Class 140

Updated: August 2026 – If you had to pick a single locomotive that shaped the look of electrified German freight traffic for decades, it would be this one: the Class 140. Boxy body, four axles, flat front – a shape you learn once and afterwards recognise across half a dozen classes.

What is the Class 140 (E40)?

The Class 140 is a four-axle electric locomotive for freight service, rated for 110 km/h and run on 15 kV AC. Before the 1968 renumbering it carried the designation E 40. It belongs to the Deutsche Bundesbahn’s standard-design programme, with which an entire locomotive family was developed from shared component groups for the first time in the 1950s.

The principle behind it is the key to understanding these vehicles: a shared locomotive body, shared bogies and a shared electrical base structure were configured differently depending on the intended use. The passenger variant became the Class 110, the freight variant became the 140, the lighter regional variant became the 141. Recognise one of these locomotives and you basically recognise them all – you then only need to learn the differences.

The numbering logic behind 110, 139, 140 and 141

The German class scheme isn’t a numerical accident but a system you can apply everywhere.

• Until 1968, an E stood for electric, followed by the design number: E 10, E 40, E 41, E 50.
• From 1968, this became the three-digit, computer-compatible class. The leading 1 has marked the electric locomotive ever since.
• The number range tells you the purpose: low numbers from 101 for passenger and general-purpose locomotives, the range around 139 to 155 for freight locomotives, 180 upward for multi-system and cross-border locomotives.
• Sub-variants got their own numbers when they were technically distinct: the E 40 with electric resistance brake became Class 139, even though it’s otherwise identical.

How this digit sequence relates to the twelve-digit European vehicle number, and where you find it on the vehicle, is explained in the article on the UIC number and its check digit.

How to identify a 140 in the field

Where it fits in railway operations

The 140 is a line locomotive for freight trains. That makes its observation profile fundamentally different from that of a long-distance locomotive: there’s no scheduled timetable to rely on. Withdrawn machines are now mostly museum stock – for instance at the DB Museum Koblenz. Societies such as IG Bw Dieringhausen also preserve vehicles from this era.

Environment	Chance of a sighting	Why
Electrified freight corridors	medium	fitting use profile, but strong competition from modern classes
Marshalling yards and train formation facilities	medium	trains are taken over and made up there
Engineering-train and special workings	medium	a typical field of activity for older machines
Heritage railway operating days	medium	preserved machines are put on deliberate display
Passenger routes in scheduled service	low	wrong use profile

How to observe freight traffic in a plannable way, rather than relying on chance, is described in the guide to spotting at a marshalling yard – naturally from publicly accessible locations only.

Photo tips for an angular freight locomotive

The 140 is a matter-of-fact subject. Its strength is its clean geometry – and that’s exactly what the shot needs to show.

• Three-quarter view with the side wall visible. The long bands of ventilation grilles are this locomotive’s graphic element; head-on they’re lost.
• Prefer flat light. It draws out the edges of the body; midday light makes the surface look flat.
• Include the head of the train. With a freight locomotive, what it’s pulling is part of the story – a few wagons in the frame make the sighting easier to follow.
• Capture the number and markings sharply. On machines in private-railway service, keeper markings and owner logos carry their own documentation value.

Photography technique, exposure and composition are covered in the guide to good train photography. Photography takes place exclusively from the platform or from publicly accessible land; tracks, operational railway land and stabling sidings are off limits.

The standard-design locomotive family at a glance

Once you’ve understood the 140, you understand four classes at once. All of them come from the same building-block set and differ mainly in configuration and equipment.

Task	Old designation	Three-digit class	Recognition aid
Fast passenger trains	E 10	110 and later sub-groups	boxy body, some with a Bügelfalte front
Freight trains	E 40	140	long body, smooth roof
Steep-gradient freight trains	E 40.11	139	extra roof structures for brake resistors
Regional service	E 41	141	noticeably shorter locomotive body

This table is also a sequence for identification. First recognise the family – boxy body, flat front, horizontal ventilation grilles. Then assess the length, because it separates the regional from the freight locomotive. Then check the roof, because it gives away the electric brake. And only at the end read the digits, which confirm everything.

The advantage of this approach: the first three steps also work in poor light, at a distance and with moving trains – situations in which a number simply isn’t legible. The number still remains the final word, because it alone makes a specific locomotive unambiguous.

Common mix-ups

The realistically most dangerous candidates are thus the identically built 139, the shorter Class 141 and the passenger variants of the same family. At six axles, on the other hand, you land on the Class 151 and its relatives.

Verdict

The Class 140 is the reference point for learning the German standard-design electric locomotive. Its body shape explains several classes at once, and its number sits exactly where the system provided for freight locomotives. Once you’ve got this silhouette down, you can place half the vintage electric locomotive fleet in seconds.