As early as the 1920s, small railways were looking for ways to operate lines with low utilisation rates as cost-effectively as possible. They wanted to use railcars for this purpose and tried to incorporate components from bus design. The problem at that time, however, was that there were no efficient gears, especially no reversing gears. After initial trials in Denmark, the Triebwagen- und Waggonfabrik Wismar AG built the “Type Hannover”, a two-axle railcar that could be produced at a low cost by using numerous components from automobile construction. In order to enable driving in both directions, one Ford petrol engine was installed in each direction. Because of its low cost, this development was successful, so that in 1936 up to 5 different versions could be offered.

Our machine came as No. 1 to the Lüchow-Schmarsauer Eisenbahn GmbH and was damaged in 1944. In 1949 it was repaired and was put back into service with the new number T 141 and was taken out of service in 1968. After an interim stay at the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Historische Eisenbahn e.V., it came to our museum in 1985.