Historic Railway

In Frankfurt am Main the Historische Eisenbahn Frankfurt operates a museum railway that not only exhibits historic rail vehicles but also keeps them in running order and operates them as part of the regular museum programme. The association, active since 1978, is dedicated to preserving technical cultural monuments, with a focus on steam locomotives.

Regular runs have taken place since 1979 on selected weekends on the line of the Frankfurter Hafenbahn. The trains depart from the Eiserner Steg halt and run between Osthafen (at the Güterbahnhof Frankfurt (Main) Ost) and Griesheim; since April 2015 there has also been an additional stop at the new building of the European Central Bank. Since 1981 the Bahnhofsfest Königstein has been held annually at Pentecost, for which trains operate on the Königsteiner Bahn between Frankfurt-Höchst and Königstein im Taunus. In addition, vehicles of the Historische Eisenbahn Frankfurt are used for special excursions throughout Germany.

The operational rolling stock included several serviceable steam locomotives, for a long time notably the express locomotive 01 118. This machine was built in 1934 and, as the only example of its class, was kept continuously operational for decades. Its appearance remained largely unchanged; characteristic features are the large Wagner-type smoke deflectors. Up to the change of ownership in 1981 the locomotive covered more than 3.5 million kilometres. In the following years it was used both on local museum runs and on long-distance special trains at home and abroad. Statutory intervals and major inspections enabled operation into the 2000s; in 2004 the PZB 90 train protection system was retrofitted. For economic reasons the locomotive was sold years ago; since August 2019 it has been stored in a private collection and is currently no longer under steam.

The freight locomotive 52 4867, built in 1943 and remaining in Austria after the Second World War, has been part of the collection since 1980. It was repeatedly used for unusual assignments, for example in 2007 as the motive power for heavy engineering trains during track renewals in west Frankfurt; in 2008 it also hauled work trains to the Main-Neckar Bridge. After statutory intervals had expired and in view of limited resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the major inspection was carried out in-house until November 2022.

The fleet is complemented by diesel and small locomotives, including two V 36 diesel locomotives from 1950, one of which is kept operational, as well as two small locomotives of power class II. A pre-series V 36 is in the Technik-Museum Speyer. A set of Uerdingen railbuses is leased out. The coach stock includes several historic passenger coaches, among them five four-axle Bm-234 coaches, a saloon coach, two three-axle 3yg coaches and a Gms coach for power supply.