News

05.07.2025: 05./06.07.2025 Summer Steam at the Historic Engine Shed Wittenberge

On 5 and 6 July 2025, the Historic Engine Shed Wittenberge will be hosting its "Summer Steam 2025" event, at which the museum's vehicles will of course once again be in operation and on display. The railway enthusiasts have also created space in the engine shed for a large H0-scale model railway layout. This time, the Lüchow-Dannenberg model railway friends will be guests with their modular layout.
The die-hard fans of the original scale railway are already looking forward to seeing which guest locomotives will be represented in Wittenberge this time. The final confirmations are still pending, but the association is endeavouring to find representatives of diesel and electric traction.
The locomotives will be in operation between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturdays and between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sundays. Visitors can then not only marvel at them from the outside, but also take a ride in the driver's cab. Friendly museum staff also offer rare glimpses into the engine rooms. Also worth seeing is the museum's signal box, from which a number of points and signals in the museum grounds are set.
The railway enthusiasts also organise tours of the site in historic passenger carriages from the turn of the century before last. Those who would like to work on the drive themselves can experience this on a draisine. Hunger and thirst can of course be quenched on site. In keeping with the summer temperatures, this also includes ice cream made to an original GDR recipe. The highlight of each day will be the vehicle parades, which take place at around 2:00 p.m. Various functional exhibits from the museum and guest locomotives will be shown in action.
Tickets are available on site at a price of 8 Euro (adults) / 4 Euro (children) / 20 Euro (families). Free parking is available in the area around the railway station. Wittenberge is also easy to reach by train, with trains running every two hours to and from Hamburg, Magdeburg and Pritzwalk and every hour to and from Berlin. The historic locomotive shed is just a few minutes' walk from the Wittenberge railway station.

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19.06.2025: Locomotives in progress and looking forward to the upcoming event

Dear friends of our museum, now it's time again to report on the current status of developments in the Historic Locomotive Shed Wittenberge. Our diesel locomotive 114 774 is currently undergoing a major engine overhaul. The exhaust system, the coolant reservoir and the turbocharger have been removed for cleaning and maintenance. At the moment, the removed parts and the bonnet of the engine front end are in the engine shed and can therefore be better inspected and worked on. We are all the more pleased that our young people have taken an interest in the project. Here they learn - under the supervision of experienced colleagues - the structure of the diesel engine, how it works and all the little things that make an engine run smoothly. Like all of us, they are of course looking forward to the day when the locomotive can move under its own power again. That will still take a while, but we are confident.



The same applies to our diesel locomotive 118 748, which is still at a contractor in the Harz Mountains for its main inspection. The work on the running gear and brakes has already been completed and the locomotive is back on its own wheels. However, the completion of one of the two diesel engines and the drive shafts is a little delayed.
The boiler of our steam locomotive 50 3570 has now been gutted to such an extent that work on repairing it and installing new pipes can begin soon.
As you can see, we have a lot of work to do at the moment. But that's what makes it so exciting for us to be able to complete larger projects (largely) with our own hands and resources. The road is sometimes rocky, but we are confident that we will soon be able to complete the projects mentioned above. Please contact us if you would like to play an active part.
However, we also need to tidy up the locomotive shed, because big things are on the horizon. At the end of June, the council is organising the Federal Congress of German Small Towns, which will be attended by around 350 representatives of local authorities from all over Germany. The participants will take part in various workshops on the future organisation of municipal life and work, which will be held in our museum, among other places. We will therefore be creating space in the locomotive shed to offer a larger room with a roof and ambience. We are delighted that we will be able to provide suitable premises for this event.
And then it will only be another week, until 5 and 6 July to be precise, until we host our ?Summer Steam 2025? event, where our vehicles will of course be in use and on display again. And as we have already created space in the engine shed, as mentioned above, this area will be occupied by a model railway exhibition on the occasion of our summer steam event. Our guests this time will be the Lüchow-Dannenberg Model Railway Friends with their HO scale modular layout.
We have already received enquiries as to whether we are expecting guest locomotives at the event. The answer is: Yes, we are endeavouring to attract representatives of diesel and electric traction. In view of the high risk of line side fires and the associated limitation on running coal-fired locomotives, we have decided not to order steam locomotives this time.
https://dampflok-wittenberge.de/download/2025-07-05-sommerdampf.pdf

