Meiningen steam locomotive works

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View of the main entrance as well as high-bay warehouse and heating house

The Meiningen steam locomotive works is a plant of DB Fahrzeuginstandhaltung GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG , located in the southern Thuringian district town of Meiningen .

The plant is the last major maintenance workshop for steam locomotives in Western Europe. The scope of services also includes the maintenance and preparation of historic passenger coaches , electric locomotives and diesel locomotives , the construction of new individual steam locomotives and steam locomotive boilers as well as the manufacture and maintenance of modern snow clearing technology . The plant's customers today include railway museums and museum railways across Europe and Australia.

history

Company and main workshop

Major construction site for the main workshop shortly after the groundbreaking in 1910

1863 left the Werra Railway Company , 1858 builder and operator until 1895 the Werrabahn for their fleet over the Meininger station in place of the locomotive shed an operating workshop (now Bahnbetriebswerk Meiningen ) build. The new operator Prussian State Railways converted this into a main workshop in 1902 . Soon the main workshop became too small and in 1908 planning began for a new building at a new location not far from the train station. On October 1, 1910, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new plant at the foot of the Drachenberg took place. For the 140,550 m² plateau, 245,000 m³ of earth had to be moved and removed. In addition to the locomotive hall, a foundry, the wagon hall , the workshops, the vocational school and the canteen , a bathing establishment was also built.

On March 2, 1914, the factory started operations with 490 employees. The opening ceremony took place in the presence of numerous celebrities in the former locomotive hall and today's boiler shop. The number of employees rose to 800 after just a few weeks and increased to 2,200 by 1918. Mainly locomotives and passenger cars of the Prussian State Railways were maintained and repaired. After the state railways were dissolved, the Deutsche Reichsbahn operated the plant under the new name Eisenbahnausbesserungswerk (EAW) from 1920 .

Reichsbahn repair shop

"Birthplace" RAW Meiningen: By 2019 the 18 201 will be the fastest operational steam locomotive in the world.
1924-1945

After the establishment of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft in 1924, the company was renamed Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk Meiningen (RAW). The plant was expanded by 1926, when today's locomotive straightening hall with 28 stands, two crane systems and the heating house with turntable were built. From 1925, the railway workers repaired and serviced the new standard steam locomotives here , mainly the heavy series 01 , 02 , 43 and 44 . In 1927 the passenger car division was transferred to RAW Gotha , which cost 500 jobs. From then on, tenders were repaired in the wagon hall (now the tender hall) . In the 1930s, an average of 59 locomotives were repaired and serviced each month. From 1936 to 1939, a Reichsbahnsiedlung (Reichsbahnsiedlung) consisting mainly of semi-detached houses and an outdoor swimming pool next to the tender hall were built for the railway workers on the slope of the Drachenberg right next to the plant .

During the Second World War , the number of repaired vehicles rose to 87 per month. From 1942 the class 52 war locomotives and the express locomotives of Adolf Hitler's special Führer train were added. At that time, up to 2,468 people were employed in the plant. Because of its vital role in the war, the Meiningen RAW was intended as a possible target for bombing since 1944. However, the plant was spared from air raids, which it probably owed to the direct vicinity of the OKW departments , which were also important for the Allies, the Wehrmacht Information Center (WAst) and Wehrmacht loss system (WVW). On April 6, 1945, the United States Army occupied the plant as part of the capture of the city of Meiningen.

1945-1994

Around 400 employees resumed work on April 23. By the end of August 1945, the number of employees rose again to 2,638. By order of the SMAD , the RAW was converted into a state-owned company (VEB) on September 1, 1945 under the direction of Director Oskar Lipp. In 1948 the plant was given an outpatient clinic with a doctor and dentist. The 2,000 completed locomotive after the end of the war left the factory on May 1, 1949. 1,951 died in a heavy boiler explosion of a locomotive series 95.66 in Anheizhaus ten workers and a passer-by on a nearby road . The boiler flew around 150 m into the garden of the neighboring Georgen Hospital . At around 3,000, the number of employees peaked in the early 1950s.

In 1952, the only 27-year-old Helmut Scholz took over the plant management until he was appointed to the GDR's Ministry of Transport in 1958. After his sudden death as a result of a car accident in 1967, the RAW was renamed "Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk Helmut Scholz" in 1969. In the 1950s, a company holiday home and a company holiday camp in Bansin on the Baltic Sea, a kindergarten, a cultural center and an apprentice dormitory were built or set up for the workforce .

From 1958 to 1966 and 1969 to 1972, the RAW converted steam locomotives of various series into Rekoloks . This included the high-speed test locomotive 18 201 , which is still operational today and which was built in 1961 from the former streamlined locomotive 61 002 . This locomotive reaches a speed of 180 km / h and is currently the fastest operational steam locomotive in the world. In the 1960s, the construction of new snow plows for the Deutsche Reichsbahn began , such as the Meiningen type snow plow and the conversion of steam locomotives to oil firing . The number of employees leveled off at around 2,000. From 1976 onwards, so-called rail buses , the light-combustion railcars (LVT) of the 171 and 172 series , were reconditioned .

Due to the oil crisis , the RAW experienced another boom in the 1980s. So now locomotives came to the repair shop for the dismantling of oil to grate firing, for example 44 1093 in 1982. The conversion of the series 41 , 44 , 50 and 52 to steam dispensers was also carried out here. From 1984, the new building came from steam accumulator locomotives and S- and U-Bahn - bogies added, while the repair of steam locomotives declined steadily. The number of employees gradually fell to 1,400 by 1989 as a result of restructuring at the Reichsbahn. After the political change in 1990, the number of steam locomotives to be restored and reconditioned rose sharply again. After the merger of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) in 1994 to form the Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG), there was another drastic downsizing .

Steam engine

Krauss-Maffei D 16 No. 17575 (2014)

In 1997, Deutsche Bahn changed the name of the plant to “Steam Locomotive Works Meiningen” (DLW). The DLW from now evolved into a pan-European specialist in the processing of steam locomotives of all types to its customers in addition to the railway companies and technology museums and railway - traditional clubs belong. Due to these and other structural changes, the no longer required tender hall and a number of workshops in the northern part of the factory premises were closed in the 1990s.

The former memorial locomotive DB 012 102-4 from Bebra was rebuilt in its original condition DR version 1941 (apron, engine without shutters) as 01 1102 streamlined steam locomotive from DLW and on March 1, 1996 to the owner family Johannes Klings and its EVU Delivered as an operational locomotive. Among other things, the locomotive workers made the streamlining by hand according to the original construction plans built in 1939. The locomotive is regarded as a figurehead for the quality and manufacturing capabilities of the Meiningen steam locomotive works. Also in 1996 the reconditioning of the largest operational steam locomotive in Europe at the time, the French 241-A-65 , took place. In 2002 the 18 201, which was also built here in this form, was completely overhauled again and handed over to the new owner, Dampf-Plus . Since 2003, diesel locomotives of the V 60 D series have been repaired in a new business area .

View of the plant (center) from the west, above the Reichsbahnsiedlung

In June 2006 the new boiler for the 60163 Tornado was delivered, a new construction of an English steam locomotive series of the LNER class A1 Peppercorn from the time after the Second World War, which is characterized by its conical shape. Since 2006, the DLW has been responsible for the repair and maintenance of all railway slewing cranes of the DB AG. From April to October 2007, the 1935 replica of the Adler and two passenger cars that had been badly damaged in a fire in the depot of the Transport Museum ( roundhouse of the Nuremberg West depot ) on October 17, 2005, were rebuilt in Meiningen .

In 2008/9 the DLW built a new class 99.32 narrow-gauge steam locomotive for the Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn Molli . This was not only the first new construction of a steam locomotive after a series of steam storage locomotives in the 1980s, but also the first new construction of a locomotive in a Bahn AG plant. The next new building was the Saxon I K No. 54 in Meiningen .

In June 2009 the Meiningen steam locomotive works received an order from the " Rail Corporation New South Wales " in Australia to build a new boiler for the express steam locomotive "3801" (type: New South Wales C38 class locomotive ). The conical design of the boiler has a welded construction and thus differs from the original design of the boiler on the locomotive that entered service in 1943. In autumn 2010 the large boiler was shipped to Australia. Due to poor workmanship, etc. A. undersized stud bolts according to Australian standards, the boiler was shipped back to Meiningen in 2011 and reworked under guarantee. The new boiler has been back in Sydney since the end of 2014 and is to be improved in Australia in order to go into operation on the locomotive from around 2018.

The steam locomotive works has around 120 employees and is an attraction for many steam locomotive enthusiasts.

Products

The Meiningen steam locomotive works can accommodate rail vehicles of all gauges . The business field comprises the following product groups:

  • Steam locomotive maintenance, isolated reconstructions and new construction locomotives.
  • Component production: including wheel sets, frames, boilers, steam cylinders.
  • Snow clearing technology, responsible for all 47 snow blowers and snow plows of the DB.
  • Historic freight wagons and passenger coaches, refurbishment and maintenance, especially of narrow-gauge railways .
  • Railway slewing cranes, responsible for all Deutsche Bahn cranes.
  • V-locomotives and electric locomotives are also being repaired in isolated cases.
Product chronology (selection)
  • Up until 1924, mainly Prussian State Railways' rail vehicles were repaired.
  • From 1925 the plant was responsible for the standard locomotives of the series 01, 02, 43 and 44 as well as for the locomotives of the series 39 and 95 .
  • 1937–1942: Conversion of all steam locomotives from the 02 series to the 01 series .
  • From 1942: Maintenance of the class 52 war locomotives .
  • 1961: Construction of the high-speed test locomotive 18 201 .
  • 1961–1972: conversion of 167 locomotives to main oil firing.
  • From the mid-1960s: New construction of “ Meiningen ” and “Meiningen W” snow plows .
  • 1976–1980: Maintenance of rail buses of the LVT series 171 and 172 .
  • From 1981: Repair of dust container wagons of the types Uc-v and Ucs-v (container wagons for cement and lime).
  • 1984–1988: New construction of 202 FLC steam storage locomotives .
  • 1988–1992: New construction of bogies for the Berlin S-Bahn .
  • 1994–1996: The streamlined steam locomotive 01 1102 known as the “Blue Lady” was overhauled and put back into operation.
  • 2001: The museum locomotive 03 002 (former express train locomotive 03 2002, later steam dispenser locomotive) is given a wine-red streamlined cladding based on the model of 03 193 .
  • 2002: New boiler for the Luxembourg locomotive " 5519 ".
  • 2006: On behalf of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, production of the new boiler for the English "60163 Tornado", a new construction of the LNER class A1 Peppercorn steam locomotive series .
  • 2007: Reconstruction of the ADLER locomotive, which was destroyed by fire .
  • 2008: General inspection of the Saxonia .
  • 2008/2009: New construction of the class 99.32 narrow-gauge steam locomotive for the Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn Molli .
  • 2009: New construction of the IK No. 54 locomotive for the Association of Saxon Narrow Gauge Railways in Dresden.
  • 2010: Manufacture of the new boiler for the Australian express steam locomotive "3801" (client: New South Wales Government Railways ).
  • 2011/2012: New construction of a replacement boiler and general renovation with HU of 01 150 .
  • 2013/2014: external reconstruction of the E7509 II destroyed by the fire, general inspection on 99 4652 with production of a new frame, operational reprocessing of the Alsatian T3 from 1886.
  • 2015–2017: Electric freight locomotive Ce 6/8 III 14305 ( crocodile ) of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-Historic), repair and refurbishment.
  • 2018: Express train steam locomotive 01 509 from Press GmbH, main and chassis inspection, as well as inspection of the steam locomotive AL T3 6114 from Luxembourg.

Special machine park

Wheelset lathe
Sheet rolling machine

The steam locomotive works or had a number of large single-purpose machines typical of steam locomotives. Here is a list of the most important special machines, some of which are still in operation today.

  • Steam forging press (Banning approx. 1914 - approx. 1989)
  • Steam forging hammer (Hartmann 1925 - approx. 1989)
  • Boring machine for complete rod sets (Strassmann 1943)
  • Wheelset lathe ( Maschinenfabrik Deutschland 1942, up to 2.1 meters in diameter, see picture)
  • Rod lock grinding machine (Schmalz 1939)
  • Rocker grinding machine (Schmalz 1942)
  • Mechanical wheel set measuring stand ( AEG 1937)
  • Cropped axle leg grinding machine (Schmalz 1938–1976)
  • Crank pin grinding machine (Schmalz 1939)
  • Sheet rolling machine (Hilo 1939, up to 20 mm sheet thickness for boiler, see picture)
  • Embossing polishing machine ( Scharmann , Mönchengladbach 1944)

Events

Since 1995, the Meiningen Steam Engine Days have been held annually on the first weekend in September , which are attended by up to 15,000 paying steam engine enthusiasts from Germany and abroad on two days. Children have free entry here. Quite a few of them arrive in special trains hauled by steam locomotives.

In the winter half-year, guided tours through the plant are offered every first and third Saturday of the month and in the summer half-year every Saturday at 10:00 a.m. A tour lasts around 1½ hours. Registrations are not necessary. Group tours are possible Monday to Friday after registration.

In the summer months there are occasional concerts with the Meininger Hofkapelle and other music formations such as that of Axel Zwingenberger in the Lokhalle.

The interactive museum “Erlebniswelt Dampflok” will be built on the factory premises in the former canteen building. It will provide visitors with extensive information on the history and technology of steam locomotives all year round and provide insights into the work of the steam locomotive workers. Construction is to start in 2020 and the opening is scheduled for 2023.

  • Factory (2005)

  • 18 201 (2007)

  • 160t crane (2007)

  • View of the locomotive hall during the Steam Engine Days 2005

  • Rod workshop with the connecting rods of 81 1001 (2014)

literature

  • Meininger Mediengesellschaft Meininger Heimatklänge. , Issues 4/2005, 5/2014 and 6/2014.
  • Meininger Dampflok Verein eV: 1914–2004 - 90 years of the steam locomotive factory. Meininger steam time 2004.
  • The Meiningen steam locomotive works. , (= Railway Courier Special. 50). Freiburg 1998.
  • Jürgen Rech: Full house and worries about the future . In: railway magazine . No. 5/2012 . Alba publication, May 2012, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 29-31 .
  • Rainer Scholze, Hans-Erhard Henningen: The city of Meiningen and its steam locomotive works . Verlag Resch, Meiningen 2012, ISBN 978-3-940295-33-0 .

Web links

Commons : more pictures from the Meiningen steam locomotive works  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Eagle replica from 1935 and its reconstruction in 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Meininger Tageblatt, 100 years under steam - a work and its people, in Meininger Heimatklänge: Edition of March 10, 2014.
  2. ^ Roger A. Freeman: Mighty Eighth War Diary. Operation documentation of the 8th Air Force of the USAAF.
  3. ↑ a b c d The town of Meiningen and its steam locomotive works. Publishing house Resch, Meiningen 2012.
  4. ^ Nürnberger Nachrichten of October 24, 2007.
  5. ↑ Meininger Tageblatt daily newspaper, January 16, 2009 edition.
  6. ↑ Meininger Tageblatt daily, issue of August 28, 2010.
  7. ↑ transportheritagensw.com.au
  8. ↑ Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works .
  9. ↑ Eisenbahn-Kurier 10/2014, Lörracher Strasse 16, 79115 Freiburg, www.eisenbahn-kurier.de, p. 27.
  10. ↑ Rainer Scholze, Hans-Erhard Henningen: The city of Meiningen and its steam locomotive works . Verlag Resch, Meiningen 2012, ISBN 978-3-940295-33-0 , p. 85 .
  11. ↑ Rainer Scholze, Hans-Erhard Henningen: The city of Meiningen and its steam locomotive works . Verlag Resch, Meiningen 2012, ISBN 978-3-940295-33-0 , p. 238 .
  12. ↑ Verb.de - Steam Locomotive Experience

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 55 ″  N , 10 ° 25 ′ 14 ″  E