DB Class 111
Encyclopedia
The Baureihe 111 is a class of electric locomotive
Electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or an on-board energy storage device...

s built for the Deutsche Bundesbahn
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...

, and now owned by Deutsche Bahn AG.

History

Class 111 is the successor of the Class 110 express Einheitslokomotive
Einheits-Elektrolokomotive
Einheits-Elektrolokomotive is a German railroad term for the Class E10, Class E40, Class E41 and Class E50 locomotives that were commissioned after World War II by the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany...

. Since demand for fast electric locomotives was high even after production of the 110 ended, the Deutsche Bundesbahn
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...

 decided to commission a new batch in the 1970s.
The bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...

s were replaced with a different type, significantly improving the locomotive's behaviour at higher speeds.
The engineer's workplace also was significantly improved by the DB-Einheitsführerstand (jointly developed by the Bundesbahn-Zentralamt München and Krauss-Maffei
Krauss-Maffei
The Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG or simply Krauss-Maffei is an injection molding machine manufacturer and defence company based in Munich, Germany...

 and designed under ergonomic aspects) that was first used for Class 111 locos and whose basic layout nowadays still forms part of the cab design found in many of DB
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

's locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s and control cars. For the first time, a digital cab car interface in addition to the then-standard conventional interface was used in new Deutsche Bundesbahn locomotives.

The first locomotive, 111 001, left the Krauss-Maffei workshop in December 1974. Up to 1984, 226 more engines were produced, not only at Krauss-Maffei but also including parts from Henschel
Henschel & Son
Henschel & Son was a German company, situated in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicles and weapons....

, Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

, Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....

, AEG
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau....

 and BBC
Brown, Boveri & Cie
Brown, Boveri & Cie was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies.It was founded in Baden, Switzerland, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 1970 BBC took over the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon...

.
111 227 originally was supposed to be the last newly built conventional AC locomotive of the Bundesbahn, as the Baureihe 120
DB Class 120
The DB Baureihe 120 is a class of electric locomotives operated by DB Fernverkehr in Germany.-Background and design:The locomotives' prototypes, delivered in 1979 , were one of the first electric locomotives with three-phase motors. They were based on experiences made in the 1970s with...

, using three-phase AC motors
Three-phase electric power
Three-phase electric power is a common method of alternating-current electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. It is a type of polyphase system and is the most common method used by grids worldwide to transfer power. It is also used to power large motors and other heavy loads...

, was already being produced.). However, after the German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

 it was decided to commission another batch of the Class 112, which had been developed by the East German railways
Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR
The Deutsche Reichsbahn or DR was the operating name of state owned railways in the German Democratic Republic ....

. This decision was made mainly for political purposes.

In 1979 it was decided to use the Class 111 for the S-Bahn
S-Bahn
S-Bahn refers to an often combined city center and suburban railway system metro in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark...

 trains of the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn
Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn
The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn is a polycentric S-Bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr , the Berg cities of Wuppertal and Solingen and parts of the Rhineland...

. Hence, the engines 111 111 to 111 188 were delivered in S-Bahn colours and equipped with S-Bahn gear (destination displays, e.g.). In the same year, the Intercity
Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)
Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...

 was reformed under the InterCity '79 scheme and the network was enlarged. As it was foreseeable that the Class 103
DB Class 103
The Baureihe 103 is a class of electric locomotives in Germany, originally operated by Deutsche Bundesbahn. For a long period, they were perceived as flagships of the DB rolling stock.- Development :...

 engines would be stressed with that workload, the 111's licence was extended to a speed of 160 kilometres per hour (99.4 mph), and from May 1980 onwards, the units could be found doing InterCity services.

Accidents

  • 111 109 was involved in an accident in the station of Wels
    Wels
    Wels is the second largest city of the state of Upper Austria, located in the north of Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is not part of its surrounding Wels County , but a so-called Statutarstadt . However, Wels is the county seat of Wels-Land.- Geography :Wels is located in the...

    , Austria
    Austria
    Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

    , crashing with the ÖBB 1042 560. The engineer suffered only slight bruises, however 111 109 was dismantled on-site on August 29, 1981 and not rebuilt later.

  • On November 24, 2006, 111 004 crashed into a truck which unlawfully turned back on a railway crossing and was scrapped in May 2008 after reconstruction was rejected due to economical reasons. Nine people were injured in this incident.

Trivia

  • The locomotive 111 111 carries the checksum
    Checksum
    A checksum or hash sum is a fixed-size datum computed from an arbitrary block of digital data for the purpose of detecting accidental errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. The integrity of the data can be checked at any later time by recomputing the checksum and...

     1. This is widely believed to be for cosmetic purposes (leading to a smooth looking 111 111-1 inscription) only, however the checksum is correct.

  • 111 030 was the first of the series featuring an advertising
    Advertising
    Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

     livery
    Livery
    A livery is a uniform, insignia or symbol adorning, in a non-military context, a person, an object or a vehicle that denotes a relationship between the wearer of the livery and an individual or corporate body. Often, elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or corporate body feature in...

    , advertising the musical Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampire
    Vampire
    Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

    s) in 2002.

External links

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