The Saxon Railway Museum (Sächsisches Eisenbahnmuseum or SEM) is located in Chemnitz

Chemnitz

Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...

, in the state of Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, eastern Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated on the site of the former locomotive depot (Bahnbetriebswerk

Bahnbetriebswerk

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...

or Bw) for goods train locomotives in the district Hilbersdorf.

After the locomotive depot was closed in 1992, the society moved into the buildings which were protected as historical monuments. As a result the museum has two roundhouses with 20 metres (65.6 ft) turntables. In addition there are coaling and sanding facilities, water cranes, a working jack for inspection pits and a range of other equipment found in an operational depot.

The exhibition area describes and portrays the evolution of the railway in Saxony and especially in the area of Chemnitz. In addition to an extensive range of steam, diesel and electric locomotives, the museum also has a large collection of operational, narrow-gauge, Feldbahn

Feldbahn

A Feldbahn is the German term for a narrow gauge railway, usually not open to the public, which in its simplest form provides for the transportation of agricultural, forestry and industrial raw materials such as wood, peat, stone, earth and sand...

engines.

Many of the locomotives on show are loaned from private individuals, from the Dresden Transport Museum

Dresden Transport Museum

The Dresden Transport Museum displaysvehicles of all modes of transport, such as railway, shipping, road and air traffic, under one roof.The museum is housed in the Johanneum at the Neumarkt in Dresden, Germany...

 or the Nuremberg Transport Museum

Nuremberg Transport Museum

The Nuremberg Transport Museum is based in Nuremberg, Germany, and consists of the Deutsche Bahn's own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications . It also has two satellite museums at Koblenz-Lützel and Halle...

. As a result the museum's collection includes the following:

• Ex-Saxon XII H2
  Saxon XII H2
  The Saxon Class XII H2 steam locomotives were bought by the Royal Saxon State Railways specifically for the mountainous areas of Saxony. They were built by Hartmann between 1910 and 1927 in Chemnitz...
  
   steam locomotive, no. 38 205
• DRG Class 43
  DRG Class 43
  The German locomotives of DRG Class 43 were standard goods train engines with the Deutsche Reichsbahn.This was the second class that was built on the Einheitslok principle. According to the first classification scheme of the DR's Standardisation Bureau, 2-10-0 goods train locomotives were to be...
  
   steam locomotive, no. 43 001
• Ex-Saxon XIV HT steam locomotive, no. 75 515
• DRG Class 86
  DRG Class 86
  The DRG Class 86 was a standard goods train tank locomotive with the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft. It was intended for duties on branch lines and was delivered by almost all the locomotive building firms working for the Reichsbahn...
  
   steam locomotive, no. 86 001
• DR Class V 180 diesel locomotive
  Diesel locomotive
  A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...
  
  , no. 180 141
• DR Class 119 diesel locomotive, no. 219 003
• DR Class V 60 diesel locomotive,no.V 60 1001
• DRB Class E 94 electric locomotive
  Electric locomotive
  An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or an on-board energy storage device...
  
  , no. 254 059
• DRG Class E 44 electric locomotive, no. E 44 045.

Special vehicles in the museum's fleet include a Tatra T141 tractor with a Culemeyer heavy trailer.

There is also a working DRG Class 50 steam locomotive, no. 50 3648, that is regularly used for special trips. At the end of August each year there is a large festival (Heizhausfest) with a parade of locomotives.

Literature

Egon Kretzschmar: Die Bahnbetriebswerke in Chemnitz/Karl-Marx-Stadt Bildverlag Böttger, Witzschdorf 2003 ISBN 3-9808250-8-6 (German)

External links

• Website of the Saxon Railway Museum
• There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany