The Bahnbetriebswerk Passau (abbr: Bw Passau) is the

locomotive shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

that belongs to Passau's main station, the Hauptbahnhof. Passau Hauptbahnhof was opened on 1 September 1861, with its first shed. It was initially a

terminal station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...

until the 1.5 km long section over the river

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

Empress Elisabeth Railway The Empress Elisabeth Railway (german: Kaiserin Elisabeth-Bahn, KEB) was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Its rail network was centred on the Western Railway line from Vienna to Salzburg wit ...

from

Wels Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the eighth largest city in Austria. Geography Wels is in the H ...

on the Austrian side was taken into service. This now meant that railway traffic could now operate from

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

via

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

. This

border station A border checkpoint is a location on an international border where travelers or goods are inspected and allowed (or denied) passage through. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders ofte ...

was now operated by two separate railway companies and operating interest was generated by the changeover of locomotives there. In 1865 a railway link was built by a private railway company to the river port on the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

next to Passau town hall. This was transferred to the

Royal Bavarian State Railways The Royal Bavarian State Railways (''Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'') was the state railway company for the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded in 1844. The organisation grew into the second largest of the German ...

on 1 January 1876. After the site had been extended several times over the course of the years and several

branch lines A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

had been taken into service, the ''

Bahnbetriebswerk A ''Bahnbetriebswerk'' is the equivalent of a locomotive depot (or motive power 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 ...

'' had to move to ''Haitzingerstraße'' in 1906. 150,000 m² of earth was moved and a twenty-road roundhouse with an adjoining two-road workshop was erected, together with a six-road workshop and traverser, which stamped its mark on the appearance of the site for 70 years. Because of the Obernzell to Wegscheid line, the only rack railway in the Royal Bavarian State Railways, new locomotives were constantly being tested at Bw Passau. The PtzL 3/4 (later DRG Class 97.1) was only ever stabled here; the first trials on the

Uerdingen railbus The Uerdingen railbus (German: ''Uerdinger Schienenbus'') is the common term for the multiple units which were developed by the German firm of Waggonfabrik Uerdingen for the Deutsche Bundesbahn and private railways after the Second World War. Th ...

, the VT 95, VT98.9 und VT97, took place here, as did testing for the road-rail vehicle and the V 100, which worked the line until the Class 213 (the variant for steep inclines, the V100.10) succeeded it. This depot has stabled numerous

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

, but over time they were replaced by diesel or electric locos. After the closure of passenger services on several routes as well as the withdrawal of goods traffic and the dismantling of the Obernzell - Wegscheid line and the disbandment of the Regensburg railway division the depot was subordinated to the Nuremberg division. The departure of the locomotives to other depots began in the 1960s and was completed in 1978. The last modification took place in 1976 and saw the demolition of the roundhouse. In its place the present day ''Orange Shed'', for the maintenance of railbuses, and a workshop were erected. After the depot was closed in 2000, the property was entrusted to a local railway society, the

Passauer Eisenbahnfreunde The Passauer Eisenbahnfreunde (Passau Railway Society) or PEF is a German railway society with the aim of preserving historic railway vehicles in working order in order to operate them. The society was founded in 1978 in Passau. In 2007 it had ab ...

(PEF), who are housed on the site. The old Betriebswerk Passau can now only be seen as an

H0 gauge HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO.NMRA"Mod ...

model in the cellar of Passau Hauptbahnhof. The railway modelling section of the PEF had the aim of building a model with a historical background; as a result the depots of both the German and Austrian railways - the

Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained ...

and

ÖBB The Austrian Federal Railways (german: Österreichische Bundesbahnen, formally (lit. "Austrian Federal Railways Holding Stock Company") and formerly the or ''BBÖ''), now commonly known as ÖBB, is the national railway company ...

- are depicted as is Passau station and several neighbouring

Sources

* :de:Bahnbetriebswerk Passau

External links

*http://www.passauer-eisenbahnfreunde.de *http://www.pef-modellbahn.de {{Coord, 48, 34, 21.5, N, 13, 26, 11, E, type:landmark_dim:600_region:DE-BY, display=title Railway depots in Germany

Sources

See also

External links