Class 298 (V 100)

Updated: August 2026 – Four axles, a cab in the middle, a bonnet in front and behind: this silhouette belongs to the Deutsche Reichsbahn’s V 100 family. If the vehicle carries the number 298, it’s explicitly listed as a shunting locomotive in the German numbering system. This page shows you how to recognise the design, what type code 98 tells you, and how to observe such machines safely.

What is the Class 298?

Class 298 is a four-axle diesel-hydraulic locomotive from the Deutsche Reichsbahn’s V 100 family, whose basic vehicles were built at LEW in Hennigsdorf, a works that later became part of Bombardier Transportation. Characteristic features are two two-axle bogies, a cab in the centre of the vehicle, and two bonnets of different lengths – a body layout instantly recognisable on central European diesel locomotives.

Operationally it’s clearly classified: the 298 number group stands for machines of this family run in shunting and transfer duty. The closely related line variants run under other numbers – for instance as Class 293 (V 100 Ost). The shared origin of all these vehicles is described on the page about the LEW V 100.

Why the 98 before the number is the most important part

Every powered vehicle in Germany carries a twelve-digit vehicle number. The first two digits are the UIC type code and tell you what kind of powered vehicle you’re looking at. For diesel locomotives there are two groups, and the difference isn’t a formality.

How the twelve-digit number is structured in detail and how the check digit works is explained in the guide to the UIC number and its check digit. Anyone wanting to practise the general identification process will find it in the guide to identifying classes.

Where the Class 298 stands in railway operation

Shunting and transfer locomotives work wherever trains are broken up, formed and taken to sidings. That gives observers a completely different search pattern than long-distance traffic: it’s not the timetable that determines your chances, but the volume of wagonload traffic.

Surroundings	Chance of a sighting	What to watch for
Marshalling yard, view from a public bridge	high	the track area itself is off limits; only observe from legal vantage points
Transfer station with wagonload traffic	medium to high	movements are irregular, allow for patience
Siding connection to an industrial business	medium	private land – observe only from the public road
Passenger station without freight traffic	low	at most transfer runs
Storage group / depot	variable	operational land, entry only with permission

Related four-axle vehicles in shunting and transfer duty can also be found under Class 294. For choosing a location in freight traffic, the guide to spotting at marshalling yards is worth a look.

Spotting and photography: what’s different with shunting locomotives

A 298 rarely runs spectacularly. It stands, rolls off slowly, stops again. That sounds unappealing but is actually a photographic advantage: you have time for composition, exposure and clean documentation.

Which distances actually apply and why they’re not a matter of judgement is covered in the article on safety distances at the track. The right focal length for fenced facilities is covered in the guide to the best telephoto lens for railway photography.

Keeper, livery, location: all in flux

With long-distance line locomotives, you can rely on areas of use for years. With shunting and transfer locomotives, it’s different. Such machines get sold, leased, moved between locations and repainted at every major overhaul. A vehicle working in a port in spring can be standing at an industrial business a hundred kilometres away by autumn – without anything technical having changed.

For your documentation, that means three things:

• Colour is not an identification feature. It tells you about the current keeper, not the class. Anyone sorting by livery is sorting the vehicle’s history wrongly.
• The location is a snapshot. Note it with a date, and it stays valid information instead of becoming a false permanent claim.
• The number is the anchor. Running number, type code and keeper marking together make every sighting unambiguous – even when the same locomotive looks completely different years later.

That’s exactly why it’s worth documenting this vehicle group more consistently than well-known long-distance classes. How to build a sighting logbook that captures such changes instead of glossing over them is shown in the guide to keeping a sighting logbook. Anyone wanting to keep their photos analysable via the capture data as well will find the way there in the article on using EXIF data for spotting.

And one more practical point: because the basic design was built over decades and repeatedly rebuilt, individual machines differ in detail – vent grilles, exhaust layout, headlight shape, additional equipment for shunting radio. Such differences are interesting but aren’t suitable as a basis for identification. Use them to tell apart vehicles you’ve already reliably assigned to the class.

Common mix-ups

Conclusion

Class 298 is a good example of how body style and operational classification are two different things. You recognise the V 100 silhouette with its centre cab in seconds; what role the specific machine plays is only revealed by the number – and there, above all, by the type code at the start. Whoever documents both together has a sighting that’s still worth something in ten years.