https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dsb-am-nachmittag-des-26-1230820.jpgDanish operator DSB will be withdrawing the last members of its fleet of class ME diesel locomotives this coming 11th of December, prior to the introduction of the new timetable for 2022 on the 12th.
The thirty-seven units of the class were built by Henschel in West Germany between 1981 and 1985 and were some of the first series-production locomotives to use three-phase AC traction, expanding on the development done by Henschel for the prototype DE2500 and the small-series NSB Di 4.
The series saw extensive use in regional traffic to and from Copenhagen on Zealand, a role from which they were meant to displaced by the cascade of IC3 DMUs following the introduction of new IC4 DMUs, but delays to the IC4 program and also in the delivery of regional electrification kept the MEs in service longer than expected. Only with the delivery of new Siemens Vectron locomotives (referred to as class EB) in the last two years has it been possible to phase out old older traction - first the ME's electric siblings of class EA at the end of 2020, and now the MEs themselves.
This leaves DSB with a mainline locomotive fleet consisting only of electric Vectrons, and ends the 67-year-long use of EMD diesels by DSB (going back to class MY in 1954).
Class leader ME 1501 has already been preserved by the Danish Railway Museum since 2015, while a number of others have been sold to Nordic Re-finance AB for use in Norway. Perhaps ironically, it seems they will be outlived in service in Denmark by older DSB diesels of classes MY, MX, and MZ that have passed to cargo operators.
ME 1514 in passenger service at Valby station, October 2020.
(Photo by Kurt Rasmussen via Wikimedia Commons)
The thirty-seven units of the class were built by Henschel in West Germany between 1981 and 1985 and were some of the first series-production locomotives to use three-phase AC traction, expanding on the development done by Henschel for the prototype DE2500 and the small-series NSB Di 4.
The series saw extensive use in regional traffic to and from Copenhagen on Zealand, a role from which they were meant to displaced by the cascade of IC3 DMUs following the introduction of new IC4 DMUs, but delays to the IC4 program and also in the delivery of regional electrification kept the MEs in service longer than expected. Only with the delivery of new Siemens Vectron locomotives (referred to as class EB) in the last two years has it been possible to phase out old older traction - first the ME's electric siblings of class EA at the end of 2020, and now the MEs themselves.
This leaves DSB with a mainline locomotive fleet consisting only of electric Vectrons, and ends the 67-year-long use of EMD diesels by DSB (going back to class MY in 1954).
Class leader ME 1501 has already been preserved by the Danish Railway Museum since 2015, while a number of others have been sold to Nordic Re-finance AB for use in Norway. Perhaps ironically, it seems they will be outlived in service in Denmark by older DSB diesels of classes MY, MX, and MZ that have passed to cargo operators.
ME 1514 in passenger service at Valby station, October 2020.
(Photo by Kurt Rasmussen via Wikimedia Commons)
