Railway repair shop Speldorf

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Old Turning Shop (2020)

The Speldorf repair shop was founded in 1874 by the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft in Mülheim - Broich and named after the nearby Speldorf train station . After the end of the steam locomotive era, it was closed in 1959. The site is now being used for other purposes, and some buildings are listed.

history

Medl power plant in the middle of the site (2008)

The Rheinische Eisenbahn only maintained a repair shop in Cologne-Nippes , but it was at the limit of its capacity and on the edge of the more than 1000 kilometers long route network. In 1874, a further depot for the maintenance of the 453 locomotives and over 11,000 freight wagons was established in Mülheim an der Ruhr. The excavation of the leveled area was used for the construction of the railway embankments on the Duisburg-Hochfelder railway bridge over the Rhine.

The plant was named Speldorf due to the proximity of the Speldorf train station, to which it also had connections including the roundhouse .

In 1880 the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft was nationalized in the Prussian State Railways . The Speldorfer factory was now called the main workshop and was expanded several times. However, the site turned out to be too small, so that in 1914 the maintenance of the freight wagons was moved to another repair shop in Duisburg-Wedau. From then on, Speldorf only took care of steam locomotives ; a boiler forge was built on the vacated site and, in 1918, an additional locomotive straightening hall using steel truss technology with two parallel ships and a two-story third ship for the feeder workshops. It measured 254 by 57 meters, making it one of the longest repair halls on the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Another new feature of this hall were the 90 lengthways working stands instead of the previously usual transverse stands, in which the internal transfer platforms could be omitted and the throughput times of the locomotives were reduced to a third. The old locomotive assembly hall, the forge and the turning shop were still used.

At the beginning 150 to 200 people worked in the main workshop, at the height of the steam train in the 1950s up to 2000 people were waiting for over 1000 steam locomotives annually.

During the Second World War, the Reichsbahn housed up to 1,600 forced laborers in camps in Mülheim, one of which was on the site of the repair shop.

In 1955, the responsible department director of Deutsche Bahn stated: “The Speldorfer locomotive workshops are among the most economically efficient operations of the Federal Railroad, if not at the top. Therefore it is incomprehensible that one thinks of all Speldorf to shut down. ” With the end of the steam locomotive era, the Speldorf repair shop was closed on March 31, 1959.

In 1962 the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr took over the repair shop and most of the site.

Todays use

Old turning shop, photo from April 2008

Since 1991, some of the large buildings on the site have been listed. The temporal staggering of these buildings and thus their different, state-of-the-art construction characterize the site as a special historical document.

The city has set up the depot of its Mülheimer VerkehrsGesellschaft for trams and buses in the old Lokrichthalle .

The oldest surviving building, the old turning shop , was auctioned by various Mülheim associations in 2007, and has since been restored and expanded to become the association's house.

Opposite is the Mülheim main fire station with a fire practice house and the Broich volunteer fire department .

There is an industrial park on the other side of the train tracks.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monuments online: The old turning shop in Mülheim an der Ruhr hopes to be rescued, June 2009
  2. ↑ The West: Topic of the week: A hall for everyone (clubs): The locomotive station, November 27, 2008
  3. ^ Mülheim Citizens' Initiative (MBI) Application for the participation of Mülheim companies in the compensation fund
  4. ↑ The West: Topic of the week: A hall for everyone (clubs): The locomotive station from June 27, 2008, last paragraph

Web links

Commons : Eisenbahnausbesserungswerk Speldorf  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 41.8 ″  N , 6 ° 51 ′ 46.6 ″  E