DB Museum Halle

Description

As a branch of the Verkehrsmuseum Nürnberg, the DB Museum Halle (Saale) documents the railway history in Halle and preserves historic vehicles and technical exhibits there.

The collection is housed in Roundhouse IV of the former locomotive depot Halle P. The shed was built from 1895 and initially comprised nine bays (today bays 9–17). Due to larger locomotives, an extension was carried out in 1908 with eight additional bays (today bays 1–8), longer tracks, inspection pits and a central smoke extraction system with two chimneys. A turntable dating from 1929 was reconstructed in 1987; its bridge measures 23 metres.

At the end of 2025 the museum was temporarily closed as part of cost-saving measures and continued to be operated as a non-public depot.

The exhibition programme focuses predominantly on classes of the Deutsche Reichsbahn before and after 1945. On display are, among others, the steam locomotives 03 1010 (DR class 03.10, built 1940), 41 185 (DR class 41, built 1939) and the lignite-dust-fired 52 4900 (DR class 52, built 1943) — the last lignite-dust-fired steam locomotive in Germany. The Prussian T 8 89 1004 (built 1906) represents the country’s first superheated steam locomotive produced in larger numbers. These are complemented by diesel locomotives such as V 23 001, 112 457-7, 130 101-9 as well as the non-publicly exhibited 131 001-0, the V 180 118 802-4 and monument locomotives such as Kö II 199 004. A historic railcar of class 186 (186 258, ex VT 135 110, built 1937) illustrates representative forms of service.

Electric vehicles are represented by E 11 001 and E 18 31; several electric locomotives are currently at the locomotive depot Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Auxiliary vehicles include, among others, the overhead-line maintenance railcar ORT 135.7 (708 006), the battery towing vehicle ASF 4 (LEW EL 16), a railway crane EDK 80/3 (1987) and a railcar of class SKL 24.

In the roundhouse, signal and locomotive technology, relays, a master controller from an E 44, a wheel-tyre blank of DR 18 201 and a microcomputer-controlled ticket vending machine complete the collection. The driving wheelset of 04 0015 stands at the museum’s historic turntable.