DSB electric train type IR4 (also known as class ER) is practically identical with the three coach diesel train IC3,
except that it is electric driven and has four coaches instead of three. The diesel and electric units are often coupled
together into one and the same train. A typical use is that a long IC train consisting of both IC3 diesels and IR4
electrics leaves Copenhagen jointly, but is somewhere on the way, like Fredericia for example, split up into several trains, one of
which is electric and the other one diesel, each heading in different directions.
These trains were built 1993-97 by Scandia. They were originally intended for only regional traffic, but especially due
to the failure of the Italian IC4 trains they had to form the backbone of InterCity traffic for a long time in Denmark. In 2026 new
Talgo trainsets are now gradually replacing these from the most prestigious InterCity lines and these are being pushed back to less important
areas such as the regional traffic around Esbjerg on the Jutland peninsula.
Picture from Odense 13.3.2014 by Ilkka Siissalo.