Diesel locomotive Therefore, diesel traction became economical for shunting before it became economical for hauling trains. The construction of diesel shunters began in 1920 in France, in 1925 in Denmark, in 1926 in the Netherlands, and in 1927 in Germany. After few years of testing, hundreds of units were produced within a decade. Diesel-powered or "oil-engined" railcars, generally diesel–mechanical, were developed by various European manufacturers in the 1930s, e.g. by William Beardmore and Company for the Canadian National Railways (the Beardmore Tornado engine was subsequently used in the R101 airship). Some of those series for regional traffic were begun with gasoline motors
Electro-diesel locomotive whose electricity source is overhead line include: In 2010, Bombardier had plans, apparently known as "Operation Thor" or "Project Thor", to convert 500 existing diesel multiple units (DMUs) into electro-diesel multiple units (EDMUs). Whilst exact details are unclear, one source specified that these would involve their Voyager family DEMUs, and entail the construction of additional intermediate cars with a pantograph and a transformer which would feed power into the traction motors of the existing diesel-electric cars when running off overhead lines. Several, primarily diesel locomotive types and a multiple-unit have been built to operate off a third rail into the