Wiesloch Feldbahn and Industrial Museum

History

The museum is based partly on the site of the former Tonwaren-Industrie Wiesloch brickworks which closed in 1989 and had been served by a 600-millimetre narrow-gauge railway network. During the 1960s the brickworks employed approximately 320 people and the narrow-gauge trains were used for transporting raw material from the Dämmel clay pit to the brickworks. Following the completion of clay mining the area was backfilled, burying the narrow-gauge locomotive shed and raising the area of the surrounding landscape. Further heavy development on the subsequent site of the museum would have required twelve-metre deep foundations, which would have been uneconomical, ultimately leading to the preservation of the site.

The museum area covers two hectares, and is covered with mature trees, and this woodland area is kept for shade and enjoyment. Two ex-Deutsche Bahn railway wagons serve as a workshop and club house, on their own length of standard gauge track.

A plan for restoration of the locomotive shed and operation of narrow-gauge passenger trains were presented to the City of Wiesloch in 2000. The estimated costs for the plan were 100,000 DM (€50,000). Narrow gauge trains were additionally seen as an attraction for a Landgartenschau proposed in Wiesloch at the time.

The museum is operated by the Feldbahn- und Industriemuseum Wiesloch e.V registered association (eingetragener Verein), with the management board (Vorstand) elected by the members of the organisation. The museum society was founded on 7 September 2001. A new management board was elected in March 2012, and March 2015. Approximately fifty volunteer members maintain the museum, of which fifteen were actively involved in 2014. In 2005 the Locomotive shed had its 100th birthday and in 2006 the museum society had its fifth birthday.

Locomotive shed

The narrow gauge locomotive workshop (Lokschuppen) was built from brick (Klinkerbauweise) in 1905 to house stream locoomtives, and later diesel locomotives. The locomotive shed retains two chimney flues originally used to enable lighting up of steam locomotives undercover. It is a listed historic industrial monument (industriegeschichtliches Denkmal) and unique in southern Germany.

Text stating "TIW 1905" is embossed in the roof tiles. The shed was extended after World War II and this remains visible in the brickwork. In its later operational years it housed seven narrow-gauge diesel locomotives that operated between the clay pit and the brickworks. Commercial operation of the narrow gauge locomotives ended in 1979.

The locomotive shed is at the lowest level of the site, representing the original land level of the whole area. During the 1990s the area covered by the brickworks was transformed into a new industrial area, with the locomotive shed one of four original TIW buildings to survive. The building was left empty and started to decay. By 2000 the locomotive shed had been buried under the ground with its windows broken.

Restoration

Firstly the locomotive shed had to be excavated by the members of the museum. The rest of the museum site was then constructed on a gradual basis. As of 2016 the building had been refitted out with traditional machinery used for milling metal, pillar drills, and metal lathes. Also in 2016 there were plans to construct a new locomotive shed to store all of the museum's locomotives, and to allow the original historic shed to be more easily viewed by visitors. In 2014 the new shed had been awaiting planning permission.

Construction equipment

As of 2012 the museum collection included half-a-dozen cranes, diggers, and excavators, including an Orenstein & Koppel L 051 power shovel. In 2014 a crawler excavator rescued by Walter Ofenloch was added to the collection.

There is a working bucket chain excavator previously used at a mine in Bavaria and which is at the highest point of the museum. The bucket chain excavator arrived at the museum in May 2012, allowing the opening of a clay pit exhibition area in 2012. These machines can be used to demonstrate traditional clay, sand and gravel mining techniques.

In 2015 Weiland Crane and Transport Group brought a Pekazett TK 5 (de) crane owned by the Rattelsdorf Crane and Construction Museum to the site.

Narrow gauge railway

The museum site has a 600-millimetre (2 ft) narrow-gauge railway (Feldbahn) network, one of several 600 mm gauge railways in Germany. This connects the original 1905 locomotive shed to the rest of the site.

