SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

's X 4900 is a

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

railroad car A railroad car, railcar (American English, American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and International Union of Railways, UIC), also called a tra ...

of the Caravelle family. They are derived from the two-car X 4630 DMU with which they share the same Saurer engines as well as their hydraulic gear box. The railcars possessed more power than the other Caravelles as they are formed of two motor coaches and one intermediate trailer, this authorised them to run at a top speed of . Aesthetics are different from the other Caravelles as the painting scheme chosen is English blue, white and grey. Interiors were designed with care and benches ignored in favour of individual seats. The class was first allocated at Marseille-Blancarde

engine shed A motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or just "sheds". Facilit ...

, this led to the replacement of the X 2400 and X 2800 in the region. Their superior power led to their allocation to passenger service duties on steep

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

routes in the Southern Alps. The other members of the class were allocated to

Sotteville-lès-Rouen Sotteville-lès-Rouen (, literally ''Sotteville near Rouen'') is a commune and railway town in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography It is the largest suburb of the city of Rouen and adjacent to it, ...

. The 4900s in Normandy ran coupled to X 4500 and X 4750 around

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, and

Le Mans Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...

and as far as

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

and

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

. The Southern 4900s joined the Norman railcars upon the arrival of the BB 67400 at

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

. Despite the arrival in Normandy of the X 72500 and particularly of the X 73500, the 4900 have been taken out of service but in fact have kept to their regular schedule. The X 76500 delivered in 2004 will run between

and

along the 4900s. The three trains belonging to

Basse-Normandie Lower Normandy (, ; ) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Lower and Upper Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy. Geography The region included three departments, Calvados, Manche and Orne, that cover ...

received an extensive servicing at the beginning of the 2000s and kept their original livery. The 10 trains belonging to

Haute-Normandie Upper Normandy (, ; ) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Upper and Lower Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy. History It was created in 1956 from two departments: Seine-Maritime and Eure, when Nor ...

received the ''TER'' as well as a modernised cab, identical to that of the X 4630 renovated DMUs. Thanks to their reliability, the X 4900 will be kept for another fifteen years, unlike the X 4300 and X 4500 which will be retired.

Inventory

2006 list of railcars of the X4900 class.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sncf Class X 4900 4900 Diesel multiple units of France Train-related introductions in 1975