News

12.02.2023: Winter work in the museum

Despite the rather cool weather, work on our rolling stock and building continues. So there are some small things to be done on our steam locomotives. As part of the normal maintenance, their boilers were washed out some weeks ago. Last weekend the lids of the wash hatches were cleaned and reinserted. There are about one to two dozen of these in different places of the boiler, depending on the size of the boiler. Lime residues are flushed out of the boilers through these small openings by means of a strong water jet.


In addition, the drainage valves of the steam cylinders on steam locomotive 50 3570 were removed and cleaned.

During the last steam-up of steam locomotive 01 509, we also noticed that the diverter valve for the steam heating system on our steam locomotive 50 3570 was no longer working properly. It is used to direct steam from the locomotive's boiler to either end of the locomotive for connection to the passenger car heating line. However, our valve was allowing steam to flow in both directions and we now had to investigate the cause. To do this, the valve was removed and disassembled. Fortunately, only lime deposits on the sealing surfaces had led to the malfunction.



With great pleasure, we are already waiting for warmer weather. Then the 50 3570 will be repainted. We have already got the paint so that we can start immediately when the temperatures rise. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the painting company Thorsten Sandmann GmbH from Cumlosen for their generous support.

The preheating system on our rail truck also needed some love. The vehicle got new glow plugs and cables. And lo and behold, as you can see from the red glowing filament, it's working fine again.


One of our diesel locomotives of the V22 series also needed some attention. Here, new V-belts had to be installed between the gearbox and the compressor, because the old ones were heavily worn.

The next vehicle project is already on the horizon. Since our previous excavator had suffered transmission damage some time ago, we decided to bring the spare Fortschritt T174/II excavator back to life. Last weekend, we made it ready for towing, so that it can be pushed into our workshop hall shortly.

Things are also happening at the locomotive shed building. A few weeks ago, we were able to take back possession of the former locker room and the associated social rooms on the southern locomotive shed gable. These rooms were used for other purposes in the recent years. A large and a small exhibition room are to be created here. In addition, a new overnight accommodation room with shower, toilet and washing facilities will be installed. The work is already well advanced. Energy-saving lamps have been installed and the large exhibition room has already been painted.




We have also already taken care of the furnishing of the exhibition rooms. Here we were able to take over large and illuminated display cases from the German Museum of Technology in Berlin. Although they are already in Wittenberge, they are still waiting for the sweaty transport to the new exhibition rooms. The old exhibition room on the first floor in the south gable will become an archive.


On this occasion, we also take a look over our fence into the surrounding area. At least from the point of view of us rail enthusiasts, we have to report two sad events here:
Already at the end of last year, the locomotive shed at Pritzwalk station was demolished. Unfortunately, there was no use for the building from the founding period of the railway. Here are two pictures of the demolition.


To our great regret, the branch line from Pritzwalk to Putlitz is currently being demolished as well. On the following pictures you can see the former stop Kuhbier, the stop Jacobsdorf and the stop Laaske, where the demolition excavator stopped last Friday.


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