Part of the museum railway track extends 400 metres (0.25 mi) southwards through the old brickworks to the Landratsamt district offices opposite Leimbach Park. This section uses the former standard gauge railway siding linking the REWE central warehouse to Wiesloch-Walldorf station and so track gauge conversion to narrow gauge was necessary. An earlier plan had been for conversion of the REWE siding to dual gauge using a three-, or four-rail arrangement.

Beginning in 2011 a second route was route was opened, running through woodland to the museum's bucket chain excavator. On 30 September 2013 this was inspected by the TÜV Rheinland technical inspection agency to certify it for passenger use.

Locomotives

The museum has a large collection of Gmeinder diesel locomotives, including the last locomotive delivered by the Gmeinder company—Gmeinder #5366—a 4.5-tonne diesel locomotive manufactured in the nearby town of Mosbach in 1965 and rescued from Spain. A Gmeinder locomotive and associated passengers wagons originally used for the 1990 Landesgartenschau garden festival were obtained on permanent loan from the City of Würzburg. Another Gmeinder locomotive was rescued from the Vatter stone quarry in Dossenheim, along with some tipper wagons.

As of 2012 the museum had a Henschel & Son locomotive awaiting restoration of a type that originally worked at the Tonwaren-Industrie Wiesloch brickworks, as well as a six-tonne Diema locomotive matching a type originally used at the TIW brickworks. As of 2014 The Diema was awaiting repairs to its suspension.

In early-2014 a Deutz AG Diesel locomotive made in 1938 arrived from Belgium.

In November 2016 the museum received an original Diema locomotive that had been delivered to the TIW brickworks in 1956. The museum planned to restore, and repaint the seven-tonne locomotive in its original green colour for 2017. After being withdrawn in the 1980s, the Diema locomotive had travelled around Germany and ended up at a museum in Klütz.

Mine

In 2002 a tunnel to demonstrate traditional mining around Wiesloch was planned. This lead to the construction of an underground mining area with two adits leading into it to demonstrate iron ore mining.

Other exhibits

Until early-2012 the Model Railway Club of the Electoral Palatinate (German: Modelleisenbahnfreunde Kurpfalz) had been temporarily based at the museum. In March-2012 the club moved to a new permanent home inside the old Wiesloch City railway station building (Wiesloch Stadtbahnhof). On the occasion of the move Franz Stier, from the Feldbahn museum, presented the model railway club with a carriage destination sign that had been used for the last mainline steam locomotive trip to the old station on 31 March 1980.

Open days

The museum has six scheduled open days each year, plus additional dates for school children and groups:

The museum has free entrance for visitors. As of 2014 train trips were €0.60 for children and €1.20 for adults.

Special events

In June 2002 the museum held a Locomotive Shed Festival (Lokschuppenfest) jointly coordinated with an open day at the bus depot of the Südwestdeutsche Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (SWEG) transport company in Wiesloch.

In June 2003 children who had been unable to go on holiday visited the museum as part of a holiday programme.

On 25 June 2009 the museum held a lecture by historian Thomas Adam on "Exploring the Region" (Streifzüge durch die Region).

On 12 August 2013 children and adults from the Rauenberg Art and Local History Association (Freunde der Kunst und der Heimatgeschichte Weinstadt Rauenberg e. V.) visited the museum, with children testing out a railbike (Schienfahrrad) at the museum.

On 2 October 2013 the museum hosted a themed-reading afternoon for 76 children based on the children's literature book Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver by German author Michael Ende. On 13 October 2013 members of the Heidelberg Railway Society (Eisenbahnfreunde Heidelberg) visited both the Wiesloch Feldbahn museum and the Sonderheim Brickworks Museum (Ziegeleimuseum Sondernheim, de).

On 9 November 2013 the museum hosted the south-west regional meeting of the Bundesverband Deutscher Eisenbahn-Freunde (BDEF, de), and again on 8 October 2016.

