Weitzer railmotor

The railmotors of J. Weitzer Engine- & Waggon-Building & Iron Casting Joint-stock Company (Hu.: Weitzer János Gép,- Waggongyár és Vasöntöde Részvénytársaság) were Europe's first self-propelled railcars with internal combustion engine built in considerable numbers. The principle of their petrol-electric transmission and the four-cylinder petrol engines came from De Dion-Bouton in France. The electric engines were produced Siemens-Schuckert in Germany.

The first cars were constructed in 1903, the series since 1906. Reports of their use can be added to a total of 65 sold railmotors and 40 trailers. Most of these railmotors were built for 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) standard gauge, 11 for metre gauge and 11 for 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in) Bosnian gauge. The last ones ran on petrol-electric traction till 1960.

The Hungarian minister of trade, Lajos Láng, started a campaign for the development of self-propelled railcars in order to economize passenger transport on secondary railroads. The producers involved were Ganz & Cie., Weitzer Janos Rt., and Daimler-Benz, which fell out of competition. At first, two railcars with petrol engine and mechanical transmission were built, but they did not fit the demands.

Ganz & Cie., though very inventive on other subjects, choose a conventional solution, and in 1904 installed a steam engine instead of the petrol motor. This type of self-propelled railcars became class CmotVIIIa and CmotVIIIb of Hungarian State Railways (MÁV).

Weitzer's Company was more innovative (Johann Weitzer himself had died in 1902). They used the electric transmission, which De Dion-Bouton company had constructed for a small motor car of Pieper Company in Liège, Belgium. In that car De Dion Bouton even had installed a rechargeable electrochemical cell, so that this was the first car with hybrid traction.

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Wikipedia