The NS Mat '54 or Materieel '54 was an

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

train, used by the Dutch State-owned railways from 1956 until 1996. The typical nose of the train was designed for extra safety for the train driver. The public gave the train a nickname: ''Doghead'' (''Hondekop''). The trains were built by

Allan of Rotterdam Allan & Co was a former railway rolling stock and tram manufacturer based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The full name of the company (in Dutch) was ''Allan & Co´s Koninklijke Nederlandsche Fabrieken van Meubelen en Spoorwegmaterieel N.V.'' The com ...

Beijnes Beijnes (1838 – 1963) is a defunct Haarlem manufacturer of carriages, buses, trains, and trams. It was closely associated with the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HIJSM) History J.J. Beijnes the elder opened a horse carriage sho ...

and Werkspoor. Equipped with a Scharfenberg coupler, they could run in series. Not only with the same model but also with older models, the NS Mat '35, NS Mat '36, NS Mat '40 and NS Mat '46. The trains were intended for express train services. Rapid acceleration was of less importance than comfort and therefore the trains were solidly constructed, which resulted in a relatively high weight per seat and gave a very smooth and (for that time) very comfortable run. It is still the heaviest passenger train type to ever ride a European railway. The train needed three minutes to accelerate to a speed of a 120 km/h. A variant is the NS Mat '57 for

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...

-service which was equipped to ride with the difference in

electric current An electric current is a stream of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface or into a control volume. The moving pa ...

used on the Dutch and Belgian railways so it could connect

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

with

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. From 1954 till 1962 a total of 153 were built: 73 models with four coaches, 68 with two coaches and 12 for the Benelux-service consisting of two coaches. The trains were painted in green and yellow. In 1968 a new yellow blue color scheme was introduced. It took until 1980 until the last train was painted in new colors. The reason that it took twelve years was because the green paint lasted very well and the Dutch railways tried to cut costs wherever possible. The Benelux models were painted dark blue and yellow. Two of the trains were involved in the

1975 Dutch train hostage crisis On 2 December 1975, seven South Moluccans seized a train with about 50 passengers on board in open countryside near the village of Wijster, halfway between Hoogeveen and Beilen in the northern part of the Netherlands. The hijacking lasted for ...

and

1977 Dutch train hijacking On 23 May 1977, a train was hijacked near the village of De Punt, Netherlands. At around 09:00 that morning, nine armed Moluccan nationalists pulled the emergency brake and took over 50 people hostage. The hijacking lasted 20 days and ended wit ...

References

{{Reflist Electric multiple units of the Netherlands Train-related introductions in 1956