In August 2015 children from the Rauenberg Music school visited and learnt how to make nails in the museum's forge prior to creating music with the nails. On 5 December 2015 local school students visited the Feldbahn museum for inspiration as part of their "Students make newspapers" project (Schüler machen Zeitung) run by the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung newspaper (de).

In August 2016 twenty children visited for a holiday programme run by the German Green Party. Train trips were offered in conjunction with the opening of the Leimbach Park on 22 October 2016.

Recognition

In April 2011 the museum received an award from the Citizen's Foundation of Wiesloch (Bürgerstiftung Wiesloch) for its dedication to promoting culture and education. In 2012 the museum had a youth exchange programme with the Frankfurt Feldbahn Museum (de).

On 7 December 2013 the museum was featured in the 800th episode of the SWR Fernsehen television series Eisenbahn-Romantik, in the episode "From small trains and big plans – on the narrow gauge track" (German: "Von kleinen Zügen und großen Plänen - der Feldbahn auf der Spur"). Filming for the episode occurred in July 2012.

In 2014 the museum entered the "Museum has a Future" (Heimatmuseum hat Zukunft) awards run by the Working Group for Fostering Local Culture in the district of Karlsruhe (Arbeitskreis Heimatpflege Regierungsbezirk Karlsruhe) and reached the top ten. Based on the presented future plans and educational work the museum was selected as the winner of the Förderpreis advancement award of €5,000, which was awarded at Bruchsal Castle (de) in June 2015. The prize money was targeted for construction of the new locomotive shed, and restoration of the Diema DS40 locomotive. On 26 October 2016 president of the region of Karlsruhe Nicolette Kressl (de) held a press conference at the museum.

City of Wiesloch

The City of Wiesloch owns the land the museum is built on, and has enlarged the area leased to the museum on several occasions. The 1985 outline development plan for the Weinäcker zone covering the brickworks stated that the raised area used as a tip between the brickworks and the sewage works should be held back as natural compensation for other development in the area. A 1987 plan for expansion of the sewage works described the Feldbahn route as overgrown with bushes and trees; the variation in flora detected along the Feldbahn route was used to divide the land on either side of the route into multiple areas for individual construction. The land used by the museum was purchased by the city in 1989 after the closure of the Tonwaren-Industrie Wiesloch brickworks.

In June 2001 the city agreed an initial lease for 1,400 square metres (0.14 hectares) to enable protection of the locomotive shed and the immediate surroundings. In March 2004 a new five-year lease was agreed, plus an additional access agreement allowing the museum to use a strip of land that had originally been reserved to enable main line railway access to the AVR recycling centre. In October 2009 the lease was extended and enlarged by an extra 3,320 square metres (0.33 hectares) to the south of the locomotive shed, plus approximately 3,000 square metres (0.3 hectares) on a short-term lease.

In January 2010 a geological survey showed that the land parcel surrounding the locomotive shed would be unsuitable for commercial development. In late-2010 a 2,500-square-metre-area (0.25-hectare) was allocated for backfilling 6,000 cubic metres (210,000 cu ft) of sand and other material from the construction of the central bus station at Wiesloch-Walldorf station the following year.

In May 2011 Feldbahn- und Industriemuseum Wiesloch e.V submitted an outline conceptual proposal to the City of Wiesloch for significantly expanding the museum. In November 2011 the museum and City of Wiesloch agreed a supplementary lease covering a total of 27,500 square metres (2.8 hectares) in conjunction with the planned flood protection works to the River Leimbach north of the Leimbach Park. This lease included a specified 10-to-15-metre (30 to 50 ft) riparian buffer zone reserved for vegetation facing towards the river. In recognition of the duty of care in conservation and management of the site and large demonstrated volunteer work, the City of Wiesloch awarded a cost-free peppercorn rent for fifteen years.

In January 2017 the Environment and Technical committee of the City of Wiesloch unanimously agreed a proposal for extension of the narrow gauge museum tracks into the Leimbach Park. The proposal would use grassed track in the meadow areas of the park.