Federal Railway Central Office
The Bundesbahn-Zentralämter ( BZA ) in Minden and Munich , as offices of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, were responsible for central tasks in the areas of technical development (in particular the vehicles and the superstructure ) and procurement , the updating of general regulations in the field of technology and the accounting and the statistical services .
history
After 1945, the functions of the former Reichsbahnzentralamt Berlin under the new name Bundesbahnzentralamt were initially carried out in Göttingen , then from 1950 in Minden, parallel to that in Munich - which already existed in 1920. The equivalent office of the Deutsche Reichsbahn was now called VES-M Halle . In Frieda tunnel was located from 1947 to 1983 a climate chamber of the Research Institute of Thermal Engineering of the BZA. After the founding of Deutsche Bahn AG on January 1, 1994, the federal railway central offices were incorporated into the new group structure; after that, tasks for Executive Board area 5 - Research and Technology - were performed in Minden. Further research activities of Deutsche Bahn AG take place in Munich at the Völckerstraße location on the site of the former Munich-Freimann repair shop .
One of the main tasks of the federal railway central offices, the development of vehicles, no longer exists on the part of the railway. In the course of the transformation into Deutsche Bahn AG and the resulting realignment, Deutsche Bahn now buys vehicles from industry. The maneuvering technology was taken care of for machine, electrical and process-related questions in BZA Minden. The control technology for RTE was processed in the BZA Munich. The technical regulations for RTE and the accident investigations at DB and DB AG were technically developed in Minden.
Some of the tasks of the BZA were taken over by the Research and Technology Center (FTZ) after the privatization of the DB. The Federal Railway Authority took over the sovereign responsibility until 2015; five recognized experts from the FTZ worked here for the EBA type approvals of the RTE. Today DB Systemtechnik takes on both tasks again. Vehicles will continue to be approved by the EBA.
Federal Railway Research Office
The Bundesbahn-Versuchsamt (VersA) was assigned to the central offices in Minden and Munich. This was responsible for testing rails and vehicles. Several measuring wagons and own locomotives were held for this purpose . a. served as brake locomotives .
Predecessor institution until 1945 was u. a. the Grunewald Locomotive Research Office .
For many years the Research Office used steam locomotives as brake locomotives with counter-pressure brakes , including 44 404 and 45 010 . Locomotives 18 316 , 18 323 , 18 451 and 24 061 were also part of the fleet . After they were retired in the 1970s, diesel and electric locomotives took over these tasks.
The InterCityExperimental was also stationed in Minden . The inventory of the test offices included several electric locomotives of the DB class 103 and a prototype locomotive of the DB class 120 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 17 '17.2 " N , 8 ° 55' 14.8" E