DB in €1bn order for ‘Velaro-MS’ trains

Japanese diesels in Thailand

GERMAN rail operator DB announced in mid-July an order worth €1billion for 30 Siemens‘Velaro-MS’(multi system) ICE3 trains to be delivered from December 2022 and 2026.

The contract includes options for up to 60 further trains.

The eight-car 320kph trains are based on the DB Class 407 (‘Velaro-D’) design Siemens built between 2010/12.

The new trains are intended to increase high-speed services between the Ruhr region and Munich using the Rhein Main high-speed line between Cologne and Frankfurt and for services to both Paris and Brussels.

TWO former Japanese Railways (JNR) diesel locos are in use in Thailand working engineering trains.

The locomotives were bought by Thai company

A S Associated Engineering Co in 2018 and re-gauged to metre gauge after a previous plan to export them to Myanmar (formerly Burma) failed to materialise, despite at least six other Class DD51 locos having been sold to Myanmar.

Associated Engineering bought the locos for use on contracts it had won to double track Thai Railways lines.

In total, 649 Class DD51 diesel-hydraulic locos with the unusual B-2-B wheel arrangement were built between 1962/78 for JNR, which used them for both freight and passenger work.

The two in Thailand ended their days with JR Hokkaido after privatisation of JNR, hauling the ‘Hokutosei’ sleeper train on the island of Hokkaido until it ceased operation in 2015.

Japanese rail enthusiasts started a crowd-funding appeal in 2019 to help the Thai operator of the locos receive expert assistance to run the locos.

They had been sold to the Thai company, complete with documentation only in Japanese, which the Thai rail staff driving and maintaining the locos couldn’t read.