The Class 210 of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) consisted, briefly, of a series of eight diesel locomotives, with a top speed of 160 km/h intended for operations on express trains.

In the 1950s the Swiss Federal gas turbine locomotive, the Am 4/6 1101[1] was tested by the German railways: Its higher fuel consumption compared to the DB Class V 200.0 made it uneconomical for the Deutsche Bundesbahn to consider introducing similar locomotives and afterwards reciprocating diesel engines were the primary source of non-electric traction on German raillines.

For more demanding applications such as express passenger work and freight trains on non-electrified routes (such as the winding route from Munich to Lindau) the Deutsche Bundesbahn considered an enhanced performance version of these locomotives; for this reason, the concept of a locomotive of V160 series with a gas turbine as a booster was investigated.

The gas turbine had the advantage of low weight and size – particularly important if it was to be included in the standard body of a V160 class locomotive.

However, the Deutsche Bahn decided that the successor to this locomotive should have a more powerful gas turbine and the AVCO Lycoming T 53-L13 was selected which had already been selected for use in the Bundeswehr Helicopter Bell UH-1 D. The Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz factory (see Deutz AG Motorenfabrik Oberursel (now part of Rolls-Royce Germany) made the engines for the German Army under license, and was able to maintain and repair the turbines.

Unfortunately, shortly afterwards on 31 December 1978 en route to Eichenau, a compressor impeller broke and cut a fuel line – leaving the turbine room of the locomotive on fire.

An effort was made to prevent further accidents, by undertaking maintenance more frequently, and replacing more often – however the costs of this, coupled with the already high fuel costs of operations meant that the locomotives became uneconomic; as a consequence, the DB decide to remove the gas turbines and converted the entire class to conventional reciprocating engine operations – these rebuilt locomotives were designated DB Class 218.9 The turbine, exhausts, and controller were removed, the hydraulic gearbox was changed, and ballast was added to make up the weight.

As part of the changes the maximum speed was reduced from 160 km/h to 140 km / h. The dates of conversion are shown in the table:[2] From then on, the heavy passenger trains of the Allgäu lines were pulled with two Class 218 locomotives.

The modifications were made because in 1996 the inter-city connection from Hamburg to Berlin needed to run faster but the route had not then been fully electrified.