Arnold HN2492 N E-Loc BR 1812 of DB
The electrification of various railway lines between France, Luxembourg and Germany in the 1960s and 1970s created an increased demand for two-system locomotives for operation at 15 kV, 162/3 Hz and 25 kV, 50 Hz.Based on the experience with the four locomotives of the 181.0 and 181.1 series, the Deutsche Bundesbahn ordered 25 two-system locomotives, which were put into service as series 181.2 (181 201 to 181 225) from 1974. The first 10 machines were still delivered in a steel-blue paint finish, with 181 211-225 the new two-color paint scheme of the DB was already applied in ocean blue and beige.Some of the locomotives were named Lorraine (181 211), Luxembourg (181 212), Saar (181 213) and Mosel (181 214), depending on their area of application.The main area of application of the 3,300 kW electric locomotives was initially cross-border traffic on the Frankfurt a.. M.. â Metz and Strasbourg â Stuttgart, where they carried fast, oil and freight trains. In IC and EC traffic they were also seen in Luxembourg, Basel, Leipzig and other German cities.It was not until 2018 that the era of this series ended at the German Railways AG Meanwhile, however, some locomotives have come back to the tracks by other railway companies and enrich the vehicle diversity of modern railways.This text is machine translated.