Bilevel EMUs in Chicago
An MU of Silverliners of Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)
Sankt Petersburg Metro EMUs
See also[]
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Categories[]
- Railcar
- Railbus
- Multiple Unit
- Locomotive
General[]
- Autorail
- British Rail Railbuses
References[]
- ^ Ellis 2006, p. 222.
- ^ Jackson 2006, p. 216.
Literature[]
- Ellis, Iain (2006). Ellis' British Railway Engineering Encyclopaedia. Lulu. ISBN 978-1-84728-643-7.
- Jackson, Alan A. (2006). The Railway Dictionary, 4th ed., Sutton Publishing, Stroud. ISBN 0-7509-4218-5.
- Railcars
- Multiple units