Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works

The Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works (German: Dampflokwerk Meiningen) 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.

Dampflokwerk Meiningen is the only facility in Europe capable of constructing new locomotive boilers up to modern standards of construction, performance, and safety. The newly built British steam locomotive 60163 Tornado that was delivered in 2008 had her all-steel, high-performance boiler made at Meiningen; the only part that could not be made in Britain.

In 1863 the Werra Railway (Werrabahn) built a locomotive repair shop opposite Meiningen station, which became a main workshop for the Prussian state railways in 1902. In 1910, construction of a new building on the present site was begun due to the lack of space at the original location. On 2 March 1914, the workshop was opened with 420 employees. From that time to the present day it has carried out the repair and maintenance of steam locomotives of all types. By 1918 the number of employees had risen to 2,200. From 1919 onwards, the shop was operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. After the foundation of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft in 1924, it was renamed the 'Meiningen Reichsbahn Repair Depot' (Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk Meiningen or RAW Meiningen). From 1925 the new Einheitsdampflokomotiven were repaired and inspected too, mainly those of classes 01, 02, 43 and 44. In the 1930s an average of 60 locomotives a month were repaired; during the Second World War this rose to 87 per month. On 18 April 1945 the factory was occupied by the United States Army and on 21 April around 400 employees began work again. By the end of 1946 the number of workers had risen to just under 3,000. In 1951 nine employees lost their lives when there was a boiler explosion on a DRG Class 95 locomotive in the boiler house (Anheizhaus); a passer-by in a nearby street was also killed. The boiler landed in the garden of the neighbouring hospital.

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