Operations
The Class 218 was a successful design made with the most modern and sophisticated components that were available in 1968. With a relatively high speed of 140 km/h, the locomotives proved useful on TEE, and with n-wagons with which they operated well past the year 2000.
Furthermore, after the dissolution of the GDR, and the merging of the two German railway systems they proved useful again on non-electrified sections of the former Deutsche Reichsbahn, however in the former West Germany some intercity services began to be operated by the DB Class 232 and 234 locomotives.
The locomotives were stationed in the depots of Regensburg, Stendal, Lübeck, Brunswick, Ulm, Hagen, Mühldorf, Karlsruhe, Rostock Hbf, Kempten, Halting and Kaiserslautern.
In 2000 there were 415 active machines, at this time also began the first decommissioning of machines that shown to be were in a bad state of repair on their scheduled inspections. At this time DBAG began to economise its fleet:
- The locomotives with serial numbers 101 to 399 were to be kept until 2003, but then be either retired, transferred for internal use, or sold to DB AutoZug.
- The 218.4 locomotives capable of push pull operation were to be used with double decker passenger coaches.
- The prototypes locomotives were reclassified as Class 225.8 and transferred to DB Cargo for freight use.
- The 218.8 sub-class modified for towing ICE trains remained in service.
In March 2008 were 235 active machines, or about 60% of the total Serienloks.
Read more about this topic: DB Class 218
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