The two members of the 1900 class were built in 1956 by Commonwealth Engineering Company to BUDD car principles. They have two engines so were very uneconomical compared to the 2000 class. Only 1901 exists today (1900 was written off in an accident) and is occasionally chartered by enthusiast groups for tours and QR uses it for route training purposes and also inspections. 1901 was stored (heavily tagged by graffiti artists) at the Ipswich Railway workshops not in running order due to a fire in the electrical cabinet.

However 1901 has been fixed up and made available again in late 2006.