Class 218 Diesel Locomotive

For decades, the 399 production locomotives of the class 218 were a defining presence on the German Federal Railroad’s non-electrified routes. Indeed, some of these extremely popular machines remain indispensable to this day and are used to operate IC services through the Allgäu region as far as Stuttgart or in the far North. They can also be seen operating scheduled trains of red bi-level cars. By now, they have certainly achieved cult status! Throughout their long service life, the class 218 locos have always adapted to the various color schemes of the DB. To begin with, they were crimson, and today, they are traffic red. However, some ended up with unusual liveries. One of these, road number 218 341, received an elegant IC look at the Cottbus depot. The light gray loco body with a smart red decorative stripe suits the machine perfectly. This puts it in a special position because one-off designs always attract more attention – in real life and, of course, on a model railroad layout.