Lokomotion Gesellschaft für Schienentraktion mbH

Updated: August 2026 – On the flat, one locomotive is enough. As soon as the line climbs, traction becomes a visible topic: two machines up front, sometimes a third at the rear. Lokomotion Gesellschaft für Schienentraktion mbH carries exactly this topic in its company name – traction, meaning tractive power, is the service itself here. This page shows what sets banking, double-heading and pushing apart, and how you tell them apart.

What is Lokomotion Gesellschaft für Schienentraktion?

Lokomotion is a railway undertaking in freight transport. The company name is made up of an invented word and a very precise description of its purpose: “Gesellschaft für Schienentraktion” – company for rail traction. Traction means the drive – the locomotive and crew that actually move a train. The name therefore names neither the cargo nor the customer, but the core operational service.

Like any railway undertaking, the company uses other companies’ infrastructure. The tracks belong to an infrastructure manager; the railway undertaking buys paths there. So a sighting on a particular line tells you nothing about company affiliation – only the vehicle does.

Identification in the field

The guide to identifying classes shows how to systematically identify unfamiliar machines.

Banking, double-heading, pushing

Colloquially, every extra locomotive gets called “banking”. Operationally, these are different procedures with different purposes – and different appearances.

Form	Position of the extra locomotive	Control	Typical purpose
Banking (assisting engine ahead)	ahead of the train locomotive	independent, own crew	extra tractive effort, also light-engine move
Double-heading	coupled directly at the front	multiple-unit control from one cab	high tractive effort without extra crew
Pushing (rear banker)	at the rear of the train	independent, coordinated with the front	spreading force on long steep ramps
Light-engine move	somewhere within the train	not in operation	light-engine move, no traction service
Mid-train locomotive	inserted within the train	remote-controlled or independent	distributing tractive forces on very long trains

The practical difference lies in the forces involved: a single locomotive pulling a long train uphill puts considerable strain on the couplings and buffers of the leading wagons. A banking locomotive spreads that load. Downhill, the picture reverses – braking performance then matters more than tractive effort.

Where you can observe this in everyday life is easy to say. On the Brenner route, the heavy trains pass through the border station of Kufstein, where traction and crew for the descending section are attached. At the southern end of the ramp, Fortezza / Franzensfeste shows which machines take over the Italian section. And at Verona Porta Nuova, the run ends for a large share of these trains. On the Italian side, the freight trains share these paths with long-distance services of Trenitalia.

What vehicles this requires

For heavy trains on gradient lines, three properties matter: high continuous tractive effort, effective brakes for the descent and – in cross-border traffic – multi-system capability. That’s exactly what the modern platform locomotives from Siemens Mobility are designed for, and they’re now widespread in Alpine transit. Which machine is actually hooked up in front of a train is decided by the diagram; the requirement profile stays the same.

Typical examples can be found in the class database, such as the multi-system locomotive class 189, the six-axle heavy freight locomotive class 151, and the modern platform locomotive Siemens Vectron, delivered in numerous country packages.

In Alpine-crossing and international freight traffic, several companies with a similar profile appear, such as TX Logistik, Hupac Deutschland or Rail Cargo Carrier Germany. On the Austrian side, Lokomotion Austria is a company with the same name stem – a good example of how corporate groups need a separate company for each country.

Recording sightings of multiple traction

Photographically, heavy trains on a gradient are rewarding and demanding at once – slow enough for clean shots, but often in poor light. The basics are covered in the guide taking good photos of trains, and current traffic patterns in the freight train radar for Germany.

Downhill: why braking matters more than pulling

On the way up, the first thing you think of is tractive effort. Operationally, the descent is more demanding. A heavy train rolling steadily downhill over many kilometres has to be braked continuously – without the brakes overheating and without running out of compressed air.

That’s why electric brakes play such a big role. Modern locomotives can dissipate kinetic energy through the drive system, feeding it back into the grid or burning it off in resistors. This significantly relieves the wagons’ mechanical brakes. Before the start of a long descent, a check is also carried out to confirm the train’s brakes work as intended – a process barely visible from outside, but the reason trains routinely stop before such sections.

For observers, two recognisable patterns follow from this. First: descents run noticeably evenly. A heavy train going downhill often holds exactly the same speed over long stretches, with no visible acceleration. Second: at the foot of long descents there are frequently operational stops, where trains halt without a platform nearby.

The wagons play their part too. Freight wagons have adjustable brakes whose setting has to match the load and the route’s gradient profile. The corresponding indicators and change levers sit on the side of the wagon and are among the details you can spot well up close on stationary trains – from the platform, not from the track area.

Read the mountain purely as a feat of pulling power, and you’re only seeing half the story. The other half is braking technology, and it shapes operations on mountain lines at least as strongly.

Common mix-ups

Conclusion

Lokomotion’s company name stands for what matters in freight transport on the mountain: traction. Anyone who can tell banking, double-heading and pushing apart reads a train much more precisely – and recognises that the number of locomotives says nothing about the company, but a great deal about the route.