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25.05.2025: New heavyweights in the historic locomotive shed

It was actually supposed to be a quiet May 2025 after we had completed our ?Spring Steam? event. But things usually turn out differently than planned. Today we are delighted to welcome two heavyweight new additions to the museum and major work along our museum track to Wittenberge station.
The first new exhibit is the electric locomotive 142 118, which was built in the mid-1960s by LEW - Lokomotivbau Elektrotechnische Werke ?Hans Beimler? (Hennigsdorf). It was put into service by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in May 1967 and was stationed in Halle. It was used for passenger and goods trains until it was decommissioned in 1994.
As it was still quite sprightly, the locomotive was sold to Switzerland in 1995 and used there mainly for freight transport until 2003. As the topography there is known to be quite steep, it was adapted to the prevailing conditions. The biggest change was the installation of an electric resistance brake, which is used on downhill gradients when the traction motors operate as electric generators. This reduces the load on the conventional brake, in which brake blocks act on the wheels, and significantly reduces wear. An external feature of this conversion is that a current collector has been removed and electric resistors have been mounted on the roof instead. In the attached picture, these are the structures on the right half of the roof.

In 2003, the locomotive returned to Germany and was used by the Westfälische Almetalbahn on DB AG lines, also for freight transport. Since 2009, the locomotive has belonged to the ENON Group, which also includes Eisenbahngesellschaft Potsdam. The locomotive was decommissioned in 2022 after the inspection period expired. As there is currently no need for its further use, the locomotive has been made available to us as an exhibition object in our museum in Wittenberge. Thank you very much for this new and interesting exhibit.
Our second new addition comes from the same locomotive factory as the 142 119. It is also an electric locomotive, but in small format. It does not draw its power from an overhead lifewire, but from batteries. For this reason, the series is also known as an accumulator traction vehicle (ASF). Ours initially bore the number 126 when the Deutsche Reichsbahn delivered it brand new to the Wittenberge depot.


After the closure of the depot, it was sold to Eisenbahngesellschaft Potsdam in the 2000s, which eventually brought it to Rügen. From GDR times until 2016, there was a railway ferry connection from there to Lithuania (Klaipeda), partly because the Soviet Union did not fully trust its ally Poland and preferred not to have critical or strategic goods transported by rail through Poland. In Mukran, Soviet freight wagons running on broad gauge at home were converted to European standard gauge or vice versa so that they could run on European tracks. Our ASF was used for shunting the wagons within the gauge change facility. Incidentally, its maximum speed is an impressive 6 km/h.
As the Soviet wagons only had a centre buffer coupling and not the buffers, coupling hooks and coupling chains that we usually had, our ASF was equipped with such a centre buffer coupling on one side of the vehicle. It still has this today and is therefore quite unique.

Unfortunately, the ASF is currently not operational because the vehicle batteries have suffered quite a bit over the years and need to be partially replaced. For this reason and due to a lack of demand, Eisenbahngesellschaft Potsdam has given us the vehicle on permanent loan. Many thanks for that too!
Now let's take a look at our museum track outside the actual museum grounds, which runs from our signal box Wm to Wittenberg station. Major construction work is currently taking place along this track in preparation for the State Garden Show, which will take place in Wittenberge in 2027.


Incidentally, the station at the end of this track is also currently undergoing major refurbishment. It is due to be completed in the first half of 2026. Fortunately, there will once again be a ?mobility centre? with a ticket counter. In addition, the job centre, the technology centre and business development agency and the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing will move into rooms there. We are already looking forward to the opening because it will give the railway in Wittenberge another striking face and, unlike many other towns, the imposing station will once again shine in new splendour.

