The Wegberg-Wildenrath Test and Validation Centre (german: Prüf- und Validationscenter Wegberg-Wildenrath) is a railway test centre owned by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

near

Wildenrath Wildenrath is a township within the municipality of Wegberg in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The town is situated on the Bundesstraße 221 between Wassenberg and Arsbeck on the edge of Maas-Schwalm-Nette Nature Park and close to the borde ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

, Germany.

History

The centre is located on the site of the former

RAF Wildenrath Royal Air Force Wildenrath, commonly known as RAF Wildenrath, was a Royal Air Force (RAF) military airbase near Wildenrath in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, that operated from 1952 to 1992. Wildenrath was the first of four 'clutch' stations ...

British military airfield. After the airfield closed in 1992, it was taken over by

who opened the test and validation centre in June 1997. It had five tracks over . By 2007, the railway test tracks had taken over considerable areas of the airfield, with all but the western threshold and overrun of the runway obliterated. The north-east dispersal is completely taken over by sidings, workshops and loops. Of the southern dispersals, the central and eastern are bisected by the main railway oval test track. There are ovals of track for testing trains, and various electrification systems. The test track is connected to the rest of the German railway network by the German portion of the

Iron Rhine The Iron Rhine or Steel Rhine ( nl, IJzeren Rijn; german: Eiserner Rhein) is a partially nonoperational freight railway connecting the port of Antwerp (Belgium) and Mönchengladbach (Germany) by way of Neerpelt and the Dutch towns of Weert and ...

freight railway, branching off near

Wegberg Wegberg (; li, Berk ) is the northernmost town in the district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Wegberg is situated between Mönchengladbach in the northeast and Erkelenz in the southeast; the town of Rheindahlen is to ...

Testing

As well as Siemens the test tracks are also used by competitors such as

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...

and Stadler. There are of

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

and metre gauge tracks. The facility is used for technical acceptance tests and approvals of locomotives, rolling stock and trams under operating conditions, and personnel training. It has been equipped for trials with

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

References

External links

Test- and Validationcenter Wegberg-Wildenrath

Siemens Mobility Siemens Mobility GmbH is a separately-managed company of Siemens, arising from a corporate restructuring effective 1 August 2018. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens Mobility has four core business units: Mobility Management, dedi ...

Railway tests and test infrastructure right in the heart of Europe

{{Coord, 51, 06, 57, N, 6, 13, 05, E, type:landmark_region:DE-NW_elevation:84, display=title , name="Weiche auf T3 Richtung T2"

1997 establishments in Germany

History

Testing

See also

References

External links