I was recently e-mailed some information by Patrick Meeder, partly in English but mostly in Dutch, about the pre-war Nederlandse Spoorwegen Mat '34 diesel multiple units.
These were apparently based on the Deutsche Reichsbahn SVT units, but unlike the SVT units the engines were in a clearly defined engine compartment in the centre of the middle coach with the traction motors being mounted on the three axle articulated bogies, which each had two traction motors, the centre axle being unpowered. Also unlike the DR units, the maximum speed was a rather gentle 125 km/h (roughly 80 mph). As Patrick has pointed out to me, Dutch steam trains at that time operated at a speed of around 110 km/h and Electric trains at around 100 km/h. This made theMat '34 trains the fastest in the Netherlands until 1939, with the introduction of the 160 km/h DE-5 long distance diesel multiple unit. Additionally, the track infrastructure of the time wasn't suitable for high speed running as there were many sections of jointed track which would create a lot of noise.
Some of the units were fitted with other engines, five (36-40) were built by Allan and were fitted with two Ganz 8 cylinder 375hp engines (licence built by Stork) and Smit electrical equipment and the remainder were built in three batches - 11-25 & 41-50 by Werkspoor with 26-35 being built jointly by Beijnes and Werkspoor (some coaches built by Beijnes). The bulk of the units were built with two Maybach GO5 V12's of 410hp each, same as the DR SVT units, with Heemaf electrical equipment, which was to Westinghouse designs built under licence. One unit (41) ran from new with two Stork 6 cylinder engines of 360hp each but was converted to Maybach after a few years. Electrical control equipment was manufactured by Heemaf. Total length of all units was 62.8m over the automatic couplers.
Despite the ravages that the railways of the Netherlands suffered during the second world war, thirty of the original forty units survived to remain in service until the end of the winter timetable in 1964. One unit survives in preservation at Utrecht and is not operational.
While the appearance of these units is similar to the original DR SVT877 trains, the design varies in having the engines in a single compartment in the centre coach, opposed to a small compartment behind each drivers cab as in the SVT877. The centre vehicle also contains a small 3rd class saloon, a luggage area, four toilets and an engine pre-heater. There is a passage through the engine compartment, though this would be used only for maintenance access.
There are some pictures and information on European Railway Server :
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/nl/diesel/dmu/Mat34/pix.html
Patrick Meeder has very generously provided me with some scanned photographs of No.27, at the museum and also during a recent move to Blerick for storage while the Museum was undergoing refurbishment work.