History and Design
The DB Class V90 locomotives are similar to DB Class V 100 (Class 211 & 212) locomotives, they stemmed from a need for a heavy shunting locomotive - it was originally planned to create a heavy shunting variant of the V 100 (ballasted and with reinforced frame) to be produced, but this did not come to pass due to the designs stability problems.
Maschinenbau Kiel in co-operation with BZA München designed a longer and heavier locomotive, of a completely new design. In 1964, a pilot production of 20 of these were manufactured with a 1,100 horsepower (820 kW) engine as used in the DB Class V100.1 and a 70 km/h top speed.
In 1974 the first locomotive of the main production was produced - these locomotives had the 1,350 horsepower (1,010 kW) engine used in the DB Class V100.2 and a top speed of 80 km/h, the length of the locomotive was also extended to 14.32m; by 1974 408 had been built by MaK, Deutz, Henschel and Jung.
The machines have both a Dead-man's vigilance device (German:Sifa) and "Inductive train control system" (German:Indusi) (see Punktförmige Zugbeeinflussung) safety devices
Originally the locomotives were deep red (RAL 3004), in the mid-1970s a new ivory / ocean blue (RAL 5020 - RAL 1014) colour scheme was introduced, in the second half of the 1980s an eastern red (RAL 3031) color scheme was used and since the late'90s, the locomotives are found in the current traffic (RAL 3020) red of Deutsche Bahn AG.
Since 2003, the locomotives have been upgraded with a new 1100-kW motor (type 8V 4000 R41 MTU) equipped, as well as other components being upgraded (specifically the hydraulic drive). The modernised locos save fuel despite having a higher rated engine. The serial number of the remotorised locomotives is increased by 500. (e.g. 290 030 becomes 290 530)
Read more about this topic: DB Class V 90
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