Initial plans to build a direct railway between the two German cities were drawn up in 1831, however it was another 34 years until the railway actually opened. Previous to the direct route, trains had to travel via Büchen to join the...

Built between 1956 and 1964, the BR 361 (originally classified as V 60) is a diesel locomotive designed for shunting duties and the occasional light goods train for Deutsche Bundesbahn. In total, 942 of these shunters were produced, with...

Built by more than 20,000 worked between 1848 and 1854, the 41km (25 mile) Semmeringbahn (Semmering Railway) was the first standard gauge mountain railway ever constructed and is considered the first ‘true’ mountain railway, due to its...

The units have a top speed of 100 km/h (62 miles) and can run on 1200V DC Third Rail and 15kV AC overhead power supply, the latter being exclusive to the .3 variant of the BR 474. There were 112 BR 474s built in total, 24 of these being...

The Standard, or Einheitsdampflokomotive Class 86 was built between 1928 and 1943 by many of the German locomotive manufacturers of that era, it was a 2-8-2 tank locomotive and 776 were built. The first 10 locomotives were built with...

The high performance ES64F locomotive built by Siemens forms part of the company’s EuroSprinter range, and started life as a mixed traffic locomotive. However, almost all locomotives were reserved and assigned primarily for heavy freight...

Intended to be the first truly universal locomotive with capability to haul fast passenger trains and heavy freight loads, prototypes of the class were delivered in the late 1970s and more than 60 models entered service in the late...

The Rhine Railway runs from Mannheim to Rastatt, via Karlsruhe, and was opened in 1870 as an alternative route to the Baden Mainline. The line originally ran between Graben-Neudor and Karlsruhe, following a more western path to its...

Following the successful introduction of the Intercity-Express system across Germany in the early 1990s, Deutsche Bahn started plans to upgrade long distance services with higher speeds and raise comfort levels for passengers, and to...

The 96 kilometre (60 mile) route between Germany’s fourth largest city, Cologne, and one of the country’s oldest cities, Koblenz, runs parallel to the west bank of the Rhine for much of the journey, giving passengers spectacular views...

Built in Canada by General Motors, the BR 266 is based on the UK’s Class 66 diesel locomotive, externally resembling the UK locomotive in appearance but with a different internal control desk to accommodate for the addition of German...

A total of 397 units have so far been manufactured, with 325 ordered by Deutsche Bahn. The four-car EMUs primarily operate on Germany-Austria routes, with 37 units introduced to the Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen route in August 2013....