Since the Comecon agreements prevented further construction of large diesel locomotives in the GDR, a total of 378 units of the Soviet type M62 were ordered. These locomotives from Voroshilowgrad (today Lugansk in Ukraine) were built particularly heavily for pure freight train operation and had a two-stroke diesel engine with 2,000 hp. Since they were initially delivered without a silencer, they were given the nickname “Taigatrommel” (“Taiga drum”) in the GDR. At the beginning of the nineties they were redesignated from class 120 to 220, but were soon phased out. Many locomotives then came to German private railways and others were sold to the former Eastern Bloc. 