Technology Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia

Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum

Collection of around 70 industrial and narrow-gauge locomotives in the listed Nippes locomotive depot in Cologne-Bilderstöckchen.

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Limited operations. No regular opening days are currently published; there are occasional special trips. Check with the association before visiting.

About the museum

The Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum was founded as an association in 1987 to preserve locomotives and vehicles from factory, mine and field railways and to research their history. Since 1992 the association has been based in the former Köln-Nippes locomotive depot, which, despite its name, is located in the Bilderstöckchen district.

The depot was built shortly before World War I as part of the Nippes marshalling yard and is among the last large railway buildings constructed by Prussia in the Rhineland. It first housed steam locomotives and later diesel locomotives and railcars, until the railway abandoned the site in 1991. In 1996 the buildings, tracks and coaling facility were listed as historic monuments; at the end of 2001 the museum took over the associated tracks. Deutsche Bahn later built an S-Bahn depot and an ICE depot on the rest of the site. The museum grounds are shared by the RIM, the Freundeskreis Eisenbahn Köln with its Rheingold coaches, and a fire brigade association.

With around 70 powered vehicles in 600-millimeter and standard gauge, the RIM owns one of the largest collections of its kind in Germany. The focus is on locomotives from the Cologne engine maker Deutz and from the Arnold Jung locomotive works in Jungenthal on the Sieg. Most recently, with state funding, a Henschel DH 440 shunting locomotive from 1956 was restored.