• Metal body and frame

• Digital couplers

• Two motor-driven fans in the long hood

• Coreless motor with flywhee

• All four axles driven, two traction tires

• LokSound 5 decoder for DCC, Motorola®, M4, and Selectrix® operation

• Smoke unit with smoke output synchronized to LokSound®

• Automatic registration with control units featuring RailComPlus® or mfx® functionality

• Universal electronics with plug-in pickup shoe and slide switch for switching between two-rail and center-rail operation

• PowerPack storage capacitor for uninterrupted power supply

• High-quality loudspeaker with “Passive Radiator” technology for superior sound quality

• Digitized original sounds of a 12 KVD 18/21 diesel engine

• Squealing sound from curve sensor when cornering slowly

• Direction-dependent headlight change (lamps switch on sequentially, true to the prototype) Headlamps on the train side can be switched off, cab and driver's console lighting, step lighting

• Brake sparks during hard braking

• Separately applied grab rails, steps partially openwork

• Delicate, multi-part grilles on the sides of the long hood

• Removable roof held in place by magnets (Caution: Do not lift the model by the roof!)

• Finely detailed, multi-colored cab, driver figure

• Spring-loaded buffers

• Pipette for filling the smoke generator included

• Minimum radius for operation = 360 mm

• Length over buffers: 110 = 160.2 mm, 111, 202 = 163.7 mm

In the 1950s, the East German State Railway (Deutsche Reichsbahn) refrained from developing a medium-power mainline diesel locomotive positioned between the V60 and V180 series when it established its diesel locomotive program. However, when the need became acute in the early 1960s, the VEB Lokomotivbau "Karl Marx" and the Elektrotechnische Werke "Hans Beimler" developed the V100, with the "100" representing a power output of approximately 1000 hp. The three pre-production locomotives delivered in 1965 were initially equipped with 900 hp twelve-cylinder engines of type 12 KVD 18/21. Their top speed was 100 km/h. Following extensive testing, series production began the following year. A total of 869 locomotives were built across several production runs, making the V100 the most numerous mainline locomotive of the East German State Railway. Even in its early years of service, it became apparent that the V100, or Class 110 as it was officially designated from 1969 onwards, could not replace all steam locomotive classes with similar requirements. Advances in engine development and the installation of charge air cooling improved the performance and reliability of the 12KVD engine. The final version of the 12KVD engine was tuned to 1100 kW, almost 400 kW more than the first production series.

For export, including to China, LEW derived the V100.3 sub-series from the V100, designed for heavy shunting service and with a top speed of only 65 km/h. The locomotive now numbered 111 002, owned by Leipziger Dampf KulTour LDK, was delivered to Czechoslovakia in 1981. The massive, horizontal snowplow below the buffer beam, painted with warning stripes, reveals that the locomotive did not originate from the DR (East German Railways). LDK (Lower Saxony Railway) uses the always gleaming Class 111 for shunting or leases it for construction train services. The version derived from the V100.3 for the DR and industrial railways in East Germany was called the V100.4. Although these locomotives carried additional weight instead of a steam heating boiler, the orange four-axle locomotives could also be seen pulling passenger trains in the summer. Since the Class 111's gearbox was not entirely convincing in heavy shunting service, only 37 units remained with the DR, with another six going to East German industry. Nine locomotives equipped with a single-sided gangway and output flange hauled the so-called GRE (Grave Clearing Units). The fluid reversing gearbox, better suited to shunting operations, was tested in two Class 110 locomotives starting in 1978. It only went into series production in 1991 with the Class 108, which, following the merger of the two German state railways, was subsequently designated Class 298. After the last V100 locomotives were retired from DB AG in the 2010s, a considerable number were acquired by private railway companies and heritage railways.