DB Class ETA 150
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The accumulator cars of Class ETA 150 (Class 515 from 1968) were German
railbus A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar that shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels on a fixed base, instead of on bogies. Originally designed and developed ...
es used extensively by Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) for 40 years. The railcars were very comfortable to travel in because they were quiet (despite the typical whine of their DC motors), rode well on the rails owing to the weight of the batteries, and were pollution-free (no smoke or fumes). They ran on both main and branch lines. They were very popular with passengers, who nicknamed them ''Akkublitz'' (''Battery Lightning''), ''Säurebomber'' (''Acid Bombers''), ''Steckdosen-
InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
'' (''Socket InterCitys''), ''Taschenlampen-Express'' (''Pocket Torch Express''), or ''Biene Maja'' ('' Maya the Bee'' – because of the sound they made when under way).


History

As a result of many years of favourable experience with this type of vehicle (the Prussian state railways had placed accumulator railcars in service as early as 1907 – these would later become Deutsche Reichsbahn's Class ETA 178) and an evaluation of the results obtained from the use of Class ETA 176 prototypes, DB placed 232 Class ETA 150 power cars and 216 of their associated Class ESA 150 driving trailers in service between 1953 and 1965. DB preferred to employ these two-coach sets on relatively level routes. They were rarely used on hilly lines owing to the resultant high current consumption and hence limited range. In the main this affected only those vehicles stationed at Wanne-Eickel and used in the Wuppertal area. The main areas of operation of the class, apart from the Ruhrgebiet, were
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, eastern
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, eastern
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
(in the '' Westerwald'' forest), south
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, south
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, and the region around
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and
Nördlingen Nördlingen (; Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was bui ...
. The last few railcars also worked in the area of the Rhine-Ruhr Transport Union ('' Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr'') or ''VRR'' until 1995. Between 1978 and 1988 the railcars also worked between
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and
Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. In 1968, under DB's renumbering scheme, the power cars became Class 515, and the driving trailers Class 815. Compared to the Prussian ''Wittfeld'' accumulator cars, the ETA 150s had an unfavourable weight distribution − the batteries were located in the middle of the coach body instead of over the end axles, so that in their last years in service the frames tended to sag in the middle, which resulted in the vehicles' acquiring the nickname ''Hängebauchschweine'' (''Pot-bellied pigs'').


Variants


Batches

* 515.0, 1954–1956; battery capacity: 352-437 kWh * 515.1, 1956–1958; battery capacity: 390-437 kWh * 515.5, 1959-1965: battery capacity: 520-603 kWh


Passenger compartments

The first batch had a high proportion of 1st class seating; this was changed for the second batch, the number of 1st class seats being reduced to just eight. All ETAs had a luggage compartment. The original 2+3 seat layout was changed in the later batches to a 2+2 configuration. * 515 003-033 * 515 101-112, 120-138 (''Hamburg'' variant) * 515 113-119 (''Bremen'' variant) * 515 501-508, 639-651 * 515 509-580, 604-638, 652-661


Livery variations

The
twin-car A twin unit or twinset is a set of two railroad cars or locomotives which are permanently coupled and treated as if they were a single unit. A twinset of cars or coaches can also be called a twin car. In US passenger railroad parlance, twin un ...
sets were delivered in a wine-red livery. From 1975 some were repainted in beige and ocean-blue. Shortly before their retirement a few vehicles were painted in DB's paint scheme at that time – white and peppermint green – and ran in this livery on the ''Nokia Railway'' (today the ''Glückauf Railway'') from
Bochum Hbf Bochum Hauptbahnhof is a railway station for the city of Bochum in western Germany. In its current incarnation, it was built from 1955 to 1957 and is one of the most notable 1950s railway stations in Germany. The station underwent extensive remode ...
to
Gelsenkirchen Hbf Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of Gelsenkirchen. It connects the city to the regional and long-distance rail service of Deutsche Bahn and other railway companies in Germany. History The Gelsenkirchen railwa ...
. File:515-rot.jpg, 515 in red File:515-106ob.jpg, 515 in ocean-blue/beige File:515-548nokia.jpg, 515 in peppermint green/white


Preserved

Two power cars were sold to the
Regentalbahn The Regentalbahn (''Regentalbahn AG – Die Länderbahn'') is railway company based in Bavaria, and is owned by Ferrovie dello Stato and the Luxembourg infrastructure fund ''Cube'', through the German holding company of Netinera. It runs railway ...
(private railway), who converted them to diesel cars and designated them as Class VT 515-U. Only a few vehicles could be preserved by museum railways because their maintenance is extremely difficult now that the maintenance of batteries at Limburg has ceased and the vehicles are required to go to charging stations. The maintenance and operation of normal
railbuses A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar that shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels on a fixed base, instead of on bogies. Originally designed and developed d ...
is considerably easier. Number 515 556 is operational, but until it undergoes a general inspection it can only be used on the (museum) site of the locomotive depot. The following have been preserved: * 515 556-9 and 815 672-1 (
Bochum-Dahlhausen Railway Museum The Eisenbahnmuseum Bochum-Dahlhausen is a railway museum situated south of the city of Bochum in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded by DGEG, the German Railway History Company in 1977 and is based in a locomotive depot ...
) * 515 011-5 (
Bavarian Railway Museum The Bavarian Railway Museum (''Bayerisches Eisenbahnmuseum'' or BEM) is a railway museum based in the old locomotive sheds at Nördlingen station in Bavaria, Germany. It is home to more than 100 original railway vehicles and has been located ...
at
Nördlingen Nördlingen (; Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was bui ...
)


References

* * *


External links


Bavarian Railway Museum

Bochum Railway Museum

The ETA 150




{{DEFAULTSORT:ETA 150 Electric multiple units of Germany