History
Since the success of the SVT 877 "Flying Hamburger" DRG projected a set of Diesel multiple units for a high speed network from Berlin to several German cities. First built 1934/1935, the "Bauart Hamburg" showed some differences to the prototype: The number of seats was 77 instead of 99, the placement of the seats 2+1 instead of 3+1. The Bauart Hamburg was 2,3 m longer.
The main line Berlin-Hannover-Cologne started July 1, 1935; the route Berlin-Leipzig-Erfurt-Frankfurt followed August 15, 1935. From 1936 a service Berlin-Nuremberg-Munich/Stuttgart was initiated.
On February 17, 1936, the "Bauart Leipzig" achieved a world speed record of 205 km/h. These trains did the route Berlin-Breslau-Beuthen from May 15, 1936. The scheduled time was 4:17 h, meaning an average speed of 109 km/h.
The SVT service was halted in August, 1939. During World War II some of the trains were used by the Wehrmacht as military trains.
After World War II some of the SVT 137 were handed over to other states. The SVT 137 274 was used in the American occupation zone, it was transported to Fort Eustis, Virginia, USA, as a "technical interesting object". SVT 137 852 served the CSD in 1949 on the line Praha-Bratislava. SVT 137 855 entered service at the SZD USSR as trainset DP-14.
The remaining SVT 137 were used by the Deutsche Bundesbahn as VT 04 / VT 06 and the Deutsche Reichsbahn as class 137, later class 183.
DRG SVT 137 225 "Bauart Hamburg" (picture above) was used by the GDR government until 1975. In 1991 this train was repainted in its original colours. Today it is exhibited at Leipzig main station.
Read more about this topic: DRG Class SVT 137
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