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07.05.2025: Review of the Spring Steam 2025

Last weekend, around 1,500 guests took the opportunity to visit us at our ‘Spring Steam 2025’. We are delighted with the number of visitors, which was quite high despite the cool and wet Sunday. We would like to thank all visitors for coming.
We also had a lot to offer. The 86 1744 of the Press Group and our steam locomotive Emma were available alternately for cab rides. In addition, there were once again the popular tours of the site with our small museum train, which ran from the turntable to the southern boundary of the site, changed direction there and travelled to the main station. From there, it took the track connection past the Potsdam railway's engine shed back to the turntable.
Those who wanted to lend a hand themselves could do so on our trolley rides or when setting the points on our signal box ‘Wm’. Many visitors also found out about the progress of the boiler inspection of our steam locomotive 50 3570, whose driver's cab we had made accessible. Anyone who wanted to see what a steam locomotive looks like from below was able to enter the inspection pit under our steam locomotive 50 3624. Wearing a helmet was of course compulsory for the adults and fun for the children.
Our thanks go to everyone who supported us at the event. In addition to the aforementioned press group, the volunteer fire brigade helped with their pea soup (the best pea soup you can imagine), Benny and his colleagues at the barbecue (always a pleasure) and of course our own colleagues and relatives, who once again provided delicious cakes. We would also like to thank our two transport police officers from the Pritzwalk museum signal box for coming along with their authentic service vehicle. By the way, it's great that you opened your own museum just a few days ago!
We would also like to thank all visitors who expressed their sympathy for the death of our long-time colleague and founding member of the association, Klaus-Peter Müller. We remembered him with mourning ribbons with the inscription ‘Thank you, Klaus-Peter!’ on various vehicles.
We are very satisfied with the event because our guests were too, the technology worked and there were no major or minor accidents. We are already looking forward to the next event at the beginning of July 2025.

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20.04.2025: Frühjahrsdampf im Historischen Lokschuppen Wittenberge

„100 Jahre Dampflok Emma“ heißt es in diesem Jahr im Historischen Lokschuppen Wittenberge und die Dampflokfreunde sind stolz darauf, ihren Besuchern die kleine schwarz-rot-grüne Lok in Betrieb vorführen zu können. Anlass hierfür ist die Veranstaltung Frühjahrsdampf am 3. und 4. Mai 2025, bei der Emma sich auf zahlreiche Besucher aus nah und fern freut. Als besondere Gratulantin wird auch eine Dampflok der Baureihe 86 vor Ort sein, die der Press-Gruppe gehört. Einige Gäste werden sie vielleicht aus ihrem letzten Sommerurlaub auf Rügen und Usedom kennen.
Beide Loks werden samstags zwischen 10 und 17 Uhr um die Wette dampfen, sonntags zwischen 10 und 16 Uhr. Besucher können sie dann nicht nur von außen bestaunen, sondern auch auf dem Führerstand mitfahren. Auch ihre Schwestern, die Dieselloks des Museums, freuen sich schon auf Besucher. Hier bieten freundliche Mitarbeiter des Museums seltene Blicke in die Maschinenräume und die Führerstände. Sehenswert ist auch das Stellwerk des Museums, von dem etliche Weichen und Signale im Museumsgelände gestellt werden.
Die Bahnfreunde bieten außerdem Rundfahrten im historischen Reisezugwagen der vorletzten Jahrhundertwende durch das Gelände an. Wer selbst für den Antrieb arbeiten möchte, der kann das auf einer Draisine erleben. Hunger und Durst können selbstverständlich vor Ort gestillt werden. Highlight jeden Tages werden die Fahrzeugparaden sein, die gegen 14:00 Uhr stattfinden. Dabei werden diverse funktionsfähige Exponate des Museums in Aktion gezeigt.
Eintrittskarten gibt es vor Ort zum Preis von € 8,- (Erwachsene) / 4,- (Kinder) / 20,- (Familien). Kostenlose Parkplätze stehen im Bahnhofsumfeld zur Verfügung. Wittenberge ist auch gut per Bahn zu erreichen, im Zweistundentakt in und aus Richtung Hamburg, Magdeburg und Pritzwalk sowie stündlich von und nach Berlin. Der Historische Lokschuppen ist fußläufig in wenigen Minuten vom Bahnhof zu erreichen.

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