Diesel TEE

218 105 entering the museum's siding with the TEE special train that got us here, and that would also get us back to Cologne. It was pulled by 111 001 on the other end, but since the catenary wire ends just behind us, a diesel locomotive was needed for the last stretch towards the platform. The train was composed of two first class compartment coaches, a dining and saloon car, as well as what is colloquially known as the "Kanzlerwagen", aka chancellor car. This is a saloon car that was preferrably used by German politicians, including past chancellors, composed of several private rooms, its own kitchen, as well as a conference room.

As we had a highly unpleasant encounter with some VERY rude "gentlemen" on our way here, we chose to sit in the Kanzlerwagen on the way home, as it didn't have any seat numbers and thus could not be reserved. Was quite fun to be sitting at a long wooden table with individual chairs rather than in regular compartments.

The locomotive we see here is technically identical to her sisters that can still be found on the mainline here and there, except for the classic wine-red and beige TEE livery. Interestingly, the class 218 was never painted this way. Back in the 1970s, DB experimented with different liveries, with one locomotive receiving this varnish to see how it would look. In the end, a blue-beige livery was chosen instead, the sole red-beige locomotive being resprayed into the current traffic-red paint scheme in 2002. But, in 2010, 218 105 was painted in TEE colours as a tribute to the sole red-beige locomotive of this class.

Oddly enough, the 218 (and all related mainline diesel locomotives) have the magical ability to look good in almost every paint job one can throw at them, be it the current traffic-red or the 1970s blue beige, the horrid orient-red from the 1990s or indeed the classic TEE livery. The 218 always looked like it was made for the paint job, while other legendary machines like the 103 lost much of their appeal when they were repainted into unfitting liveries.