The DB Baureihe 120 is a class of

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s operated by

DB Fernverkehr DB Fernverkehr AG (, "DB Long-Distance Traffic") is a semi-independent division of Deutsche Bahn that operates long-distance passenger trains in Germany. It was founded in 1999 in the second stage of the privatisation of Deutsche Bahn, under the ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. In November 2023, the last locomotives of this series were decommissioned by Deutsche Bahn. A few were sold to private railway companies and are operational.

Background and design

The locomotives' prototypes, delivered in 1979 (Mark 120.0), were one of the first electric locomotives with three-phase motors controlled by

thyristor A thyristor (, from a combination of Greek language ''θύρα'', meaning "door" or "valve", and ''transistor'' ) is a solid-state semiconductor device which can be thought of as being a highly robust and switchable diode, allowing the passage ...

-based

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconduct ...

. This principle, mainly devised by the German branch of Swiss-based

Brown, Boveri & Cie Brown, Boveri & Cie. (Brown, Boveri & Company; BBC) was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies. It was founded in Baden bei Zürich, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oer ...

lay the foundation for all current electric and diesel-electric rail engines. For this, the Mark 120 is often acclaimed as milestone in locomotive technology. They were based on experiments made in the 1970s with diesel-electric test platforms (Mark DE 2500/ DB Mark 202). In Norway, a new four-axle Locomotive, Mark El-17, was launched during 1983 with top speeds up to . The design was intended to be the first truly universal locomotive, capable of pulling fast passenger trains as well as heavy freight trains. While the electric equipment exceeded expectations, the mechanical part suffered from its lightweight construction necessitated by the heavy electronics of the time. After extensive tests, a series of 60 locomotives (Mark 120.1) were ordered in 1984 and delivered in 1986–1988. Original plans to build up to 2,000 machines were ultimately ended by

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

and the politically driven decision to support the economy in the former DDR by procuring the DR 243 (DB BR 143) instead. The 120s went to DB Fernverkehr, the other divisions of

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

ordered locomotives that featured technologies from the 120, but were not direct successors. However, the class 120 locomotive formed the foundation for the power cars of the German high-speed trains

ICE 1 The ICE 1 is the first batch-produced German high-speed train and the first of now several within the Intercity Express family. Revenue service at speeds up to started in 1991, it was raised to in May 1995. Trainsets consist of two pow ...

and

ICE 2 The ICE 2 is the second series of German high-speed trains and one of six in the Intercity-Express family since 1995. The ICE 2 (half-) trains are even closer to a conventional push–pull train than the ICE 1, because each train consists ...

Technical data

Gallery

Image:Dresden_Hbf_120_143.JPG, 120 143 in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Image:120-002.jpg, 120 002 in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

1984 Image:120 502-0 DB Systemtechnik, Dresden Hbf.jpg, DB-AG BR 120 (''DB Systemtechnik''), Summer 2006 in Dresden Main Station Image:DB 120 134.JPG, 120 134 arrives at Köln Hbf Image:DB 120 502.JPG, 120 502 leaves Köln Hbf on a Bahntechnik train.

References

External links

Spec Sheet; French
{{German electric locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1979 Electric locomotives of Germany 15 kV AC locomotives Bo′Bo′ electric locomotives 120 Brown, Boveri & Cie locomotives Henschel locomotives Krauss-Maffei locomotives Krupp locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of Germany