Class 815

Updated: August 2026 – A vehicle that looks like a railcar but has no traction: Class 815 is the driving trailer for the Class 515 battery railcar. To place it correctly, you need to understand that it never travelled alone. This page shows you how to recognise it, what its number means, and how you can still get to see it today.

What is Class 815?

Class 815 is a non-powered driving trailer that forms an operational unit together with the Class 515 battery railcar (ETA 150). Before the introduction of computer-readable vehicle numbers in 1968, it ran under the designation ESA 150 – the “S” stands for Steuerwagen (driving trailer), the “A” for the battery-powered (“Akku”) formation.

Technically the story is quickly told: the coach has two two-axle bogies, giving the wheel arrangement 2’2’, a driving cab at one end and a passenger saloon. It has no driven axle and no batteries. The power and traction sit entirely in the railcar. The driving trailer supplies just one thing: the ability to drive the train from either end, without having to run round at every terminus. On the branch lines these formations were bought for, that was exactly the decisive advantage.

These vehicles have long been out of regular service. What still runs today runs as a historic vehicle with societies and museum operations – usually only on a handful of days a year.

Driving trailer or railcar? How to tell in the field

The mix-up is easy to make, because from the outside the railcar and driving trailer of a formation look very similar to one another. Three observations settle it anyway.

If you want to approach distinctions like this systematically, the guide to identifying classes helps: it describes the order in which to work through the features, instead of getting stuck on details straight away.

What the number 815 tells you about the vehicle

The German class system for powered vehicles sorts them into number bands by traction type and use. Driving trailers get their own designation within it, because they can be driven from. The digit sequence deliberately establishes the link to the associated railcar.

Feature	Class 515 (railcar)	Class 815 (driving trailer)
Traction	powered, energy from batteries	no traction
Batteries	yes, under the floor	no
Driving cab	yes	yes
Wheel arrangement	two bogies, powered	2’2’, free-running
Old designation	ETA 150	ESA 150
Can run alone	yes	no

This logic runs through the whole German system. For steam locomotives, the same system works with wheel arrangements and purposes instead of traction types – you can see how strongly that structures the number groups with the freight tank locomotives of Class 94. How vehicle numbers are structured internationally, and what the check digit does, is explained in the article on the UIC number and its system.

Where you can realistically find an 815 today

For historic vehicles there’s no timetable to check. Research instead runs through other channels – and they work in much the same way for almost all museum vehicles.

• Operating societies first. Whoever looks after a vehicle – whether a society or a collection like the DB Museum Koblenz – also publishes its appearances. The society’s own events page is always the most reliable source; everything else is copied from there.
• Event calendars for historic vehicles. Museum festivals, station anniversaries and vehicle rallies bring together appearances that wouldn’t otherwise happen – often in the same programme as steam locomotives of Class 64.
• Community reports. Short-notice transfer runs and workshop stays turn up almost only there. The guide to special trains and special services shows you how to search systematically.
• Forum archives for the back story. Where a vehicle has turned up in recent years says a lot about the next few. The overview of the Historic Railway section explains how to search archives like this.

Photography: what’s different about a driving trailer

A driving trailer is photographically unremarkable – a flat front, hardly any structure, no steam, no exhaust. That means the image has to work through light, setting and completeness.

Get the complete formation in the shot where possible. A single coach says little; only 515 and 815 together show what it’s about. A gentle three-quarter view brings front and side wall into the frame together and makes the coach shape easier to read than a straight-on shot. Soft light in the morning or late afternoon suits vehicles like this far better than harsh midday light.

And, practically: the owner’s house rules apply on museum grounds and at special events. Barriers are binding, and tracks and operational installations are off limits, even where an area looks abandoned. The basic rules are set out in the article on the safe distance from the track. How to turn a session like this into a usable archive afterwards is shown in the guide to building a photo archive.

Common mix-ups

Verdict

Class 815 is a vehicle you only really understand as a pair. Without the Class 515 battery railcar it’s operationally just a coach with a driving cab; together the two form a local-service formation that had its time and is now history. For spotters that means: if you want to see one, plan around societies and events – and document the sighting carefully, because chances like this don’t repeat.