Last week, from Thursday to Saturday, numerous (volunteer) helpers from the THW associations across the entire EN district (Hattingen, Schwelm, Wetter, Witten) were deployed on our site.
With combined efforts, the locomotive shed – damaged during the landslide in July 2021 (as a reminder: landslide) – was cleared out and professionally secured.
A detailed mission report and some photos can be found directly at THW Witten (in german): THW Witten / News
We are extremely grateful to the THW associations and all full-time and volunteer helpers for their outstanding efforts!
Now, we can finally look optimistically at the locomotive shed project again and, of course, look forward to the upcoming 2025 season (the new opening days are available).
We are currently moving some of our vehicles from the museum site to the old Ritz site. Afterwards, the company Feldhaus will come by to carry out further slope clearing work. With that, the urgently needed preparations for reconstruction will finally be completed.
We wish you a Happy New Year 2025 and hope you had a wonderful holiday season.
Coming Sunday, January 5th, 2025, we’ll be offering rides into the winter forest (which might even be truly snow-covered) while enjoying mulled punch and hot cocoa. Since Zeche Nachtigall will also be open, we’re happy to take you there from the parking lot on Nachtigallstraße, with a short stopover at our station, of course.
All the best & see you then, Your Muttenthalbahn Team
The Arge Muttenthalbahn e.V. urgently needs your HELP!
The “Deutsches Gruben- und Feldbahn-Museum Zeche Theresia” (German Mining and Field Railway Museum Zeche Theresia), operated exclusively by volunteers with support from the JobCenter EN in the form of three museum helper positions, has been planning a new museum hall for some time.
Here, on the grounds of the former Ritz iron foundry, directly adjacent to the LWL Zeche Nachtigall, not only vehicles – locomotives and wagons – will finally move into a beautiful hall, but also many small exhibits.
All these collected pieces of mining and field railway history are currently not accessible to the public, as they can only be exhibited protected from the weather. Unfortunately, our well-known museum grounds, with the buildings and tracks located on it, do not offer the necessary space for this.
But this is about to change.
The hall, to be built in a clinker brick design, will measure a full 49×12 meters.
A skylight along the entire ridge of the roof will let sunlight into the building and illuminate the four newly planned tracks inside the hall.
An original field railway workshop and a road construction site are part of the exhibition concept.
An application for funding from the state of NRW has been submitted and is currently being reviewed again.
BUT now there is one more hurdle to overcome:
The 10% own contribution of Arge Muttenthalbahn e.V. must still be raised through donations … a total of 75,000€.
No easy task, but not impossible either.
Once all this is implemented, there will be a new museum highlight with beacon character in Witten, in the Ruhr area, in NRW.
Let’s tackle it together, please help us with your donation!
Your Muttenthalbahners
Hannsjörg Frank
Would you like to donate?
Then please transfer directly to our bank account at Volksbank BochumWitten:
Even though or precisely because the year is no longer brand new, there are still some news regarding our museum.
First, the most visible and undoubtedly joyful news for many: We will be running our trains again very soon AND we are allowed to enter the premises of the LWL Industrial Museum Zeche Nachtigall with our trains once more! Starting from the first operating day of the season (already on April 7, 2024), we will return to the familiar schedule with three different stops and, as always, we look forward to welcoming old and new guests to our museum Zeche Theresia every first Sunday until October, indulging them in Café Theresia, and offering an extraordinary journey to the Zeche Nachtigall.
Our events page has been updated with the currently planned opening days, and additional themed days are still in the works. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to participate in this year’s Muttentalfest on March 24th and the Heritage Day in September. However, we also had to update our ticket prices due to the universally increased costs, which (sadly) affect us as well.
There is also an article from WAZ, unfortunately only for WAZ+ subscribers and in German: article
Then, at the end of February, prior to the commencement of the tree-felling ban, extensive clearing work was carried out on our newest museum site in preparation for further redevelopment. The leased property was formerly home to the Ritz iron foundry, and in the near future, a new museum building for a significant portion of our vehicle collection is planned to be erected there. Additional photos of the clearing can be found on our Facebook page (only german texts there)!
As they say, all good things come in threes. Therefore, we are fortunate to announce that, thanks to the complete sponsorship from the NRW Foundation (Many thanks!), we are now in possession of 6 pallets containing a total of 1,140 steel sleepers. Additionally, there is one pallet each of fastening clips and screws. The sleepers were manufactured by the gGmbH LMG Nord, an inclusive business in the Saterland (Lower Saxony, Germany). Over the next 2 years, these sleepers will be utilized to renovate the entire track from the Nachtigallstraße parking lot through Theresia to the Zeche Nachtigall.
To tackle this task, we are also looking for individuals who have the desire, time, and energy to support us on a voluntary basis. Whether it’s for this specific project or other tasks, our association can always use assistance, and every helping hand is warmly welcomed. Please reach out to us either via Facebook or email (info@muttenthalbahn.org). Of course, new members who wish to support us with regular membership fees or individual donations are always welcome. Please also contact us at the above email address or visit the donation page. Thank you in advance.
And there’s one more thing worth mentioning at this point. We received this diesel tank as a donation, allowing us to stockpile 400 liters. However, we won’t be storing “regular” diesel here; instead, we’re transitioning to Shell’s synthetic GTL diesel, which is already being used by the Stadtwerke Witten for their excursion ship, the Schwalbe. This diesel, derived from natural gas, is safer to store and produces fewer emissions during combustion than conventional diesel. Additionally, it is odorless, which should be pleasantly noticeable during our journeys. Thus, the excursion services provided by Stadtwerke Witten GmbH and the Arge Muttenthalbahn e.V. are locally more environmentally friendly, marking a step forward in the museum’s development.
So, hopefully see you soon, wishing everyone a great year 2024!
