Class 401 (ICE 1)

Updated: August 2026 – A very long white train, a vehicle with no passenger windows at the front and rear, and in the middle a car with a noticeably higher roof: that’s the ICE 1, with its Class 401 power cars. This page shows you how to identify the first ICE generation beyond doubt, how it differs technically from every later ICE, and what to watch for when photographing it.

What is Class 401 (ICE 1)?

Class 401 denotes the power cars of the ICE 1, Germany’s first high-speed train in scheduled service. A total of 60 train sets, meaning 120 power cars, were built between 1989 and 1993. They are rated for 280 km/h and together put around 9,600 kW onto the rail.

Technically, the ICE 1 is a push-pull train with power cars: the traction equipment sits entirely in the two vehicles at the train ends, with unpowered intermediate cars running in between. That’s a fundamental difference from the later ICE 3, Class 403, where traction is distributed under the floor across the whole train. This exact difference in concept is the key to understanding the entire ICE family – and the reason an ICE 1 has windowless train ends while an ICE 3 doesn’t.

The twelve-digit vehicle number begins with 93 on every ICE train set. That’s no coincidence – it’s the UIC type code for high-speed trains. How this number is structured, and what the remaining digits mean, is explained in the article on the UIC vehicle number and its check digit.

The fastest way to identify it

You don’t need to read a number to recognise an ICE 1. Three observations are enough, and they work even when the train passes through and in poor light.

Only once these three points fit is it worth checking the lettering. The power car number begins with 401, intermediate cars carry numbers in the 801 to 804 series. How to quickly find such vehicle and train numbers in operation is shown in the guide finding the train number.

Which ICE is that? The generations compared

The ICE 1 can be told apart from the other generations in a few lines. The table below gathers exactly the features visible in the field – not the ones listed on a data sheet.

Generation	Traction concept	Front of train	Most striking feature
ICE 1 (Class 401)	two power cars	windowless	restaurant car with raised roof
ICE 2 (Class 402)	one power car, one driving trailer	windowless at one end	driving trailer with nose flap, short half-train
ICE 3 (Class 403/406/407/408)	distributed traction	windows to the front	flat nose, sometimes a lounge behind the cab
ICE T (Class 411/415)	distributed traction with tilting technology	windows to the front	narrow car body, tapered lower body
ICE 4 (Class 412)	powered power cars	windows to the front	very long train, blunter nose

Anyone who wants to learn the differences systematically will find the full comparison in the article ICE classes 1 to 4 compared. For the sequence in which to generally work through features, the guide to identifying classes helps.

Where you’ll find the ICE 1 – and what keeps changing

The ICE 1 follows classic long-distance service on the major north-south and east-west corridors and belongs to the long-distance fleet of Deutsche Bahn AG. More precise statements are deliberately not useful here: which line runs with which ICE generation shifts with every timetable change, with engineering works on the DB InfraGO network, and with the arrival of new vehicles. Line lists found online are often outdated within a few months.

What stays stable is the operational logic: long trains run where demand is high. Large hub stations with long-distance service are therefore the best starting point, because dwell times, turnarounds and train formations can be observed well there. At the terminus station Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof you can see all three generations in a single morning. An overview of suitable locations is provided by the article on the best stations for trainspotting in Germany.

Power car or multiple unit: why this difference explains everything

Anyone who wants to understand the ICE family only has to answer one question: Where does the traction sit? On the ICE 1, it sits entirely in two dedicated vehicles at the train ends. These power cars have no passenger saloon, no doors for travellers and no windows apart from the cab windows. They are pure traction machines with a driver’s cab.

That has consequences that go far beyond appearance:

• Usable length. Two power cars are two vehicles with no seats. A train of the same length with distributed traction offers noticeably more capacity – one of the reasons later generations were built differently.
• Axle load. All the traction equipment is concentrated on a few axles. That limits what’s possible on sensitive lines.
• Train formation. The rake of coaches between the power cars can be assembled comparatively flexibly. That’s exactly why the ICE 1 was found in different lengths.
• Recognisability. For spotters, the power car is a gift: a train end with no passenger windows is unmistakable from a great distance. From the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, a single look across the Rhine is enough.

The move away from the power car came with the ICE 3, Class 403, where motors and inverters are distributed under the floor across the whole train. That left the ICE 1 as the first – and, together with the ICE 2, the last – German high-speed generation with the classic power-car concept.

Photo tips specifically for the ICE 1

The ICE 1 is demanding to photograph: lots of white, little structure, very long trains, and a power car that quickly looks overexposed. In the trainshed of Hamburg Hauptbahnhof the problem reverses – there it’s more a lack of light than too much of it.

Which focal length is realistic for this is covered by the guide to the best telephoto lens for railway photography; the basic technique is in the guide taking good photos of trains.

Common mix-ups

If a vehicle with passenger windows and a nose flap sits at the end of the train, that’s an ICE 2, Class 402. If the train is long but has no power cars, the ICE 4, Class 412 is the most likely candidate.

Conclusion

The ICE 1 is the ICE generation you learn fastest: windowless power cars at both ends, a raised-roof restaurant car in the middle, and the train is longer than anything else in ICE service. Anyone who keeps these three points in mind identifies it within seconds – even from a distance. The vehicle number 401 then only provides confirmation.