T16026 – Class 120.2 Electric Locomotive. The three-phase current asynchronous motor was first used worldwide on electric standard gauge locomotives on the five class 120.0 preproduction locomotives delivered in 1979/80. This type of motor can be controlled infinitely variably. For a long time unsolvable difficulties faced the advantages of three-phase motors. The three-phase motor could not be made flexible and thereby usable for practical operations until the advent of electronic switching and control technology. Externally the prototypes impressed you with their length of 19,200 mm / 63 feet that made them almost as long as the classes 103, 150, and 151. They differed from the latter in having only two-axle trucks of a completely new design. A BBC hollow shaft universal joint drive served to transmit power. The mainframe and lightweight construction locomotive body formed a self-supporting design. Between 1987 and 1989 the regular production locomotives road numbers 120 101-160 were built by AEG, BBC, Siemens, Krauss-Maffei, Krupp, and Henschel with numerous improvements such as time-division shuttle trains and multiple unit control, reinforced line brakes, auxiliary electro-pneumatic brakes as well as automatic running and brake controls with anti-wheel slip. The lack of airtight windows and doors for use on new high-speed routes as well as difficulties with the electronics required several corrections and improvements and thus delayed putting the locomotives into service. The pre-production locomotives have been history since 2011 and even the regular production locomotives were affected. At the start of 2005 road numbers 120 153 and 160 were transferred as road numbers 120 501 and 502 to DB System Technology as experimental and test locomotives. Five units (120 116, 129, 107, 128, and 121) were equipped in 2007 along with three other units in 2010 (120 131, 139, and 117) with a commuter service package (train destination display, train dispatching system, server, etc.), designated as road numbers 120 201-208, and transferred to DB Regio.
