Class 628.2 Diesel Powered Rail Car with a Class 928.2 Cab Control Car

A Quantum Leap in Commuter Service
The time is the Seventies. The rustic but advanced in years red rail busses dominate commuter service on West German rails. The German Federal Railroad had to give thought to a successor in order not to lose the last passengers to automobiles. The result was obvious. In 1974 the first new double powered rail cars, the class 628.0, came into service. This pre-production series turned out very well like the three single-motor prototypes of the class 628.1 built in 1981. It would be years until the regular production version was ordered. It came in 1988/89 to the DB roster with 150 units as the class 628.2 and introduced a new era in commuter and regional service. Together with several West German states that gave subsidies, modern commuter service concepts were developed which were viewed at the time as pioneering achievements and which served as a prototype for subsequent scheduled services in various regions. Compared to the rail busses, the comfortable class 628.1 units, which even offered a 1st class compartment, were a real quantum leap. These powered rail cars were appropriately popular with the passengers and the DB tried to make the handsome class 628.2 even more attractive. After several years most of the units were given improved interiors with wheelchair ramps as well as the new traffic red Regio paint scheme. The class 628.2 units provided reliable service, sometimes in multiple unit hookups, for more than a quarter century and exiled more than just the old rail busses to the storage tracks. They were a real milestone and can tell of the advent of a new commuter service era on model railroads too.

Prototype: German Railroad, Inc. (DB AG) class 628.2 diesel powered rail car with a class 928.2 cab control car. The unit looks as it did in Era V.