Diesel locomotive Calabro Lucane in southern Italy in 1926, following trials in 1924-5. In 1924, two diesel–electric locomotives were taken in service by the Soviet railways, almost at one time: In 1935, Krauss-Maffei, MAN and Voith built the first diesel–hydraulic locomotive, called V 140, in Germany. The German railways (DRG) being very pleased with the performance of that engine, diesel–hydraulics became the mainstream in diesel locomotives in Germany. Serial production of diesel locomotives in Germany began after World War II. In many railway stations and industrial compounds, steam shunters had to be kept hot during lots of breaks between scattered short tasks.
Diesel locomotive 1953. One of the first home developed diesel vehicles of China was the DMU Dongfeng (东风), produced in 1958 by CSR Sifang. Series production of China's first diesel locomotive class, the DFH 1, began in 1964 following construction of a prototype in 1959. The Trans-Australian Railway built 1912 to 1917 by Commonwealth Railways (CR) passes through 2000 km of waterless (or salt watered) desert terrain unsuitable for steam locomotives. The original engineer Henry Deane envisaged diesel operation to overcome such problems. Some have suggested that the CR worked with the South Australian Railways to trial diesel traction. However, the technology