The Reichsbahn had the class 250 manufactured for universal use in front of heavy passenger and freight trains. It was designed with a LEW conical spring drive for a speed of 160 km/h, but was only approved for 125 km/h due to the infrastructure in the GDR. The locomotives, which were also otherwise developed according to then modern points of view, were taken over by the DB AG in 1994 as the class 155 and initially continued to be used to pull heavy passenger trains, too. They came to DB Cargo during the railway reform and were only used there in front of freight trains until the last locomotives were phased out in 2019. 