Renault ADP

The Renault ADP was a type of railcar built by Renault and ordered by the Etat, Paris-Orleans-Midi and Est railway networks in 1935 and 1936, but finally delivered to the newly formed SNCF in 1938 and 1939 as the series X 4960 and X 4980. The eighteen railcars were powerful for their time, at 368 kW, but had a fragile engine, and some worked difficult lines of the Massif Central; the last was withdrawn in 1974. Renault built it because the V12 engine of the VH railcars of 1933, at 162 kW, was at its limit on lines with a hard profile, so it designed the type 504, a 16-cylinder V engine of 368 kW (500 hp) at 1,500 rpm that ran on the test bench in mid 1935. A prototype fitted with it in December 1935 averaged 137.4 km/h on a journey from Paris through Nancy, Strasbourg and Mulhouse and back.