History

The national Finnish rail operator VR Group

VR Group

VR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland. Formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995...

 ordered 16 diesel motor cars from the Czech manufacturer ČKD Vagonka, now ČKD Škoda Vagonka, in 2001.

VR was searching a diesel motor car to be used on low traffic regional services on non-electrified tracks years after the last of the earlier diesel motor car series

VR Class Dm7

The Dm6 and Dm7 were diesel multiple units built by Valmet in the 1950s and 1960s for Valtionrautatiet. They are known by their nickname lättähattu .- History :...

 had been decommissioned by the end of 1980s, and diesel locomotive pulled passenger trains had been found to be uneconomical for small-demand services. VR had earlier experimented with converting an old unpowered passenger car into a diesel motor car, but the prototype

VR Class Dm10

The Dm10 was an experimental diesel multiple unit built by VR Group's Pieksämäki workshop in 1994. It was based on a blue passenger carriage, Eit 23018, which was fitted with two diesel engines taken from HKL buses 601 and 608. The train had 80 no-smoking seats and had the driver selling tickets,...

 was never put to service and VR ultimately decided to acquire all-new cars. 16 Dm12 units were delivered in 2004–2006 and they entered commercial service in 2005. The units are used in regional and feeder services mostly in Eastern and Central Finland, but also on the Karjaa-Hanko route near the coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Dm12 is currently the only diesel motor car or DMU in operation in Finland.

The nicknames for the Dm12 are Peräkylän Pendolino (Backwoods' Pendolino

VR Class Sm3

The Sm3 Pendolino is a class of high-speed body-tilting trains operated by VR Group. It is a member of the Pendolino train family; its design is based on the ETR 460. The first two trainsets were assembled in Finland by Rautaruukki-Transtech in the mid-1990s...

), Skoda (after the manufacturer and Demari (from type designation Dm12).

Specifications

At a maximum, three Dm12 units can be coupled into a train to increase capacity. Each car has two passenger compartments, two entrance vestibules and a driver's cabin at each end of the car. The driver cabins have air conditioning. There are two places for wheelchair-using passengers, the unit has lifting platforms for wheelchair access and the toilet is designed to be accessible to the disabled. The heating of the passenger compartments uses waste heat from the diesel engines.

External links

• Dm12 on manufacturer ČDK Škoda Vagonka's pages