Twenty-five two-car units were ordered by Railtrack to enable it to replace its varied collection of ageing departmental vehicles, many of which were converted from redundant passenger stock.

The later orders for the South East of England and for overhead line replacement are instead composed of two powered units, to give better acceleration and top speed.

The majority of each vehicle is a flat load bed that can carry combinations of 10-foot and 20-foot modules that are secured using the locking system for ISO standard containers.

Temporary multiple unit control cables were run along the wagons in order to connect the two MPVs, which are acting as locomotives working as a push-pull train.

[3] For a five-week period beginning in March 2005, trials were undertaken in Wales, transporting timber from Aberystwyth to a wood-chip factory at Chirk.

[5] The combined freight multiple unit (FMU) reversed in platform three at Wrexham General railway station and continued to the Kronospan private siding at Chirk.

Loading at the Aberystwyth end was done with the train directly on the running line as no suitable terminal facilities were available and could be managed in as little as 90 minutes, with the use of three lorries delivering the timber supply.

[5] Double-ended single-unit MPV number DR98008 is used by the Network Rail Asset Information department as a track geometry and video train.