DBAG Class 641
The DBAG Class 641 is a class of German railway vehicle operated by Deutsche Bahn AG. They are diesel railcars belonging to the Alstom Coradia A TER family. Their development started as a joint project between DBAG and the French national railway, SNCF, on the one hand, and the railway vehicle manufacturers De Dietrich Ferroviaire and Linke-Hofmann-Busch on the other. They were manufactured by these firms under their present-day names of Alstom LHB and Alstom DDF, both of which belong to Alstom.
Forty units of this class were delivered to Deutsche Bahn AG, of which 4 have been retired due to accidents.
The railcars are fitted with centre buffer couplings. The arrangement of the two engines in front of the bogies, the bulging appearance of the coach body and the large, one-piece, swinging doors give the vehicle its characteristic appearance, which has earnt it the nickname Walfisch.
They are deployed in Baden-Württemberg at Hochrhein – between Basel Badischer Bahnhof and Lauchringen – and in Thuringia at Erfurt, on lines including the Schwarzatalbahn between Rottenbach and Katzhütte, on the Pfefferminzbahn between Sömmerda and Großheringen, the Friedrichroda railway between Friedrichroda and Fröttstädt, on the line from Saalfeld to Blankenstein and the Gotha–Gräfenroda railway.
station working on the Europabahn to Offenburg
Other vehicles of the Alstom Coradia A TER family were delivered from Reichshoffen to the French SNCF and the Luxembourg CFL. These vehicles are classified by the SNCF as ATER 73500. For cross-border traffic between Germany and France a further 19 were procured as ATER 73900, of which two were paid for by Saarland and painted traffic red.
