Deutsches Gruben- und Feldbahnmuseum, museum in Witten, Germany
The Deutsches Gruben- und Feldbahnmuseum is a railway museum in Witten built on the grounds of a mine that closed in 1892, displaying over 90 locomotives and about 200 wagons. The collection includes diesel, electric, and compressed air engines, passenger cars, and freight wagons arranged on the historic track network across the site.
The Zeche Theresia colliery on this site closed in 1892; locomotives and wagons were first put on display there in 1989. The Muttenthalbahn association, founded in 1986 and named after a 19th-century coal railway, opened the museum in 2002 after 13 years of preparation. A landslide on 15 July 2021 partly collapsed the engine shed wall and blocked the museum line with fallen trees; volunteers and companies restored track and grounds by spring 2022, and the museum reopened on 10 April 2022.
The name Muttenthalbahn refers to the 19th-century Muttentalbahn, a rail line built to carry coal from the Muttental valley. The museum is run by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Muttenthalbahn, founded in 1986. Among the exhibits are English wagons that transported ammunition to the Belgian front in World War I, later rebuilt by members as passenger cars and used on the museum train.
The museum railway starts at a stop between the Ruhrtalbahn and the Nachtigallstraße car park, where a passing loop lets the locomotive change ends. It crosses Nachtigallstraße at the line's only level crossing and serves three stops: the car park, the museum grounds and the LWL industrial museum Zeche Nachtigall. A short tunnel section through a former connecting gallery and a loop around the ring kilns of the old brickyard lie on the museum track.
The 15 July 2021 landslide struck the hillside wall of the locomotive shed, which partly collapsed and damaged locomotives stored inside; fallen trees and earth blocked the museum line. Volunteers and companies restored track and grounds by spring 2022, and the museum reopened on 10 April 2022, though the shed remains badly damaged.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,511 contributors worldwide.
