Kato Lemke - K137123 - Locomotive, Electric, Re 460 - BLS (Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon)

Specific Item Information: The SBB's Re 460 (popularly known as the Lok 2000) are modern four-axle electric locomotives of the Swiss Federal Railways and the backbone of Swiss passenger transport. The locomotives are primarily used with IC2000 or Wendezugen with EW IV cars. The Re 465 is an electric, four-axle universal locomotive with inverter technology procured by the BLS Lotschbergbahn . It is a variant of the SBB's Re 460 and belongs to the Lok 2000 family.

No other Swiss locomotive had so many different advertisements and paint finishes as the Re 460. In recent years, all SBB Re have received 460 new pantographs. This change is also realized on the model. At the BLS locomotives are still used in passenger and freight transport. Currently, 4 locomotives are leased to the company RailCare, which operates them under the names "Cats Eye", "Black Pearl", "Pink Panther" and "Flash Fire" with different designs of famous diamonds and pearls. All models of this edition are unique on only 350 limited edition series.

Model Information: This Kato Lemke model comes with a 5-pole motor. It has been around since at least 2012. Some of the releases are limited runs of only 350 models.

Prototype History: The Re 460 (popularly known as the Lok 2000) is a 6,100 kW (8,180 hp) four-axle electric locomotive of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS). Upon their entry into service in the early 1990s, they replaced the Ae 3/6I, Ae 4/7 and Re 4/4I series units, and displaced many of the Re 4/4II series into lesser duties.
A total of 121 Re 460 have been built between 1991 and 1996.
The series was introduced as part of the Rail 2000 project, a massive project to modernise and improve capacity on Switzerland's railways. While originally designed as a multipurpose locomotive, they are now used for passenger services only, often in conjunction with the IC 2000 double decker trains (often used to pull InterCity and InterRegio trains in German and French language areas). Their freight role has been assumed by Re 482s. They are maintained at Yverdon..

The Re 460 are regularly used as billboards for advertising campaigns of all sorts.

From Wikipedia

Road Name History: The Bern-Lotschberg-Simplon railway (BLS), known between 1997 and 2006 as the BLS Lotschbergbahn, was a Swiss railway company. In 2006 the company merged with Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG to form a new company called BLS AG..

The Bern-Lotschberg-Simplon railway was the largest standard gauge network on the Swiss Railway system apart from the Swiss Federal Railways. The railway had not been built at the time that the Federal government took control of the five big Swiss standard gauge railway companies in 1902 and so it led a separate existence, being considered the largest of the Swiss "private" railways, although the majority of its capital was owned by the cantonal government of Bern, with the Confederation holding about one fifth.

From Wikipedia

Brand/Importer Information: Wolfgang Lemke GmbH from Haan, Germany, is an importer and also a manufacturer of model articles, especially for model railways in N and H0 scales.

Starting in 1990, Lemke was the general importer for Kato's products in Germany and Europe, a position now held by Noch. Lemke is also producing, in cooperation with Kato, specific models for the German and European market under the brand name 'Kato Lemke'.