The V 80 was the first mainline diesel locomotive that the Bundesbahn had developed after the Second World War. Only ten were built, half of which were built by Krauss-Maffei and half by MaK. Nevertheless, the V 80 anticipated many design features that were later adopted by other West German diesel locomotives.

The visual appearance was characterized by a central driver's cab, in which there were controls which could be used in both directions. The hoods were lower than the driver's cab and took up the full width of the locomotive. The machine rooms within the hoods were thus walkable.

From a technical point of view, the V 80 used a medium-speed turbo diesel, which delivered its power to all four axles via a hydraulic transmission and cardan shafts. This arrangement was also adopted for later diesel locomotives of the Bundesbahn up to the class 218. The V 80 initially featured V12 diesels with 800 to 1,000 hp, which were later replaced by an MTU engine with 1,100 hp. Silencers were not retrofitted until 1958.

The area of operation was concentrated on Franconia and the Frankfurt/Main area. With their low axle loads, they were used in front of passenger and freight trains on branch lines, but also often in suburban traffic. Due to the small number of units and the availability of the former V 100, the locomotives now known as class 280 were retired between 1976 and 1978. They were all sold to private railways and track construction companies in Italy between 1977 and 1981. Some of these came back to Germany since 2005 and were refurbished as museum locomotives.