Railway Museum Bochum

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The Railway Museum Bochum is a railway museum in the southwest of Bochum, founded in 1977 on the site of the railway depot Bochum-Dahlhausen of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Eisenbahngeschichte e. V., which was built from 1916 to 1918 and closed in 1969. Since 2011, it has been managed by the Foundation Railway Museum. It is with a size of around 46.000 m² Germany's biggest private railway museum.
The museum's centre is the locomotive barn with space for 14 locomotives, a 20-metre- turntable, water tower, workshops and locomotive treatment facilities like coaling station, water standpipe and sand tower. In addition, there two further exhibition halls with tracks on the site. There is also a working 600-mm-light-railway. The whole facility of the former depot has been listed.
The museum is the anchor point for the Route of Industrial Culture.

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History

The Railway Museum Bochum developed from a depot to one of Germany's biggest private museums. The facility was constructed in the years 1916-18. Until 1925, locomotives from the numerous neighbouring depots were here inspected and repaired. From 1925 onwards, the depot Dahlhausen/Ruhr received from the depots Hattingen/Ruhr and (Essen)-Steele-Nord its own locomotive and own train crew.

Principal performance of the here used steam locomotives was the heavy goods train regular freight service, whereby the coal traffic played a paramount role. The goods trains were compiled at the freight yard and had to be driven to the destination stations, whereby in return empty goods trains had to be driven to the mines.

The average locomotive stock was 50 steam engines. 522 personnel were working at the depot in 1957. Part of the facility was also a repair hall for faulty or freight trains, which were due for examinations. In Wattenscheid-Eppendorf existed also such a freight train repair workshop, which was under the control of the depot Bochum-Dahlhausen. During the Second World War, many steam engines from the depot Dahlhausen/Ruhr had to be given up to the eastern front. In exchange, so-called 'rental locomotives' from France and Belgium were used.

The destruction of the dam wall of the Möhne reservoir brought a tidal wave and thus caused great damage at the railway facilities in the Ruhr valley. During the retreat of the German Wehrmacht, the Ruhr bridges in Hattingen, Dahlhausen, Altendorf and Steele were blown up. This caused considerable restriction for the railway. The depot Dahlhausen was completely destroyed through numerous bomb hits.

After the end of the war, there was a serious shortage of coal and despite the only provisional repaired vehicles and railway system, tremendous transport performances were required of the railway worker for the aspiring 'Wirtschaftswunder'.

In the mid-1960ties, more than 2.000 freight trains of the depot Bochum-Dahlhausen could still be dispatched daily.

At the end of the 1960ties, coal mining in the Ruhr area became unprofitable and the mines were closed. Thus the main use of the steam engines of the depot Bochum-Dahlhausen was cancelled. The depot, as independent department was closed on the 1st of August 1969 and some parts of the facility decommissioned. The freight train repair was given up in 1982.
Since 1968, the German Society for Railway History was able to restore the depot site bit by bit to its original state and open it to the public as a museum in 1977. The goal of the Railway Museum has been not only to preserve and restore the vehicles, but also the construction of a railway typical environment with the respective buildings and technical facilities. The former railway depot Bochum-Dahlhausen, which is completely leased by Deutsche Bundesbahn, offers the best requirements.

A highlight in the history of the Railway Museum was the great vehicle show in the course of the Events, '150 Years German Railway' in the year 1985, which counts as one of the biggest of its kind since then.

Another important day was the 14th of July 2011. On that day, after years of preparation, the German Society for Railway History and the city of Bochum founded the Foundation Railway Museum Bochum.

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Exhibitions and exhibits

The origins of the vehicle collecting go back to the year 1967. Different steam locomotives and other interesting railway vehicles from different epochs are being exhibited. The vehicle collection encompasses more than 120 rail vehicles from the time 1853 to 1976. By means of these exhibits, the visitor wins a comprehensive overview about the development of locomotives and vehicles of the German railway. Apart from important and trendsetting locomotive construction styles, striking passenger and freight trains are being preserved for prosperity. Many exhibits are seen as ararity, as only one specimen could be saved from being scrapped. But also special areas of the railway, for example signal technology and ticket printer are being documented by means of preserved historic devices. Part of the exhibits are among other a signal collection with a functioning Prussian signal-box, which was used in Cologne Mülheim until 1982. The exhibits are being cared for by around 130 mostly honourable staff.

The stars of the exhibition are the heavy locomotives.

The original text is based on the article by the Free Encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenbahnmuseum_Bochum-Dahlhausen