The Lokomotiv-Versuchsamt Grunewald or LVA ('Grunewald Locomotive Research Office') was a facility established from 1920 to 1945 at Berlin-Grunewald in Germany that conducted trials on railway vehicles. The office used the facilities of the railway repair shop ( Ausbesserungswerk ) at Grunewald on the Berlin Stadtbahn southwest of Berlin's Westkreuz station.
After the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft was founded in 1925 the Railway Central Office (Eisenbahn-Zentralamt or EZA) that had existed since 1906 was renamed to the Reichsbahn Central Office (Reichsbahnzentralamt or RZA). Amongst other things, they carried out numerous trials on steam locomotives and created the scientific basis for the performance measurement of railway vehicles. From 1920 they were supported by the Lokomotiv-Versuchsamt Grunewald, a locomotive trials office based at the main railway workshop at Grunewald. In 1936 there were 152 employees working for this research establishment.
In 1945 the work at Grunewald ended, due to the war, and was continued in East Germany at RAW [1] Dessau as well as in Halle, and in West Germany initially at Göttingen, and later in Minden and München.
The Office had instrumentation vehicles, a rolling test bed with water brakes for locomotives and test rigs for various vehicle components.
The following employees are particularly closely associated with the establishment:
At the site today are a few Deutsche Bahn office buildings, several small firms and a golf course.
The Deutsche Reichsbahn, also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regional railways of the individual states of the German Empire. The Deutsche Reichsbahn has been described as "the largest enterprise in the capitalist world in the years between 1920 and 1932"; nevertheless its importance "arises primarily from the fact that the Reichsbahn was at the center of events in a period of great turmoil in German history".
The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft's BR 01 steam locomotives were the first standardised (Einheitsdampflokomotive) steam express passenger locomotives built by the unified German railway system. They were of 4-6-2 "Pacific" wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2′C1′ h2 in the UIC classification. The idea of standardisation was that it would reduce maintenance costs; i.e. if a BR 01 whose engine shop was in, say, Berlin broke down in Dresden, instead of having to ship the necessary part from Berlin and take the locomotive out of service, a part from the Dresden shop could be used as all of the engines, parts, and workings were exactly the same and produced nationwide. Thus it was a "standard" product for engine shops.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany, in the district Mitte. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe's largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298-metre-long (978 ft) facade at the northeastern section of the Inner City Ring Road. The two Leipzig City Tunnel platforms were inaugurated in December 2013.
The German Class 41 steam locomotives were standard goods train engines (Einheitslokomotiven) operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRB) and built from 1937 to 1941.
The two German DRG Class 61 steam engines were express train locomotives specifically built by Henschel for the Henschel-Wegmann train in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The Henschel-Wegmann train was an initiative of the German locomotive construction industry, intended to be able to demonstrate a powerful steam locomotive-hauled train alongside the emerging express diesel multiple units, such as the Hamburg Flyer.
The Einheitsdampflokomotiven, sometimes shortened to Einheitslokomotiven or Einheitsloks, were the standardized steam locomotives built in Germany after 1925 under the direction of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft. Their manufacture made extensive use of standard design features and components.
The Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works is a railway repair shop in Meiningen, Germany. It is owned by Deutsche Bahn and has specialised in the maintenance of museum steam locomotives since 1990, having extensive experience in maintaining steam engines. Today, customers of the factory include railway museums and museum railways from all over Europe. The factory is responsible for the safety inspections of all operational German steam locomotives.
The Mecklenburg T 4 was a German steam locomotive built for the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway as a goods train 2-6-0T with a leading axle and three coupled axles. In 1925 it was incorporated in the renumbering plan of the Deutsche Reichsbahn as DRG Class 91.19.
Richard Felix Paul Wagner was the Chief of Design in the design office of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Germany from its inception in 1922 to 1942. He held the rank of Reichsbahnoberrat. Richard Wagner was born in Berlin on 25 August 1882 and studied at the Charlottenburg Technical High School there from 1901 to 1906.
An Ausbesserungswerk is a railway facility in German-speaking countries, the primary function of which is the repair of railway vehicles or their components. It is thus equivalent to a 'repair shop' or 'works'. It is also referred to as a Centralwerkstatt or Zentralwerkstatt or Hauptwerkstatt. During the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG) period between the two world wars as well as the period of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany these facilities were called Reichsbahnausbesserungswerke.
A Bahnbetriebswerk is the equivalent of a locomotive depot on the German and Austrian railways. It is an installation that carries out the maintenance, minor repairs, refuelling and cleaning of locomotives and other motive power. In addition it organises the deployment of locomotives and crews. In the Deutsche Bahn, a Bahnbetriebswerk is known today as a Betriebshof; the ÖBB refer to it as a Zugförderungsstelle (Zf). Many other countries simply use the term 'depot'. The smaller facility, the Lokomotivstation akin to the British sub-depot or stabling point, is affiliated to a Bahnbetriebswerk.
In Germany and Austria, the running of railway services for a railway administration or the regional network of a large railway company was devolved to railway divisions, variously known as Eisenbahndirektionen (ED), Bundesbahndirektionen (BD) or Reichsbahndirektionen (RBD/Rbd). Their organisation was determined by the railway company concerned or by the state railway and, in the German-speaking lands at least, they formed the intermediate authorities and regional management organisations within the state railway administration's hierarchy. On the formation of the Deutsche Bahn AG in 1994 the system of railway divisions (Eisenbahndirektionen) in Germany was discontinued and their tasks were transferred to new "business areas".
The Henschel-Wegmann Train was an advanced passenger express train operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Germany, which ran non-stop express services between Berlin and Dresden from June 1936 to August 1939. Both the DRG Class 61 steam locomotive at its head as well as the coaches were streamlined.
The Bundesbahn Central Offices or BZA in Minden and Munich was the department of the Deutsche Bundesbahn responsible for technological development and procurement of rail vehicles and infrastructure. Additionally, accounting and statistical services, as well as technical standards for the West German state railway system, were provided by the BZA.
The DR Class V 100, redesignated the Class 110 in 1970, was a four-axled diesel locomotive for medium duties operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany. Locomotives of the type were also supplied to railways in China and Czechoslovakia and to various industrial operators.
Lauda station is a junction station in the town of Lauda-Königshofen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, where the northern section of the Tauber Valley Railway branches from the Franconia Railway. Lauda station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.
The class IV h (four-h) locomotives of the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway (German: Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahnen, G.Bad.St.E.) were express locomotives with a 4-6-2 (Pacific) wheel arrangement. They later passed to the Deutsche Reichsbahn, who classified them as class 183.
The Prussian G 4.2 was a class of compound 0-6-0 goods locomotive of the Prussian State Railways. It was a compound version of the G 3 and G 4.1 types by Henschel.