Diesel railcar 174 001 with a trailer of the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

■ Version in fictitious DR livery
■ Separately applied windscreen wipers
■ Plug-in parts attached to the railcar to provide an authentic reproduction of the front skirt
■ With on-board decoder in the railcar and function decoder in the trailer as well as switchable light and sound functions

WHAT IF...?

At the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1982, the wagon manufacturer Studenka from the former CSSR exhibited a class M152 railcar at the exhibition centre, along with other rail vehicles. The Deutsche Reichsbahn had been looking for a successor to its Class 171/172 light railcars for some time, so the DR decided to rent this railcar for test purposes and to test its usability. It was to be given the series number 174.
It was not used immediately by the DR but several months later test runs could begin on branch lines in the Halle/Magdeburg area in the autumn of 1982. At the DR's request, the manufacturer in Ostrava registered the railcar as class 174 001-8 following DR standards. The multi-coloured livery was retained for the time being. The sidecar delivered a little later was then no longer multi-coloured, but only painted in a plain red.
Due to a foreign trade deficit, the GDR (DR) was unable to procure any further railcars in the CSSR and so the rented test vehicles were returned in December 1983.