Development
Beginning in 1976, the Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR recommenced their railway electrification efforts in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, which had also affected the East Bloc countries. Prior to this, Deutsche Reichsbahn had mainly acquired Russian-built diesel locomotives, such as the class 120 and the DR Class 130 family, as the Soviet Union had been providing the GDR with inexpensive heavy oil and diesel fuel. VEB Lokomotivbau und Elektrotechnische Werke Hennigsdorf, the only manufacturer of electric locomotives left in the GDR, was subsequently ordered to develop a modern lightweight, eight-wheel electric locomotive for both passenger and medium freight services, which was to be based on the heavy DR Class 250 Co'Co' freight locomotives. The bodywork and other mechanical components were developed and built at LEW's Hennigsdorf works, while the traction motors and other electric equipment were manufactured by EMW Dresden and various other producers.
The prototype for this new locomotive type was designated 212 001. It was built in 1982 and first presented at the Leipzig Spring Fair that year. As built, the locomotive was capable of a maximum speed of 140 kilometres per hour (87 mph). It underwent extensive route trials before being disassembled for evaluation purposes, and while being reassembled was modified for a lower top speed of 120 km/h (75 mph), which had been specified for all following production locomotives. At this time, the locomotive was redesignated 243 001. Owing to its special livery of white with crimson stripes, 243 001 was given the nickname Weiße Lady (White Lady). Production of the new class began in 1985 after 243 001 had proven satisfactory during her trial period.
Read more about this topic: DR Class 243
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—Judith Lewis Herman (b. 1942)
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)