Class 493 (Extertalbahn 21 and 22)

Updated: August 2026 – Class 493 is one of those designations you won’t find in any timetable enquiry: behind it stand the electric railcars 21 and 22 of the Extertalbahn, a light railway in the Lipper Bergland. This page explains how the number came about, how to place an older electric railcar in the field, and why system matters more than spec sheets for vehicles like this.

What is Class 493?

Class 493 is the collective designation for the two electric railcars with running numbers 21 and 22 of the Extertalbahn. These are not a series class of the Deutsche Bahn, but individual vehicles of a private, electrically operated light railway in the Lipper Bergland in North Rhine-Westphalia.

For placing it, it matters how German class numbers are structured. The leading digit reveals the vehicle family: the 4xx block is reserved for electric railcars and multiple units – it holds the S-Bahn classes alongside individual special vehicles. Anyone who has once got to grips with this logic can roughly place any unfamiliar number before even seeing the vehicle. The guide to identifying classes works through exactly this sequence.

Alongside that runs the European level: the twelve-digit vehicle number begins, for electric multiple units and railcars, with the UIC type code 94. Electric locomotives carry 91, diesel locomotives 92, high-speed trains 93, diesel railcars 95. How this number breaks down and what the check digit at the end is for is explained in the article on the UIC number and its system.

How to place an older electric railcar

For a vehicle with no publicly available spec sheet, only ordered observation helps. Three steps are enough for a solid assessment.

The running number on the vehicle – here 21 or 22 – is the last word. Light railways ran their own, often two-digit number series that have nothing to do with the state railway’s scheme. That’s exactly why such vehicles turn up in databases under their own, artificially assigned class designation.

Light railway or state railway – why the difference matters

Electric light railways differed from the state railway in almost every operational detail. For spotters that’s not a side note but the reason why vehicles like 21 and 22 turn up nowhere else.

Feature	Electric light railway	Electrified main line
Electrification system	DC at low voltage	15 kV / 16.7 Hz AC
Overhead line	Light construction, often on wood or steel poles	Heavy catenary system
Vehicle size	Short individual railcars	Multi-part multiple units and loco-hauled trains
Numbering system	Operator-internal number series	Class scheme plus twelve-digit UIC number
Current status	Mostly closed or preserved	Regular service in association and long-distance traffic

Important: the fleet, location and condition of such vehicles change. Museum vehicles change owners, get restored, put into storage or handed over. Don’t rely on older lists online, but check the current status with the societies and museums involved.

Photographing on light-railway and museum lines

Historic railcars are rewarding for photography, because they stand in a setting that hardly exists anywhere else. At the same time, the surroundings are trickier than at a main station.

• Work only from publicly accessible areas. Operational railway land, sheds, stabling areas and tracks are off limits. That applies even where nothing seems to be running any more.
• Keep a safe distance from the platform edge and never enter the track area – not even briefly for a better angle.
• The whole vehicle rather than a detail. For rare vehicles, the full side view with the number is the more valuable shot than a close-up.
• Ask beforehand. Societies and museums often allow more than you’d think – if you ask instead of just walking in.

Which rules generally apply to distance from the track, and why they also apply on branch lines, is covered in the guide to safe distance from the track. For the technical side – focal length, shutter speed, standpoint – the guide to taking good photos of trains is the right starting point. And because documentation matters more than the perfect shot with vehicles like this, a cleanly kept sighting logbook is worthwhile.

Why system matters more than data for rare vehicles

For well-known classes the sequence is clear: recognise the shape, check the number, look up the data. For light-railway and museum vehicles this route doesn’t work, because the last step is missing – there’s simply no reliable public database.

What carries you instead is structural knowledge. Four questions get you further with practically any unfamiliar rail vehicle:

• How is it powered? Pantograph, diesel engine, battery or no drive at all – that decides the whole vehicle category and, with it, the number block.
• Is it a powered or a trailer vehicle? A driving cab alone tells you nothing; what matters is traction equipment, ventilation grilles and the sound of a traction motor.
• How many sections does it consist of? Single-car, conventionally coupled, or an articulated unit with shared bogies – that places the vehicle in time and technically.
• What setting does it stand in? Main line, branch line, museum line or operational railway land often says more about status than any markings.

Only after that comes the number – and with vehicles like this it’s doubly important, because it’s the only solid information you can gather yourself. A photo of the side wall with a legible running number is more valuable for a light-railway vehicle than ten detail shots.

This approach has a second advantage too: it’s honest. Anyone who only records what they’ve actually observed produces no misinformation that others later pick up. Especially in the field of historic vehicles, a surprising amount of information circulates that nobody can substantiate.

Common mix-ups

Concretely, there are three vehicle groups that 21 and 22 are most often confused with. Multi-part older S-Bahn multiple units such as Class 470 of the Hamburg S-Bahn look similarly antiquated in black-and-white photos, but always consist of several permanently coupled cars. Battery railcars such as Class 515 (ETA 150) share the same single-car cut, but have no pantograph – the one feature that cleanly separates the groups. And electric special vehicles on steep and branch lines such as Class 479 do run under overhead line, but in a clearly defined network still in service today.

Conclusion

Class 493 isn’t a vehicle you tick off on a platform, but one you piece together. The number reveals the vehicle family, the UIC type code 94 the type of drive, and the rest follows from build, setting and running number. Anyone who documents such vehicles cleanly rather than guessing ends up with the more valuable collection.