Railway Vehicle Preservation Society

The Railway Vehicle Preservation Society ("Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung von Schienenfahrzeugen e.V." or GES) is one of the oldest societies in Germany that runs a museum railway. The headquarters of the GES is in Stuttgart.

Formation

The society was founded on 8 December 1965 and originally consisted of a group of tramway fans within the so-called "Verkehrsfreunde Stuttgart" society, that had signed up for the preservation and care of the last remaining railcar, no. 126, from the former "Filderbahn" as well as other historically valuable trams. After the Stuttgart Tram Company ("Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen" or "SSB") had initially shown no interest at all in building up a museum collection and the "Filderbahn" railcar 126 could only be preserved by keeping it at Ludwigsburg, the GES turned at the end of the 1960s to the more promising theme of opening a railway. The engagement of the GES for the preservation and subsequent restoration of the "Filderbahn" wagon, laid the foundation stone for the present-day collection of the "Stuttgarter Historische Straßenbahnen".

Timetable

Today the GES runs regular museum railway operations using the historical train consists "Feuriger Elias" ('Fiery Elias') and "Sofazügle" (literally: 'Little Sofa Train'). Due to the ban on steam locomotives issued by the Deutsche Bundesbahn between 1977 and 1985 they had to restrict all their operations to private railway lines on the "Strohgäubahn" from Korntal-Münchingen to Weissach or the "Tälesbahn" between Nürtingen and Neuffen. The trains are still homed there today. To begin with, special trips were also run on the WEG routes from Enz Nord to Enzweihingen and, up to 1982, on the "Filderbahn" between Stuttgart-Möhringen, Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Leinfelden and Neuhausen auf den Fildern. From 1985 specials were also offered on other routes in the Stuttgart area.

Hohenzollern train

The GES has in its possession a cultural monument to the state of Baden-Württemberg in the shape of the Hohenzollern train. It comprises vehicles that were operated by the Hohenzollern Branch Line Company ("Hohenzollerischen Kleinbahn Gesellschaft", from 1907 the "Hohenzollerische Landesbahn"). The majority of these are deployed in museum railway services on the "Tälesbahn" as part of the so-called "Sofazügle".

List of vehicles

Tourist train vehicles

The GES is presently working on restoring a Württemberg T 3 (K.W.St.E no. 930 and DRG no. 89 363), work that should be completed in the next few years.

References and Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.ges-ev.de Homepage]
* [http://www.shb-ev.de Homepage des Vereins Stuttgarter Historische Straßenbahnen (SHB) e.V.]
* There is an English-language discussion forum at [http://germanrail.8.forumer.com/ Railways of Germany]