The Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railroad Company (NWE) ordered a four-axle diesel powered rail car in 1932 from the Wismar Powered Rail Car and Car Builder, Inc. to simplify and rationalize its passenger service. This unit had a 400 horsepower MAN diesel motor and was placed into service as road number T 1. The NWE was very satisfied with this unit and its maximum speed of up to 60 km/h / 37 mph thus resulted in two more powered rail cars of this type being bought. These units came starting in 1935 to the NWE route network as road numbers T2 and T3. They had a somewhat different superstructure. They had baggage areas instead of a passenger area and were equipped with a 520 horsepower motor to haul heavier loads. After the founding of the GDR in 1949, the NWE was confiscated and integrated in the newly established German State Railroad (DR). The motive power was reclassified in the numbering plan valid on the DR and it lost the original red paint scheme, since they were repainted in the paint scheme valid for diesel powered rail cars on the German State Railroad, in beige-red. Our LGB model reproduces the former NWE T3 that continued on the DR as VT 137 566. This powered rail car was used on the DR as a route maintenance vehicle as well as a freight hauling powered rail car.

DR class VT 137 566 diesel-powered rail car in Era III.