Electric locomotive class 143 of the Deutsche Bahn.

■ In traffic red livery
■ Suitable for double-deck coaches: Item no. 862705, 862811, 862812 and 862086

When the German State Railway made the decision to electrify all important main lines in 1980, this necessitated the procurement of powerful general-purpose locomotives. Built on experience gained with the class 250, the prototype for the class 212 was built in 1982 as a 140 km/h version of the class 243 put into series production from 1984 onwards, with a performance of 3,720 kW and a top speed of 120 km/h.
From 1990, 150 locomotives were rented by the German Federal Railway and operated as class 143s, mainly in the region of Freiburg and the Ruhr region. Following the unification of the two German state railways in 1994, the remaining locomotives were redesignated and since then have been in use across the whole of Germany.