Bahnbetriebswerk Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck

The Bahnbetriebswerk Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck stands beside the goods yard in Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck on the Märkische Emschertalbahn. Built between 1924 and 1926 in red brick, it replaced an 1876 roundhouse that had grown too small. The site served as the last steam-locomotive depot in the Deutsche Bundesbahn fleet, home to the heavy Baureihe 44 engines until the 1977 ban on coal-fired locomotives. It also maintained early diesel classes such as the V160 series and the gas-turbine 219 001-5, as well as the final V 2001 machines retired in 1988. After closure in 1991 the roundhouse and turntable were preserved while other halls were removed. The complex includes a 23-metre turntable in front of the sixteen-road roundhouse. Behind bays four and five lies the Mittelhalle, fitted with axle pits, a 12.5-tonne crane and heavy machine tools. A second three-road hall, nicknamed the V-Halle, once repaired V 60 diesel shunters and now spans two tracks with a 10-tonne gantry crane. A four-road hall, known as the ‘Wüste’, once handled light wagon repairs and now stores engines and gearboxes on a gravel floor. Nearby, the former administration block housed offices, classrooms and a store with rail access. Visitors find the roundhouse and turntable still standing under preservation orders. Inside the Mittelhalle the original machine tools and crane remain in place. The V-Halle’s external gantry crane survives, and the ‘Wüste’ floor shows where tracks once ran. Remains of the coaling plant’s bunkers and the sanding facility can be seen, while the water tower’s reinforced-concrete pedestal is all that survives of the ‘Bismarcker Zwiebel’.