485 production series - our "Coke Can"

There are currently three production series running on Berlin's S-Bahn railways: one of them is the 485 series.

This series was ordered in the years 1987 to 1992 by the German Reichsbahn. At the time they were better known as the production series 270 and when the S-Bahn Berlin took over, they were listed as the 485 series. The quarter-train is composed of a passenger car with an operator cab and sidecar.

This series was fundamentally different from the trains that still came from pre-war times in terms of passenger car construction and electrical characteristics. This completely new generation of vehicles at that time was characterized by the lightweight aluminum construction and an electrodynamic braking system. These innovations meant that energy consumption would be reduced by one third.

The originally red-anthracite-colored paintwork earned this series the nickname, "Coke Can". From 2002, however, the vehicles were repainted in the traditional S-Bahn colours bordeaux-red and ochre.

The gradual phasing out of the series started in 2003. Since 2010, part of the parked fleet has been reactivated thererby making 80 new trains available for service.