5 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Clp 20070316 472 Bf Hamburg-Blankenese: Christian Liebscher ( Platte )· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. Baureihe472 Hbf: DH94hamburg· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 3. DB 472 062 in Hamburg Dammtor: TreinBas· CC BY-SA 4.0
- 4. Bahnhof Altona BR 472: Matthew Black· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 5. S-Bahn Hamburg BR 472: Matthew Black· CC BY-SA 2.0
what is it?
The DB Class 472/473 is a three-car electric multiple unit train for the Hamburg S-Bahn. They were built to service the new lines through the city tunnel (opened 1975), to Harburg (opened 1983) and to Neugraben (opened 1984). The livery was beige blue at first, but it was changed to verkehrsrot (traffic-red) in 1997.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 52 years ago, in 1974.
- 1.5 MW is about 18 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 19 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 65.8 m long: about 15 cars parked nose to tail.
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1974–1984
- number built
- 62
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- builders
- Alstom, Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, Linke-Hofmann
- operators
- Deutsche Bundesbahn, Deutsche Bahn, S-Bahn Hamburg GmbH
- top speed
- 100 km/h
- power
- 1.5 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- 1200 V DC Third rail
- wheel arrangement
- Bo′Bo′+Bo′Bo′+Bo′Bo′
- length
- 65.8 m
- weight
- 114 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q318856, Wikipedia: DB Class 472 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.