Electric Locomotive BR E 03 

BR E 03 electric locomotive type E 03 of the German Railways (DB).

Wheel arrangement: Co’Co‘.

Operation condition: 1965s.

Service: For high quality passenger transportation (TEE) and train trial runs.

Model: Finely detailed reissue model of the pilot run series. With three headlight and 2 red tail lights. The BR E 03 is perfect the pull locomotive to go with the „TEE-Blauer Enzian“ train.

Overall length: 226 mm.

E 03 Forerunner

After the repair of the train track system, the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) very quickly started to realize the ambitious plans for the electrification of a fast rail system. At first the fast pre war locomotives of the construction series E18 and E19 had to handle the F-train service, whereas the E 19 was not allowed to reach its maximum speed of 180 km/h because its electric brake were not strong enough. Several locomotive companies supplied plans for a fast follow up design, amongst others a six axle locomotive from Henschel with individually driven wheelsets which were pursued further in the following years. The Siemens-Schuckertwerke (SSW) got the contract for the electric part of the express locomotive. During test drives in 1963 of speeds up to 200 km/h two locomotives of the series E 10 were outfitted with new turn chassis and different hollow crank drives of which two of the four forerunner locomotives E 03 were also equipped with. For the standard locomotives the choice fell on the rubber ring Kardan drive from SSW because of its lower wight. The shape of the front of the locomotives was developed at the Technical University Hannover in the wind channel and it showed not only an extremely good streaming performance but the machine also had an extremely elegant appearance right from the beginning.

The colors were taken from the TEE with applied decorative side lines and in the end made it a perfect design. The four as E 03 designated locomotives that were 19,500 mm long and weight 112 tons were manufactured in Munich up until the transportation exposition in June 1965; E 03 002 was delivered in a festive celebration on February 11, 1965 to the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) , interestingly enough with the signs of the E 03 001. The sustained power output of the E 03 was 5,940 kW, the initial pulling capacity 314 kN and the top speed was 200 km/h. During the transportation exposition promotional trips were made between Augsburg and Munich with modern TEE-wagon material with speed up to 200 km/h and in spite of several motor breakdowns the new strong and beautiful fast train locomotive of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB)