10.08.2019: #digitalsommerprignitz
Under the motto #digitalsommerprignitz, an initiative of the town of Wittenberge in cooperation with the Wirtschaftsförderung Land Brandenburg GmbH under the patronage of the Minister President of the State of Brandenburg invited guests to visit Wittenberge station on August 10, 2019, the historic station building of which was recently acquired by the Wittenberge municipal housing association. The aim was to inspire employees working predominantly digitally, for the "town in the countryside", so that they can move to the town of Wittenberge and the region, to work and play in the worldwide network from there. The station building is to be an anchor point for this in the future. After restoration, municipal authorities will move in here to support the digital settlement.
Today, however, there was another opportunity to admire the "old splendour". The dining hall on the ground floor, which some of our guests may still remember as a Mitropa restaurant, could be visited. Since a track from our museum area leads almost to the door of the station, we took the opportunity to draw attention to the Historic Locomotive Shed and offered the visitors cab rides on one of our diesel locomotives.
30.07.2019: Current work
The summer season and the warm temperatures only invite to a limited extent to sudorific activities in the historical locomotive shed. Nevertheless, active members are not idle, working on vehicles and facilities. Firstly, the collecting funnel at the water crane in front of the locomotive line was dismantled and a new foundation including a septic tank was installed. Soon the funnel will be replaced and hopefully it will be stable again for the next few years.
Secondly we worked on our car transport car from the government train of Walter Ulbricht. The long time standing out in the open caused the transitions between the walls and the roof to rust. So that no more rainwater can penetrate, new metal sheets were welded in on a large scale. It is planned to use the car for temporary exhibitions. An exhibition on track construction is to be set up soon.
Thirdly, a new exhibit is currently being worked on, which we expect to be delivered to Wittenberge on the occasion of the association's anniversary on October 12/13, 2019. It is a small narrow gauge locomotive with the unusual track gauge of 685 mm, which was built in 1912 by the Maschinenfabrik Heilbronn. From the website http://www.lokhersteller.de, it can be seen that it bears the factory number 581 and has an output of 80 hp. It was originally owned by construction company Ph. Holzmann, working in their own gravel pit Gehespitz in Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt/M. and numbered Rbl 201; it stood from 1968 on a playground in Obertshausen and from 1993 at the Verein Verkehrsamateure und Museumsbahn e.V. in Aumühle. The following picture shows the locomotive when it was being collected from Aumühle:
In the last four years the locomotive has been refurbished externally by a member of our association in hundreds of hours of hard work.
Since such locomotives have mastered heavy transport tasks in construction work, civil engineering and agriculture all over Germany including sites in the Altmark and along the Elbe, we are happy to take the small locomotive into our care. In order to be able to exhibit it on standard gauge track, a new trolley has been specially made, which will display the locomotive on a short piece of track.
18.05.2019: News from the locomotive shed
On Saturday, 18.5.2019, the workshop track in locoshed road 1 was completed. As part of the work on the track, the foundations were stabilised, new rails laid and the concrete floor adjusted to the rail height. Finally, new slabs were laid between the rails and the slabs in front of the engine shed, which served as temporary access, were removed.
Stichwörter: Infrastruktur
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05.05.2019: Spring Festival in Wittenberge
Last weekend the gates to the spring festival opened in the museum. Contrary to expectations (and all predictions!) the weather god looked on us kindly and so many visitors found their way to Wittenberge. We think that our visitors had a lot of fun during their stay. In any case, we have had consistently positive encouragement. Thank you very much for the numerous appearances!
It was also pleasing that 50 3570 was in steam again after the main inspection and was able to take part in various driver's cab rides. Unfortunately, work on the original tender is not yet finished, so that the loco was temporarily coupled with the operational tender of steam loco 50 3682. After some adjustment work on the draw-gear between locomotive and tender this worked really well. The new view probably also pleased the railway photographers, for whom we were able to set up some motives in the superb lighting late on the Saturday afternoon. The photos below were taken in this frame.
Our grateful thanks got to Lok OST, SKL Umschlagservice Magdeburg and Salzland Rail Service for their participation in our event. The companies were represented with the diesel locomotives 112 364, 112 466 and 132 088.
Stichwörter: Veranstaltung
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16.04.2019: A tender change for our steam locomotives
As regular readers of our newsletter will already know, we are currently in the middle of a general overhaul on our steam loco 50 3570. To obtain the official permit ("ticket") following the overhaul, all parts of the engine must be in perfect working order. Since there is still work outstanding on the locomotive's tender - that is, the truck attached which carries its coal and water - the tender has been exchanged with that from 50 3682-7, which still has a valid ticket. This change of tenders will help to speed up the return of 50 3570 to traffic.
However, this tender change is not purely for operating and administrative reasons. During its time in railway service, the loco was in fact coupled to a type 2‘2 T28 tender (a tender on two two-axle bogies, with a water capacity of 28 m³, or 6,160 imp. gallons), in other words, the type of tender to which it is now temporarily attached. Tenders of this type, unlike the locomotives themselves, were still being built in the 1950s, differing from the original type 2‘2 T26 in having a greater capacity for coal and water (26m³, or 5,720 gallons). The pictures below show the two tender types: on the left, the newer version, on the right, the original:
Unfortunately, it's not just a matter of unhooking a tender from one locomotive and coupling it to another. Engine and tender are attached by three steel bars, each the diameter of a man's arm, while the middle of these three bars is pressed against the engine with a force of several tons by a huge spring located within the tender frames. This spring tension can only be overcome by using hydraulic assistance. The hydraulic equipment is seen in front of the engine in the next picture.
After splitting the locomotives and tenders, each engine was attached to the other one's tender.
The following pictures show the engines and tenders still separated:
We thank the company Malowa, Benndorf, for the professional execution of the works.
vehicles: 50 3570-4, 50 3682-7
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13.04.2019: Work in progress on 50 3570
Many regular visitors to our museum and our website will be well aware that we have to do maintenance work on our loco 50 3570 in order to keep her fit to steam in the future.
A major part of ... zum Artikel
06.04.2019: Work in progress
Most of our active members are currently working on locos which must be prepared for the forthcoming season. At he moment, we are concentrating on the necessary brake inspections. On diesellok 102 172 ... zum Artikel
28.03.2019: Start of the new season in the "Historic Locoshed"
In just a few days, the "Historische Lokschuppen Wittenberge" opens its shed doors to welcome visitors once again. On Saturday, April 6, 2019, the winter break is over. From then, the museum, located on ... zum Artikel
16.03.2019: Work completed and updates
VB 197 805
First a few words on progress of restoring railcar trailer VB 197 805: the passenger accommodation was completely stripped out some time ago.
Now begins the work ... zum Artikel
01.03.2019: Wittenberge depot as a servicing point
In the past few days, two steam locomotives have visited Wittenberge depot to take on coal and water and to berth some historic passenger coaches here for a few days when they were not in use between working ... zum Artikel
16.02.2019: Track and vehicle maintenance
Initial preparation have been made for repairs to the track beneath our sanding facility. These are necessary because the timber sleepers originally installed here are gradually showing their age and beginning ... zum Artikel
26.01.2019: Working party - recovery of track materials
A number of members answered the call to a working party, which worked in the most unpleasant weather conditions (ground frost, snow, sleet and after that, rain during the day).
A demolition contractor ... zum Artikel
19.01.2019: Update on maintenance work
Several members took advantage of the good and generally frost-free weather to bury a signalling cable - a long outstanding task - leading from our signal box Wm to the extreme southern tip of our premises, ... zum Artikel
12.01.2019: Winter work continues
Work on No. 1 road in our locoshed continues. Today's task was to remove the longitudinal sleepers which were installed more than a century ago to support the rails on No.1 road. Over the years, they have ... zum Artikel
05.01.2019: Tracklaying in the locoshed
As we wrote in December, a number of our members are now tackling the tracklaying in No. 1 road in the locoshed. After removing the covering panels between the rails, the service pit underneath was partly ... zum Artikel
