The Ulm Railway Society (Ulmer Eisenbahnfreunde or UEF) is a German society for encouraging the preservation of historically valuable railway stock. It is based in the vicinity of

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

, a city in the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

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 ...

. The society was founded in 1969, has about 600 members and around 12

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s as well as numerous historical wagons.

Groups

The society is divided into four groups:

Narrow Gauge Group

This group runs its own vehicles on the 5.7 kilometre long

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Amstetten–Laichingen railway from Amstetten to Oppingen, the so-called ''Albbähnle''. Motive power is provided by locomotive 99 7203 and, from time to time, the diesel locomotive D8.

Branch Line Group

Historical branch line steam trains run on the society's own line from Amstetten to

Gerstetten Gerstetten is a municipality in the district of Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It consists of the following villages: * Gerstetten (population: 7,534) * Dettingen (population: 2,042, incorporation 1972) * Gussenstadt (po ...

(Amstetten–Gerstetten branch line). Since mid-2006 they have been joined by the museum railbus, number T06. Occasionally goods trains are also worked. Steam locomotive 75 1118 hauls the historic steam trains. The Group (''UEF Lokalbahn Amstetten-Gerstetten e. V.'') owns other

diesel locomotive 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 ...

s and

railbuses A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar with an automotive engine. It shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels (2 axles) on a fixed base instead of on bogies. O ...

and historic branch line passenger coaches.

Ettlingen Group

The Albtal Transport Company (''Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft'') runs a historic fast stopping train ('' Eilzug'') hauled by a DRG Class 58 (ex Baden G 12) steam engine on the

Alb Valley Railway The Alb Valley Railway () is a railway line in southern Germany that runs from Karlsruhe via Ettlingen to Bad Herrenalb with a branch to Ittersbach. The line is owned and operated, as part of the Stadtbahn Karlsruhe, by the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesell ...

between

Ettlingen Ettlingen (; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Eddlinge'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about south of the city of Karlsruhe and approximately from the German-French border, border with Lauterbourg, in France's Bas-Rhin, ...

and

Bad Herrenalb Bad Herrenalb is a municipality in the district of Calw, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the northern Black Forest, 15 km east of Baden-Baden, and 22 km southwest of Pforzheim. The town is connected to the city of K ...

and the Rhine Valley Railway and

Murg Valley Railway The Murg Valley Railway () is a 58 kilometre long railway line in the Northern Black Forest in Germany, that links Rastatt and Freudenstadt. It was opened in stages from 1868 to 1928 being built outwards from both Rastatt and Freudenstadt. The ...

between

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

and Baiersbronn. This historic engine was built in 1921 by the

Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Karlsruhe The Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Karlsruhe ('Karlsruhe Engineering Works') was a locomotive and railway wagon manufacturer in the early days of the German railways. It was based at Karlsruhe in what is now the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwes ...

. Other steam locomotives also stationed with the Ettlingen Group, but not in working order, are a DRG Class 44,

DRG Class 50 The DRB Class 50Wartime locomotives classes are prefixed DRB (Deutsche Reichsbahn) to distinguish them from those introduced by the DRG (prefixed DRG), which became defunct in 1937, and those introduced later by the East German Deutsche Reichsbah ...

and DRG Class 86). The fast-stopping coaches were mainly built in the 1930s and modernised in the 1950s. The luggage vans homed at Ettlingen, which are usually used for the free transportation of bicycles, were used to carry the mortal remains of

Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...

from

Hechingen Hechingen (; Swabian: ''Hächenga'') is a town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about south of the state capital of Stuttgart and north of Lake Constance and the Swiss border. Geography The town lies at the foot of th ...

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Historical Steam Express Train Group

This group maintains the most famous steam locomotives in the Ulmer Eisenbahnfreunde - 01 1066 and 01 509 - as well as historic, express train, 1st and 2nd class coaches. The vehicles were built between 1928 and 1954. The historic steam express - reinforced by express train coaches from the Passauer Eisenbahnfreunde - travels the length and breadth of Europe visiting, for example,

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 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad,. known as Königsberg; ; . until 1946, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an Enclave and exclave, exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland ( west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Prego ...

); albeit remaining mostly in

south Germany Southern Germany (, ) is a region of Germany that includes the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, which includes the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia in present-day Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, and the southern portion of Hesse ...

. The express train steam locomotives and a working heating wagon are stationed at

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. From the late Middle Ages on, it developed into an important trading centre. At the begi ...

, the coaches in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. The non-operational express train engine, number 01 1081, is being refurbished as a museum exhibit in the

Augsburg Railway Park The Augsburg Railway Park (''Bahnpark Augsburg'') is a railway museum in Augsburg on part of the former Augsburg locomotive shed owned by the Deutsche Bahn. Following reconstruction work, the park officially reopened on 13 April 2009. In the f ...

. The services operated by the Ulmer Eisenbahnfreunde are regularly reported in the railway press and in TV programmes such as ''Eisenbahn-Romantik'' ('Railway Nostalgia').

Railway Operations

All railway operations are carried out by volunteer members, from coach attendants to qualified engine drivers. This does not just involve running railway trips, but also the preparation and clearing up afterwards as well as restoration and repair wherever possible and permitted.

Literature

* Sauter: ''Die Schnellzuglokomotiven der Ulmer Eisenbahnfreunde''

External links

Ulmer Eisenbahnfreunde (German)

Steam trains on the Albtalbahn (German)

Steam trains on the Murgtalbahn (German)

Steam express trains (German)
{{Coord missing, Baden-Württemberg Railway museums in Germany Heritage railways in Germany History of rail transport in Baden-Württemberg Museums in Baden-Württemberg