Bavarian Railway Museum, Railway museum in Nördlingen, Germany.

The Bavarian Railway Museum occupies the former Nördlingen locomotive depot, about 3.5 hectares with a 15-road roundhouse and turntable, the old railcar hall, a working water tower, workshops and sidings. More than 200 original vehicles are kept there, among them the black steam locomotive with dark green side panels, two front lamps and a red-and-white sign, standing on the turntable rails.

The site opened in 1848/49 with the Ludwig South-North Railway from Lindau to Hof, when Nördlingen gained a workshop for maintaining locomotives and wagons. Wings 2 and 3 of the roundhouse and the workshop buildings date from this early period. Air raids in 1944 and 1945 destroyed large parts of the depot; only wing 2, wing 3, the workshops and the water tower survived, and rebuilding lasted until 1949. Steam stabling ended in 1966, and in 1982 the depot closed; in autumn 1985 the railway club Eisenbahnclub München took over the site and renamed itself Bavarian Railway Museum.

The museum is run by a volunteer association, the Bayerisches Eisenbahnmuseum e. V., which grew out of the Pfiffclub 52 1919 Kondens founded on 15 June 1969 and later renamed Eisenbahnclub München. A youth group independently restores objects from the depot, turning scrapheap finds into display locomotives. On event days, checked members staff the technical operations and run steam-hauled specials over the lines to Gunzenhausen and towards Feuchtwangen.

The museum spreads over about 3.5 hectares, so plan a route: the 15-road roundhouse with its turntable, the former railcar hall, the working water tower and the workshops are separate stops. Some vehicles are still awaiting restoration and may be dusty or sooty from steam operation, so wear clothes that can get dirty.

The museum operates historical trains on special excursion routes to nearby towns, kept running by a dedicated team of volunteers. These special trips let visitors see the machines in action rather than as silent displays.