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9 months ago

An alternative to Diesel: the Baureihe 563

A Baureihe 563 BEMU passes a parked BR 218 Diesel locomotive to set up its next trip from Offenburg station.

More and more of these trains have appeared in the Offenburg area recently. Technically, I could be talking about both of the trains above because I'd never seen a Baureihe 218 locomotive (right) before, though over 400 were built in the 70s, but I am talking about the train on the left: the Baureihe 563.

A Regional Bahn service run by a SWEG Baureihe 563 terminates at Oberkirch on the non-electrified branch line from Appenweier to Bad Griesbach.

5 is an unusual first digit for a German train type. Locomotives start with a 1 or a 2, for electric and Diesel power respectively, while passenger-carrying multiple units start with a 4 or a 6, again for electric and Diesel power respectively. Evidently, as seen above, these trains can run on non-electrified lines, but they are not Diesel multiple units - they are battery-electric multiple units.

A pair of SWEG Baureihe 563s arrive at the end of a local Regional Bahn service from Offenburg to Hornberg, crossing the Hornberg Viaduct with pantographs down, in battery mode.

Part of the Siemens Mireo family, the Mireo Plus B can run on electric power either from the overhead cable, or from the onboard batteries. The manufacturer states that the train can run between 80 and 120 km on battery power before needing a recharge from overhead cable, typically at a terminal station. This makes this train ideal for relatively short runs, such as those seen around Offenburg, the central station of the Ortenau area. As such, they are becoming more common, running local services for regional operator SWEG, indifferently on non-electrified lines like the one to Oberkirch, or electrified lines such as the picturesque Schwarzwaldbahn.

A SWEG Baureihe 563 crosses the Hornberg Viaduct with its pantograph up.

I know that Japan and the UK (link to Jago Hazzard's review of the GWR Class 230 and a quick overview of the BEMU topic) have also recently (re)introduced BEMUs. France hasn't really got on-board with this yet, as far as I know. Instead, they have built lots of bi-mode trains (mentioned at the end of the post), which have electric motors which can be powered by overhead cables or by an on-board Diesel engine.