Notes

The german class E 40, since 1968 140, has had a lot of different paint schemes over the years, starting with dark green, then ocean-blue beige, then orient red and finally traffic red. While there were times in the nineties when just about any train was bound to have three different paint schemes, these days DB has managed to make everything except freight cars traffic red, with only some orient red remaining on vehicles that are due to be put out of service soon. There’s no chance you’ll still find an ocean-blue/beige 140, except, like shenanigan87: did, at a junkyard or as a preserved museum unit.

Well, normally, anyway, but today 140 423 ran through Aachen Central Station with a normal freight train, in good old ocean-blue beige. The paint has deteriorated some, but it’s still the original 80s paint job.

My guess is that this unit was designated for scrapping, but then a locomotive shortage for some reason meant it had to come back into service.