News

01.05.2026: Season’s Greetings for May Day

Dear friends of our museum, thirty years ago, Wittenberge would still have been celebrating the ‘International Workers’ Day of Celebration for Peace and Socialism’. Today, we simply celebrate 1 May and enjoy the fine weather and cheerful atmosphere.

The atmosphere was just as lively at our recent event in mid-April, when we celebrated our traditional spring festival. On Saturday alone, we welcomed over 800 guests.






We had quite a bit on offer. Our large diesel locomotives 118 748 and 114 774 were demonstrated in operation. Many fans were delighted to be able to take a look inside the driver’s cabs and engine rooms. Our colleagues from the diesel section were on hand to provide explanations.




In addition, our museum train and the Trabi draisine were out and about on the site.





The event was a great success, even though visitor numbers on Sunday fell short of expectations due to the rainy and windy weather.

Just in time for the event, our small sales room on the ground floor of the signal box was completed. Here, the colleagues who look after our guests on the driver’s cab rides have renovated the space and made it a little more cosy.





In addition, our control centre has been further equipped. Since the last event, announcements can be made from here via the public address system throughout the museum grounds. Furthermore, this is where we provide commentary on the vehicle parades that we regularly hold during our events.



Meanwhile, preparations for the major overhaul of steam locomotive 50 3682 are progressing. We have now managed to dismantle the driver’s cab and the air and feed water pumps and store them on specially prepared transport units.







As you can see, dear visitors, things are progressing rapidly at the museum. Please do come along and have a look around at your leisure. We are open for you on Saturdays from 10 am.

We would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to our next event on 13 and 14 June. This will be a somewhat larger affair. Not only are we celebrating our summer festival in the locomotive shed, but the Wittenberge Council will also be opening the newly renovated main station that weekend. If you’d like to arrive in style on a special train, we recommend the Magdeburg Railway Friends. Their train will consist of passenger carriages from the Deutsche Reichsbahn, hauled by a historic diesel locomotive (https://www.mebf.de/sonderfahrt-zum-eisenbahnfest-wittenberge/ ). In addition to this special train, we’re expecting further guest vehicles, which we’ll report on here shortly.

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03.04.2026: Start of Season

Dear friends of our museum,

We wish you a happy Easter, a pleasant holiday and great anticipation for your next visit to us at the Wittenberge Historic Engine Shed.

Before the season gets underway, we have made good progress on our steam locomotive 50 3682, which is currently being dismantled so that it can be fitted with a new boiler. Before that, however, the driver’s cab must be removed, which is currently the main task. You wouldn’t believe how many bolts and connections need to be loosened before the driver’s cab can be separated from the frame and the existing boiler. Quite a few of the bolts had seized up and could no longer be loosened. So the cutting torch was in constant use to cut them through. The attached photos show our colleagues at work.








We also had to wake our steam locomotive Emma from her hibernation. This involved resealing various valves and hatches on and inside the boiler, which we had removed in the autumn to prevent frost damage over the winter. We also filled the boiler with water straight away and loaded it with wood for the first firing.




On Easter Saturday, the locomotive is due to be fired up for a test run. If you’d like to be there, please do come and visit us. The museum will be open again every Saturday from 4 April until October.

We would also like to draw your attention to our ‘Spring Steam’ event. The event will take place on 18–19 April. Please find attached the poster for the event in digital format. Please feel free to forward it to friends and family. We look forward to welcoming many visitors.


vehicles: 50 3682-7, Emma

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19.03.2026: Press release regarding the Spring Steam Event 2026

Dear friends of historic railways,

On the weekend of 18 and 19 April 2026, the wheels will be turning once again in Wittenberge. We therefore welcome all railway enthusiasts, young and old, to our ‘Spring Steam 2026’ event at the Historic Engine Shed. Our steam locomotive Emma will, of course, be back in action and will be competing with her modern sisters from the diesel locomotive fleet.

The locomotives will be in operation on Saturday between 10 am and 5 pm, and on Sunday between 10 am and 4 pm. Visitors will then be able not only to admire them from the outside, but also to ride along in the driver’s cab. Their sisters, the museum’s other locomotives, are also looking forward to welcoming visitors. Here, friendly museum staff will offer rare glimpses into the engine rooms and driver’s cabs. Also worth seeing is the museum’s signal box, from which numerous points and signals on the museum grounds are operated.

Railway enthusiasts also offer guided tours of the grounds in a historic passenger carriage dating from the turn of the last century. Those wishing to experience the thrill of powering the trains themselves can do so on a draisine. Food and drink are, of course, available on site. The highlight of each day will be the vehicle parades, which take place at around 2 pm. During these, various working exhibits from the museum will be demonstrated in action.

Tickets are available on site at a price of €8 (adults) / €4 (children) / €20 (families). Free parking is available in the vicinity of the station.

Kind regards,
Wittenberge Historic Locomotive Shed

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01.03.2026: New project launched

In our last newsletter, we already hinted that something big was in the works. And it has to do with one of our class 50 steam locomotives, of which we have several in our inventory.

