DB ICx

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News! Well, right now as I'm writing this on the 8th anyway... See I kind of shot myself in the foot when I named this blog Train of the Week...

So the first 12-car ICx has taken to the rails! I had to specify the number of cars because there's also a 7-car, slightly less fast (because it's not slow either), version coming later. I'd think ICx wouldn't be the final name for this EMU though. I mean what's next then? ICy? Anyway, at least for now, to distinguish the two variants, the 7-car version is classed as the K1n, and the 12-car version the K3s.

Clearly I didn't pay enough attention to InnoTrans back in 2012, or I forgot, the ICx was first unveiled there. She's intended to replace the current push-pull IC, ICE1, and ICE2 trains in corridors where it's not practical to operate new ICE trains. At the beginning, K3s was supposed to be 10-car sets, this was changed by DB in 2013. Thank Wikimedia Commons for the picture below.

A mock-up, kind of like a more square version of the Velaro D
The K1n is slower due to the slightly lower hp/ton ratio. K1n is designed to be 3M4T (3 motor and 4 trailer cars) having a top speed of 230 km/h (or 143 of Her Majesty's distance units per hour) in service, while the K3s is designed to have half-M-half-T (i.e. 5M5T before, 6M6T now) having a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph).

I'll leave most of the exploring to this quite comprehensive ICx website on Siemens Mobility. And down here is a promotional video from YouTube. I wish I spoke German. All I could understand was "something something something Deutschland, ... , something something flexible, something comfortable...". I think I should also mention this, Bombardier components are also used on this new DB EMU although Siemens is the major contractor (like all the ICE trains really). So featured on the ICx trains will be some unpowered Bombardier Flexx Eco bogies (or trucks in North American English) and a Bombardier built body shell, well, according to Wikipedia anyway, this ain't an academic paper so I'm allowed.

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