Passenger railcar AVA^АМ_МОТ 758

The AV^АМ_МОТ 758 railcar is a self-propelled car for transporting passengers, equipped with a diesel engine. It was built at the Malaxa plant in Romania in 1939 and made its way to the USSR during the Great Patriotic War as spoils of war. For a long time, it was operated on the Oktyabrskaya Railway as the official car of the head of the railway. Property of the Central Museum of Railway Transport of Russia.

Serious improvements made to diesel engines let the 1920s and 1930s become a time of mass introduction of diesel engines on railways around the world.

As a result, many countries began to design rail motor cars (railcars) and diesel trains, equipped with high-speed and light-weight diesel engines, which were more economical, had a better engine life, and were more efficient than petrol carburettor engines.

The new rail motor cars were founded on the same concept. They were high-speed (120–160 km/h), all-metal diesel cars with sleek, aerodynamic shapes, designed to carry wealthy first and second class passengers. Passengers were offered an unprecedented level of comfort — soft sofas, an air-conditioning system, and buffets in a dedicated car. Specially designed trucks were developed for high-speed rail motor cars, providing quiet and smooth travel at speeds over 100 km/h, which was quite a feat for engineers of the time.

In the early 1930s, Budapest-based Hungarian engineering plant Ganz developed its own type of high-speed railcar, which was named after Hungarian national hero Árpád. From 1933 to 1940, the plant built 40 Árpád high-speed railcars for the railways of Hungary, Belgium, and Egypt. In 1934, Ganz sold a licence for the manufacture of diesel engines and mechanical transmission to Romanian engineering plant Malaxa in Bucharest.

In 1939, Malaxa began manufacturing its own high-speed railcars, which were almost exact copies of the Hungarian licenced versions. Between 1939 and 1954, 43 of these railcars were produced, numbered from 751 to 793. On Romania’s Căile Ferate Române railways, they were designated as Class 78. Most of them were operated on the Bucharest–Brașov and Bucharest–Constanța lines. Class 78 underwent repeated modernisation throughout its years of service, and its operation in Romania ended in 2010.

Railcar AVA^АМ_МОТ 758 was built in 1939 at the Malaxa plant in Bucharest, Romania, under the designation 78 759. In the USSR, it was renamed to AVA^АМ_МОТ 758 (“avtomotrisa, motornaya” (railcar, motorised), number 758). In 1948, after examination in the rolling stock repair workshops at the Unecha Station on the Belarusian Railway, it was delivered to the Oktyabrskaya Railway, where it was used as the official car of the head of the railway and was known as Ok 1. It operated in this capacity until 1989.