News from the Locomotive Shed in Erkrath-Hochdahl.

Welcome to our homepage.

 

Museum???

You might think that there are, really, enough Museums …..

 

This museum is to be found in a locomotive shed which can also be used for other kinds of events (art exhibitions, jazz/classical concerts).

It is a relic from the era of private railways and goes back to the times when trains from the Bergisch-Märkisch Railway (1843 - 1886) travelled along this line …..

 

Oh yes, regarding this line …. The first train in West Germany travelled along the line between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld (now called Wuppertal Main Station). The section as far as Erkrath was already put into use on 20.12.1838.

 

Further along the line between the Rhine plain (Erkrath) and the outskirts of the Bergische Land (Hochdahl) there was an inclination which, for trains of the type running at that time, was almost insurmountable.

Over a distance of about 2500 m there was a difference in height of about 82 m. This could only be surmounted thanks to the technical achievements of the engineers. A cable winch which was powered at first by two steam engines, later only by pulleys, made train operation possible until 1926. Until 1963 the steam engines were assisted by shunting trains so that they could manage to climb the steep slope. After that electric trains managed it on their own with almost no problems at all.

 

Not at all boring. i.e. only in word and picture, oh no. You can hear and touch. The museum also has a restaurant with beer garden, a playground for the children and an outside area with an display of vehicles.

 

This is a new location for meeting people and for events in and around the Mettmann area including the bordering towns of Düsseldorf and Wuppertal.