Design
The wagon body rested on a frame consisting of two lattice girders that converged at the front and rear. The girders had holes in them to save weight. The entire construction was welded, which meant that the Wismar railbus was the first fully welded railway vehicle in Germany. Its profiles were creased and the suspension springs were mounted on rubber sections. The entire railbus weighed just 6 tonnes.
One feature of this vehicle were the rubber-sprung wheelsets, with rubber elements being inserted between the tyre and the wheel body. So this design feature, which was used on the Intercity-Express, is not actually a modern discovery. However, as a result of the short wheelbase of only 3.5 m to 4 m the vehicle tended to hunt slightly.
The prototype had revolving doors, but most of the production models had 740 mm wide sliding doors.
At each end there was an identical motor installation with Ford petrol engines, that drove the first axle via a four-geared drive and cardan shaft. Only the front motor facing the direction of travel was used and was operated by the driver's cab at that end. When shunting or if an engine failed, the railbus could also be driven in reverse.
Students from the Bauhaus school, the famous German design school, helped with the interiors. That can be seen from the clear shapes and the design of the upholstery. The walls were clad with plywood and the floor covered with linoleum. The seats were upholstered and the windows could be partly wound down. The driver's seat, at the end which was not in use, was folded up so that the entrance remained clear. Heating was initially provided by a fresh air heater using the warmth of the engine; later Webasto heaters were installed as well. The interior was electrically lit.
To begin with, Ford AA motors (the lorry version of the Ford Model A) were used, but in 1935 more powerful Ford BB motors were installed, enabling the top speed to be increased from 50 km/h to 60 km/h. These railbuses may be recognised by the vertical grills on the radiators.
Only two examples of the wood-fired version were built. They had a wood burner installed inside the wagon, replacing a group of seats. These are distinguishable by the missing window.
Later various motors were installed in the rebuilds, the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR using Robur Typ 4 KVD 12,5 SLR engines.
In order to be able to carry large items of luggage and goods, many railbuses were fitted with roof racks, which were also common on buses. The space next to the bonnets was also often used to attach wire mesh baskets or bicycle racks.
Another new feature was the livery, with a red coach body and beige window strips. Even various passenger and luggage trailers were offered, but only the Fliegerkommandantur List had one of these trailers delivered from Waggonfabrik Wismar.
Some of the railbuses for the Saar railways were quite different from the standard models. After procuring two of the standard railbuses, two more were ordered with wider doors and benches running fore-and-aft, and a further four railbuses with 6 m wheelbase and diesel motors with common Mylius drives, that enabled the vehicle to be driven with both engines simultaneously and both axles to be driven. In addition they had 50 horsepower (37 kW) diesel motors by Humboldt-Deutz.
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