A few words about the history of the Class 50: it was part of the new construction programme of the former Deutsche Reichsbahn, which from the 1930s onwards wanted to put a fleet of steam locomotives on the tracks that was modern for its time and based on a uniform type programme. Although there were classes for different purposes, many parts were interchangeable. This significantly reduced procurement and maintenance costs. The Class 50 was a kind of universal type that could be used to pull both passenger and freight trains. A total of over 3,100 locomotives of this class were manufactured from 1939 onwards in various factories in Germany and in countries occupied during the war.

After the war, 350 of these locomotives remained in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and were later used by the German Reichsbahn in the GDR. In the mid-1950s, it became clear that the locomotives would have to remain in service for a longer period of time because the planned switch to diesel and electric locomotives was delayed. For this reason, 208 Class 50 locomotives were refurbished between 1958 and 1962. This meant that they were fitted with new boilers and, in some cases, new tenders.

Our 50 3682, which was built by Krauss-Maffei in Munich in 1939 and put into service by the Deutsche Reichsbahn as 50 255, is one of the 208 locomotives mentioned above. It had an eventful life. From 1948 to 1952, it was used in what was known as column service. This involved transporting all kinds of machinery and goods claimed by the Soviet Union as reparations after the war to the Polish/Russian border, where they were transferred to Russian broad-gauge freight trains. Such journeys sometimes took weeks.

At the end of the 1950s, our locomotive was reconstructed at the Stendal repair workshop and has since been numbered 50 3682. It belonged to the Deutsche Reichsbahn until March 1993 and was then acquired by a fellow member of our association. We were able to keep it operational until 2019. However, the condition of its boiler then forced us to take it out of service. Unfortunately, the thickness of the material no longer allowed for safe operation.

Two pictures from the locomotive's museum service: hauling a freight train in March 2002 and use on round trips through the Port of Hamburg at the end of September 2007.




As we had to take its sister engine, 50 3570, out of service some time ago for similar reasons, it was decided to focus on rebuilding 50 3682 first. A replacement boiler in fairly good condition was procured for this purpose.

First, however, the locomotive's existing boiler must be removed. In order to lift it off the locomotive's chassis, all attachments and the locomotive's driver's cab must first be removed. This involves removing all fittings and controls from the driver's cab and dismantling all pipes and auxiliary units connected to the boiler. We are currently in this phase. Current pictures of the latest work on this are attached here. We will continue soon and keep you up to date here.






If you would like to support us in this project, you are very welcome to do so. There is plenty of work to be done, but also financial needs. Please feel free to contact our board (contact details in the imprint).
vehicle: 50 3682-7

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30.01.2026: Winter greetings from the locomotive shed

How time flies! The year 2026 has barely begun, and the first month is already over. So it's high time to write another newsletter. What happened in January?

Like you probably, we were in the icy grip of winter. Unfortunately, it's not possible to get much work done unless you can find a heated room. Fortunately, although our locomotive shed is not frost-free, at least it is draught-free when the doors and gates are closed. So we have literally moved our work indoors. One major project at the moment is the refurbishment of a mobile crane, which we recently received on permanent loan. It has spent the last few weeks outside, but has now been hauled into our workshop. The clutch and brakes need to be replaced and a crane inspection prepared. When the temperatures rise again, it will also be repainted.



The necessary manoeuvring work for this was carried out by a Soviet-made Mts 572 tractor. It was manufactured in Minsk in 1990 and its engine has an output of approx. 60 hp. A colleague kindly stationed it in Wittenberge for our internal transport needs.



Many people are probably wondering what we intend to do with a mobile crane. Well, the answer is already standing in front of our locomotive shed. In the medium term, our replacement boiler is to be rebuilt onto a steam locomotive.



We'll keep that a secret for now which of our steam engines will be treated. In any case, before a new boiler can be installed on a locomotive, the old boiler and the driver's cab must first be removed. The latter covers the rear end of a locomotive boiler. In addition, various components have to be removed from a steam locomotive before a boiler can be lifted off. To manage expectations here as well: the whole process will not be completed within a few weeks, but will take a considerably longer period of time.

Our V100 series diesel locomotive is also still in progress. There is still some work to be done here. In particular, the tanks and fuel lines still need to be flushed and the fuel filters replaced, because the old fuel in the tanks is unfortunately decomposing faster than expected due to its biological components and is clogging everything in its path.



The interior work on our carriage 197 805 is also slowly progressing. The ceiling lighting, wall panelling and decorative mouldings, as well as the window frames, have been installed and painted. The upper half of the passenger compartments already looks like new again.



In mid-January, we also took a little break. Traditionally, we get together for our New Year's party (instead of a Christmas party). Many members enjoyed the lovely buffet. Many thanks again to everyone who helped with the cooking and baking. We also had the opportunity to reminisce about the past with videos and photos.





On the same day, we had another opportunity to take a look at our new track access. Work is currently progressing on the electric point motors and signals.

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