Germany - Rail Development Corporation RDC
For a full scale picture, please click on the picture shown !
Rail Development Corporation RDC is a company with headquarters in the USA, in Pittsburgh.
RDC has bought several German small or medium-sized railroad companies. In 2025 RDC owns
for example the AutoZug Sylt, the Hamburg-Köln-Express HKX, BahnTouristikExpress BTE,
Norddeutsche Eisenbahngesellschaft Niebüll neg and the Alpen-Sylt Nachtexpress.
RDC AutoZug Sylt
This mighty machine is now called DE2700 but when it was new, it was built for the Norwegian
state railways NSB which called it Di6. NSB was not at all happy with these locomotives which
had several grave design errors and finally NSB returned them all to the builder Siemens.
Siemens made a lot of modifications and strted renting them out in Germany but not calling
them anymore Siemens locomotives but MaK. MaK or Maschinenfabriek Kiel is owned by Siemens.
For many years the Transdev daughter company Nord-Ostsee-Bahn NOB used them in the passenger
traffic between Hamburg and Westerland (Sylt). But since NOB lost these services to DB in a public
tendering these machines have been spread all over Germany, for example to RDC and to Hector Rail.
Picture of a DE2700 machine is from Niebüll 5.7.2024 by Ilkka Siissalo.
At the time when the Transdev daughter company NOB lost in a tendering all their traffic to the
island of Sylt, DB took over the passenger traffic and RDC took over the private AutoZug Sylt
car transfer service which competes with DB. At that time RDC did not bother to totally repaint
these DE2700 locomotives. They left them otherwise in Transdev's colours, except that they covered
the sides with large stickers with cartoon figures.
Picture is from Niebüll 9.7.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.
This is the same locomotive as shown above. Different sides of the machines got differently coloured
stickers.
Picture is from Niebüll 9.7.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.
Siemens Vectron diesel locomotives have now lately largely pushed the DE2700 machines
out of daily business at AutoZug Sylt. Here is one Vectron diesel, Baureihe 247 bringing some lorries
back to the mainland from Sylt island.
Picture from Klanxbüll 8.7.2022 by Ilkka Siissalo.
AutoZug Sylt with its Vectron Br247 diesel locomotive sidetracked at the Niebüll station waiting for
its next departure time.
Picture from Niebüll 5.7.2024 by Ilkka Siissalo.
Norddeutsche Eisenbahngesellschaft Niebüll neg and the former NVAG
CFL bought already in the 1990s two German class 628 two coach railbuses, which were used together
with similar German DB owned machines on the Luxembourg to Trier route. As they were freed up from that
route and CFL had acquired the small German railroad neg in Niebüll, these two machines were moved there.
This is one of the two, neg class 628 no. 71 at Niebüll station 9.7.2016. And as commented already above,
now RDC owns neg.
Picture by Ilkka Siissalo.
neg railbus T4 is an absolute rarity. It is of the class 627, which is a one coach variant of the common
class 628 pictured above. Only very few examples of the class 627 were built and DB has none left. The
very last museum example was burned down in a railway museum fire disaster in Nürnberg. But neg still
has this one in almost daily use. Note the cute 1st class "department" at the middle
of the railbus - something "really necessary" for a 20 min ride :-)
Picture from Niebüll station 9.7.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.
The railway company which is now called neg, used to be called NVAG or Nordfriesische Verkehrsbetriebe AG.
This is/was a NVAG class 211 diesel shunter in Niebüll in 2004. This is a machine
from the ex-DDR, where the DR called it first class V23 and later class 102. After unification of the two
German states the machines got the name Br 312. It was built by LKM Babelsberg 1967-70 as a light shunter.
Top speed was 42 km/h.
Picture from Niebüll station 5.7.2004 by Ilkka Siissalo.
Former NVAG coaches.
Picture from Niebüll station 5.7.2004 by Ilkka Siissalo.
This one is a very old NoHab diesel, formerly of the Danish state railways DSB. DSB called this class
Mz. It was used as a temporary solution in the traffic of neg.
Picture from Niebüll station 9.7.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.
At the same time neg was evaluating different locomotive possibilities. This one is a Vossloh G6,
Baureihe 650, under testing at neg in Niebüll.
Picture from Niebüll station 9.7.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.
