OCEM cars are French carriages designed by the “Office Central d'Etudes de Matériel de chemins de fer" for various railway companies in the 1920s. More than 2000 cars were built until 1940, all full steel construction . When formed in 1938, the French Railways (SNCF i.e. Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) inherited these cars, and operated them until, for the last one…, 1987. Very good lifespan!

Three main types followed one another:
- The 1st one was called "Rivets apparents". All the connections were done by rivets, all of them being visible. That was the classical way for metal assembly during that time.
- Then, considering that visible rivets were not very beautiful and making difficult maintenance, the contruction moves to “Parois lisses” type, (smooth panels). This type had still riveted connections, but side faces rivets were countersunk and not protruded from body, hence the name of these cars.
- Finally, the improvement in welding technique allowed to build welded body, where most of the rivets were replaced by welded assemblies.This final type was called "Faces lisses" (smooth faces).
Several evolutions or refurbishments happened during the life of these cars. We reproduce these evolutions through the various periods.

The pages of this site are OCEM type wise, then spread by period. We produced already 70 different models, and will go on little by little adding new versions.

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