Baureihe (Class) 215 was the last incarnation of the 'V160' diesel locomotive design that had already spawned the classes 216, 217 and 218. It was developed and ordered in a time when DB (then Deutsche Bundesbahn) was moving from steam traction to diesel or electric traction and, respectively, from steam-heat to electric train heating. Like the 216, but unlike the 217 and 218, the 215 was to drive steam-heated trains and thus had an oil-fired boiler.
150 locos of this type were built by Henschel, Krauss-Maffei, Krupp, and MaK and powered by MTU or MAN motors. They entered service beginning in 1968. Today, hardly any are in service anymore as far as I know.
Technical fact sheet:
- Concept: B'B' layout (four axles in two bogies), both bogies driven by a single diesel engine by articulated shafts from a central fluid transmission; a mechanical intermediate gearbox to select either a high-traction or a high-speed gear can only be shifted when standing still
- Power: 1,400 kW; some early and late models: 1,840 kW
- Traction: 235.4 kN in high-traction gear, 166.8 kN in high-speed gear
- Top speed: 140 km/h; some early models: 130 km/h
- Total weight: 77.5 tonnes (19.38 tonnes per axle); some early models: 80 tonnes (20 tonnes per axle)
- Length: 16.4 m
- Distance between wheels in bogie: 2.8 m
- Wheel diameter: 1 m
- Diesel tank volume: 3.05 m3; some early models: 2.7 m3
- Boiler oil tank volume: 0.69 m3
- Boiler water tank volume: 2.85 m3; some early models: 2.8 m3
- Number built: 150