Class 643 (Bombardier Talent)

Updated: August 2026 – A sharply folded front, a kink in the side wall, three car sections and radiators on the roof: that’s the Class 643, the three-car Bombardier Talent in diesel form. This page shows you how to recognise it reliably, how to tell it apart from the near-identical 644, and where you’ll realistically find it.

What is the Class 643?

The Class 643 is the three-car Bombardier Talent in diesel form. The three car sections rest on shared Jacobs bogies, the entry sits low-floor between the bogies, and power is transmitted diesel-hydraulically. The vehicles are rated for 120 km/h.

The Talent was one of the defining platforms of German regional services and was built in several configurations – as a diesel and as an electric railcar, in different lengths, and also for railways outside Germany. It was originally built at the Aachen carriage works Talbot, whose successor operates today as Talbot Services. Within the German diesel variants, alongside the 643 there’s the technically different Class 644 and the later design variant Class 643.2.

How to recognise the Talent in seconds

The general order to work through when identifying a class is explained in the guide to identifying locomotive classes – layout first, then drive, then the number.

What the vehicle numbers reveal about the train

The German system makes the layout of a multi-car railcar readable. The powered end cars carry the class number, the unpowered middle car the same number with a leading 9. For the 643, that means: end cars with a 643-series number, middle car with a 943-series number.

Above that sits the international UIC type code. The twelve-digit vehicle number starts with 95 for diesel railcars, and with 94 for electric multiple units. How the remaining digits are structured, and what the check digit is for, is explained in the article on reading the UIC number on a vehicle.

Observation	What it means
Three car sections with Jacobs bogies	Basic layout of the 643 family
Middle car with a 943-series number	Unpowered car section
Radiators and exhaust on the roof	Diesel drive, UIC code 95
Pantograph on the roof	Electric Talent variant, not a 643
Number starts with 644	Diesel-electric sister class

Context in railway operation

Three-car diesel railcars are the backbone of well-used regional lines without overhead line. They offer considerably more capacity than a solo railcar and can still be coupled together for peak times. In North Rhine-Westphalia, eurobahn was among the operators of this type.

Location	Chance of a sighting	Why
Non-electrified regional lines	high	Core territory of the type
Regional hubs with diesel services	high	Several lines converge
Terminus stations with a longer turnaround	medium to high	Standing time for clean shots
Electrified main lines	low	Only diversions and transfer workings
S-Bahn and long-distance networks	very low	Different operating concept

Spotting and photography

The Talent is a rewarding subject because its front has edges and so responds well to light. At the same time, the train is long and flat – without a plan for the shot, it quickly turns into a side view with nothing to say.

The general shooting technique – focal plane, shutter speed, composition – is covered in the guide to good photos of trains.

Another point concerns double traction. Because three-car units run coupled at peak times, the train then looks six-car. Anyone who just counts the car bodies of the whole formation ends up with a class that doesn’t actually exist. So watch for the driving cabs within the train: they mark the boundary between two units and make the count unambiguous again.

It also helps to look at the door arrangement. On articulated railcars, the entries sit in the lowered sections between the bogies, not at the vehicle ends. That’s a good secondary feature when you only see a vehicle from the side without a clear view of the front or roof – say, when it’s standing on a neighbouring track behind another train. Together with the number of bogies, that’s usually enough to correctly place the vehicle generation.

Common mix-ups

The most common mix-up outside the Talent family involves the Siemens Desiro Classic, Class 642: also low-floor and diesel-powered, but two-car and with a noticeably rounder front.

Conclusion

The Class 643 is a vehicle you recognise by its shape and confirm by its number. The folded front leads you to the Talent family, the roof to the diesel variant, and the vehicle number to the exact class. What keeps changing, on the other hand, is the operator, the livery and the operating network – which is exactly why it’s worth documenting every sighting with a date.