A Bahnbetriebswerk is the equivalent of a locomotive depot (or motive power depot) on the German and Austrian railways. It is an installation that carries out the maintenance, minor repairs, refuelling and cleaning of locomotives and other motive power. In addition it organises the deployment of locomotives and crews. In the Deutsche Bahn, a Bahnbetriebswerk is known today as a Betriebshof; the ÖBB refer to it as a Zugförderungsstelle (Zf). Many other countries simply use the term 'depot'. The smaller facility, the Lokomotivstation (also Einsatzstelle or Lokbahnhof) akin to the British sub-depot or stabling point, is affiliated to a Bahnbetriebswerk.
N.B. The shortened form Betriebswerk is also used and both are commonly abbreviated to Bw or BW. The plural is Bahnbetriebswerke.
History
Beginnings
On 7 January 1835 the first Bahnbetriebswerk in Germany was opened. It looked after locomotives on the first railway line in Germany, the Bavarian Ludwigsbahn from Nuremberg to Fürth. It was here that the first locomotive in Germany, the Adler, was assembled and maintained. The inventor or father of the Bahnbetriebswerk was John Blenkinsop. He was the first to recognise that smooth railway operations needed well-equipped workshops and suitable personnel and, as a result, was entrusted with the technical direction of the Brunswick State Railway. Soon afterwards the first Bahnbetriebswerk was built. Not only did it carry out the usual functions of such a depot, but also others such as the construction of locomotives. In 1845, John Blenkinsop was clear that it was considerably cheaper to service locomotives at regular intervals than not to repair them until they broke down. He therefore laid the foundations for what subsequently became the routine tasks of a Bahnbetriebswerk, although it was several years before they were divided into Bahnbetriebswerke and Ausbesserungswerke or repair shops. Gradually all the other German railway companies organised their technical support based on the example of the Ludwigsbahn and Brunswick State Railway.
Because the radius of action of the first steam locomotives was only about 80 km, facilities were installed at all larger stations for the maintenance of locomotives; in particular coal and water supplies had to be replenished. Such facilities also appeared at junctions, which explains why there were so many locomotive sheds of that type.
Länderbahn period
From the 1860s, all railway companies separated the functions of traffic operating (working the locomotives) and mechanical engineering. Over time, the first repair shops (Ausbesserungswerke) also appeared, known at that time as Hauptwerkstätten (main workshops). On the creation of the German Empire the system described above was adopted by everyone and, in addition, many private railways were nationalised with the result that this approach was eventually followed by those too.
Deutsche Reichsbahn 1920-1945
With the takeover of the German state railways (the Länderbahnen) following the state treaty of 30 April 1920 the organisation of engineering services was standardised across the whole of Germany. The Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) set up various Reichsbahn divisions (Reichsbahndirektionen) and engineering offices (Maschinenämter). On 1 August 1935 there were 7 Reichsbahn divisions and 132 engineering offices.
The new organisational regulations introduced in the 1920s proved their worth, nevertheless the number of Bahnbetriebswerke rose and fell significantly. Initially the DR turned large Lokbahnhöfe into Bahnbetriebswerke, but on the foundation of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft things changed suddenly. A fifth of the reparations that had to be handed to the victorious powers after World War I had to be absorbed by the DRG. In order to be able to manage that, rationalisation measures had to be taken; above all almost all areas had to make savings. In addition the management was streamlined which led to the closure of all smaller Bahnbetriebswerke. At the same time so-called Großbahnbetriebswerke (large locomotive depots) were created. Medium and small facilities were often integrated into these Betriebswerke. As a result, giant depots emerged that had a multitude of maintenance facilities. Examples include: Dresden-Friedrichstadt, Hamburg-Altona, Hamm and Osnabrück. They were often responsible for the maintenance of over 150 locomotives.