Railroad Repair Factory G.

This used to be a railroad engineering factory. These factories - called "Ausbesserungswerke" (repair works) by the "Reichsbahn" (the German State Railroad from 1920-1945) - were placed all over Germany and mainly used to conduct large repairs, general inspections and the workup of exchange parts.

Besides that, trains were refit, modernized, and sometimes even built here.

The factory was originally founded in 1881 as a repair shop for the regional railway company. It was expanded and renamed a couple of times and extensively modernized in the late 1930s.

Abandoned Train Repair Workshop in Germany

During this expansion, an air-raid shelter was built below the adminsitration building.
The keys in the photos are for this basement; the engraving in the key tag says "Luftschutzkeller Verwaltung" ("Air-Raid Basement Administration").

The reconditioning of steam locomotives at the repair shop wasdiscontinued in 1953 and the plant was assigned the following new tasks:

1. reconditioning and modernization of DB (German Railway) machine tools

2. conversion of decommissioned wagons into railroad service wagons

3. reconditioning of steam heating couplings for passenger coaches

4. buffers, brake valves, axle bearing housings and brake shoes were reconditioned in brake shoes were reconditioned in Glückstadt.

5. maintenance of the office machines of the Bundesbahndirektionsbezirk Hamburg (until approx. 1980).

6. production of loading gauges for the DB.

7. 1960- 1964 special pallets and containers are manufactured.

In 1965 the production of lattice box pallets was started.

The number of employees decreased steadily during these years.

In 1981 a new building for the apprentice workshop is opened. Apprentices have been trained in this factory since the plant was established. The new training workshop is equipped for 106 apprentices (apprenticed trades: machinist, lathe operator, energy system electronics technician).

In February 2000, the plant and the training workshop were closed for good, and in 2018, demolition was finished.

Visited: March 9, 2014 / February 15, 2015

Location: Glückstadt, Germany

Status: Demolished