Class 221 Diesel Locomotive

Road number 221 126 – the big class V 200
It was a railroad icon in Germany, a loco that embodied the heyday of the German Federal Railroad almost like no other. We are referring to the legendary class V 200, the largest variant of which could put an impressive 2663 hp onto the rails. Between 1962 and 1965, sixty of these diesel powerhouses rolled off the production line at Krauss-Maffei as the class V 200.1. These brawny locos soon acquired mythical status – be it on the Black Forest Railroad or the Allgäu Line, on the "Vogelfluglinie" (Bird flight line) across the Fehmarn Sound Bridge, at the head of long-distance express trains on the “billiard table” between Hamburg and Osnabrück, and latterly operating heavy coal and steel trains throughout the Ruhr region. Many of these locos remain in service with private railroad companies today – some of them even wearing the former red and black-gray German Federal Railroad (DB) colors with the famous “V” on the ends. The class 221, as the loco was subsequently designated at the DB, exemplifies one of the most important chapters in German railroad history and is therefore an absolute must for every (Märklin) model railroader.

Prototype: Class 221 heavy diesel-hydraulic general-purpose locomotive. German Federal Railroad (DB). Crimson basic paint scheme. Road number 221 126-6. The loco looks as it did around 1975.