DB Class 103

The DB Class 103 is a class of electric locomotive originally operated by the West German Deutsche Bundesbahn, built by a consortium of AEG, Brown Boveri & Cie, Henschel, Krauss-Maffei, Krupp and Siemens. Four prototypes were completed in 1965 and shown at Munich's International Transport Fair, and 145 production units followed from 1970 to 1973, entering service from May 27, 1970, for a total of 149 locomotives. On a Co-Co wheel arrangement with six traction motors drawing 15 kilovolt AC power, production units produced 7,440 kilowatts, roughly 9,980 horsepower, with a standard top speed of 200 kilometers per hour and some variants reaching 280 in testing. The Class 103 became the flagship locomotive of the West German Trans Europ Express and InterCity network, the backbone of the country's fastest passenger services and among the most powerful conventional electric locomotives ever built, until the InterCityExpress displaced it beginning in 1991.