| Diesel Locomotive.
German Federal Railroad (DB) class 218 general-purpose locomotive. Diesel hydraulic locomotive with electric train heating. Version in a pure orange / light gray paint scheme as the “City-Bahn” locomotive on the route Cologne – Gummersbach.
Source: www.maerklin.de
City-Bahn. Branch lines have always been problem children for the German railroad. In 1984, the German Federal Railroad took a new approach to increase the attractiveness of service on little used routes. The project went under the name “City-Bahn” and initially one route for selected for this service: Cologne – Gummersbach. “Silberlinge” / “Silver Coins” commuter cars were used as rolling stock and were rebuilt to the latest standard at that time. A train café was set up in one of the cars and the exterior of these trains was borrowed from the paint scheme for the S-Bahn in the Rhine/Ruhr area. The paint scheme for the locomotives was adapted to that of the trains in order to achieve a high level of recognition for the “City-Bahn” product. Class 218 diesels were used on the route Cologne – Gummersbach. The railroad was able to register a clear increase in passengers thanks to the “City-Bahn”, and this increase was the result of the dense service at regular intervals. Without a doubt the “City-Bahn” concept kept rail service alive on routes threatened with abandonment until it was replaced by its successor, the “Stadt-Express” or “City-Express”. |
