The class 46 diesel railcars (formerly type 554) of the Belgian Railways were build after world war 2, to ensure traffic on local railway lines. The 20 railcars were derived from type 553, with some improvements (larger windows for a more panoramic passenger experience, build in toilet...). During the golden sixties, many belgian local lines were dismantled, due to increasing use of road vehicles. As railcars have limited running costs, they continue to be used where their limited capacity was large enough for the duty. In 1984, a major timetable review, known as "IC-IR Plan" (for InterCity-InterRegio) simultaneously offers better services on major lines and dismantlement of the remaining local lines. Class 46 became too small for the remaining duties. As they were not so old, most of them were reused as infrastructure railcars or bought by various heritage railways.