The Bavarian Localbahn Society (''Bayerischer Localbahnverein e.V.'' or BLV), with its headquarters in

Tegernsee Tegernsee () is a Town#Germany, town in the Miesbach (district), Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the banks of Tegernsee (lake), Lake Tegernsee, which is 747 m (2,451 ft) AMSL, above sea level. A spa town, it is su ...

, is a society that is concerned with the history of the

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. ''Localbahn'' (sometimes ''Lokalbahn''; literally: 'local line') means '

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

' and is mainly used in southern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in lieu of the usual term ''Nebenbahn''. The BLV's objectives are the operation of historic trains and the collection of historically valuable railway items from Bavaria.

Operations

The society runs the ''Localbahn Museum'' in

Bayerisch Eisenstein Bayerisch Eisenstein, until 1951 just Eisenstein () is a village and a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Regen (district), Regen district, in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Bayerisch Eisenstein is located within the Bavarian Forest, Ba ...

and a locomotive shed in

Landshut Landshut (; ) is a town in Bavaria, Germany, on the banks of the Isar, River Isar. Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free state (government), Free State of Bavaria, and the seat of the surrou ...

. It also operates the museum railway Tegernsee-Schaftlach-Holzkirchen

Localbahn Museum

The BLV dedicated its museum to the once common branch lines of the railway - called ''Vicinalbahnen'', ''Sekundärbahnen'' or ''Localbahnen'' - which connected most of Bavaria in the 19th century. Many of them have now fallen prey to the structural changes or have been changed to suburban trains in the vicinity of large cities. The museum is installed in the former engine shed of

on the border to the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. The round shed with its seven tracks as well as the two-tracked long house contain

steam engines A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

and

diesel locomotives A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

passenger coaches A passenger railroad car or passenger car (American English), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (British English and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (Indian English) is a railroad car that is designed to ca ...

as well as goods wagons from 1890 to 1949. Special exhibitions cover issues such as the construction of railway lines. The open-air area has a working

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

. On some weekends the museum offers rides to

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

with historical steam trains. The society also owns a restored local steam train and offers rides from

History

The Bavarian Localbahn Society emerged from a working group of the German Railway History Company (''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Eisenbahngeschichte'' or DGEG), that ran steam train services between 1969 and 1975 on the private Tegernsee Railway (''Tegernsee-Bahn''). Because the operating licence for the locomotive (

TAG 7 {, class="wikitable float-right" width="310" align="right" , -- ! colspan="2" style="color:yellow; background:#0B4559" , TAG 7 , -- ! colspan="2" , , - , Quantity , , 1 , - , Manufacturer , , Krauss-Maffei , - , Entered service , , 1936 ...

) ran out and neither DGEG nor the Tegernsee Railway wanted to take on the cost of the general inspection, the Bavarian Localbahn Society was founded. To keep operations going during the period whilst TAG 7 was out of service the steam engine 378.32 was purchased in Austria. In 1978, TAG 7 was once again back in service as well, and the Austrian engine took over historical steam services on the Regen Valley railway until it was sold in 1996. The engine, J. A. Maffei, was also working on the Tegernsee Railway until the 1990s and now stands in the society's own museum. The Bavarian Localbahn Museum was established between 1981 and 1994, in the old locomotive shed built in Bayerisch Eisenstein in 1877. In 1999 the shed and tracks at Tegernsee had to be cleared and the TAG 7 steam train moved to Landshut. Since 2005 the society has once again owned an operational steam engine, a former Bavarian Pt 2/3, number 70 083. On September 11, 2005, the BLV celebrated its 30 years of existence with both a Class 70 and the TAG 7 steam engines operating.BLV information and contact details at Bayerische Oberlandbahn (BOB) site
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Rolling stock

Steam locomotives

*''02 / ANNA'' of the Gotteszell-Viechtach Lokalbahn operated by the

Regentalbahn The Regentalbahn (''Regentalbahn AG – Die Länderbahn'') is railway company based in Bavaria, and is owned by Ferrovie dello Stato and the Luxembourg infrastructure fund ''Cube'', through the German holding company of Netinera. It runs railway ...

, built by Krauss & Cie, 1890 *''1854'' from the

Royal Bavarian State Railways The Royal Bavarian State Railways (''Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'') was the state railway company for the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded in 1844. The organisation grew into the second largest of the German ...

operated by the

, built by Krauss & Cie, 1892. (Was numbered 98 7658 in the DR system.) *''J.A. Maffei'' of the firm of Maffei, built by J.A. Maffei, 1902 *''OSSER'' from the Lam-Kötzting Lokalbahn operated by the

, built by J.A. Maffei, 1922 *''Nr. 4 / Bayerwald'' operated by the

, built by J.A. Maffei, 1927 *''Nr. 5 / Deggendorf'' operated by the

, built by J.A. Maffei, 1927 *''SCHWARZECK'' from the Lam-Kötzting Lokalbahn operated by the

, built by J.A. Maffei, 1928 *''TAG 7'' of the Tegernsee Railway Company, built by

Krauss-Maffei KraussMaffei is a German manufacturing company. It is a manufacturer of injection molding machines, machines for plastics extrusion technology, and reaction process machinery. It was acquired by ChemChina in 2016. History KraussMaffei was forme ...

, 1936 *''70 083'' from the

, built by Krauss & Cie, 1913 *

Fireless locomotive A fireless locomotive is a type of locomotive which uses reciprocating engines powered from a reservoir of compressed air or steam, which is filled at intervals from an external source. They offer advantages over conventional steam locomotives of ...

''Spiritus Nr. 2'' of the VEB Spiritus Wittenberg, built by J.A. Maffei, 1915

Diesel locomotives

*''RL 3'' from ''Grün und Bilfinger Co.'', built by

Orenstein & Koppel Orenstein & Koppel (normally abbreviated to "O&K") was a major German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876, in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel. Ori ...

, 1935 *''WR 200 B14'' (=V20) of the German Army, OHE, built by Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz, 1941 *''A6 11517'' (

DRG Köf II German ''Kleinlokomotiven'' (literally: small locomotives) like the DRG Kö II (later: Köf II) were developed as locomotives with a low weight and driving power for light shunting duties. There were two classes, based on engine power. The Cl ...

) from ''Bayerwerk AG'', built by Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz, 1949 *''MV 3'' from the firm of ''Fritzmeier'', built by Orenstein & Koppel, 1963

Electric locomotives

* LAG 5, 169 005, built by J.A. Maffei / SSW, 1930

Railbuses

*''ET 5'' of the Salzburg Railway and Tramway Company, built by

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

/ ÖSSW, 1908 *''VT 07'' from the Lam-Kötzting Lokalbahn operated by the Regental Line, built by MAN, 1939 *''VT 10.05'' ( Uerdingen railbus) from the Graz-Köflach Railway, built by Waggonfabrik Uerdingen, 1955

Other rolling stock

The society has over 19 passenger coaches from the period 1889 to 1958, 8 goods wagons from the years 1883 to 1920 as well as various inspection trolleys.

Organisation

The BLV has at present around 300 members. The company offices are in

. The Localbahn Museum at

is under the private trusteeship of the society.

References

External links

Homepage of the BLV

{{coord missing, Bavaria Heritage railways in Germany Heritage sites in Bavaria Railway museums in Bavaria