Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum
One of Germany's largest collections of industrial railway locomotives, housed in a former engine shed in Nippes — currently closed to visitors.
The Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum e. V. (RIM) collects and researches industrial railway vehicles. It is housed in a former engine shed named after the adjacent Nippes marshalling yard.
At a Glance
- Type
- Railway museum (registered association)
- Founded
- 1987 in Cologne
- Location
- Former engine shed, in use since 1992
- District
- Longerich, Nippes borough
- Collection
- Around 70 traction vehicles (600 mm narrow gauge and standard gauge)
- Focus
- Locomotives by Deutz (Cologne) and Arnold Jung
The Cologne-Nippes railway depot is somewhat misnamed: the site is not actually located in the Nippes district, but in the Bilderstöckchen neighbourhood on the border with Longerich – it was simply named after the adjacent Nippes marshalling yard.
The Collection
The RIM holds around 70 traction vehicles of various gauges and drive types. These machines were used across a range of industries, from mining to brickworks. Particular emphasis is placed on locomotives built in Cologne by Deutz, as well as engines from the Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik in Kirchen-Jungenthal on the Sieg river. According to Wikipedia, the holdings rank among the largest collections of their kind in Germany.
The Engine Shed
The complex was built in 1914 by the Cologne Railway Directorate and is one of the last major railway structures erected by the Prussian state in the Rhineland. The name "Cologne-Nippes" is not geographically precise — it refers solely to the site's administrative link to the Nippes marshalling yard, while the grounds themselves lie in the Longerich district. The shed originally housed Prussian steam locomotives, and during the Second World War also Belgian and French captured engines, later switching to diesel traction. It was decommissioned in 1991.
Modern Rail Operations on Site
While part of the site serves the museum, new railway infrastructure has grown up alongside it: an S-Bahn maintenance depot opened in 2013, followed by a new ICE maintenance facility from February 2018.
Listed Status and Use
Since 1992, the RIM, the Friends of the Cologne Railway, and a fire brigade association have shared part of the site; the Eisenbahn Museum Köln e. V. is the site's legal operator. In 1996, the Cologne regional authority listed the buildings, tracks, former coaling plant, and other elements as protected monuments. The protected track installations were transferred from Deutsche Bahn to the museum at the end of 2001 and have since been classified as a private siding under North Rhine-Westphalian state law.
Visiting
The operator has announced that no open days are currently taking place for operational reasons.
Timeline
- 1914Railway depot Cologne-Nippes built by the Railway Directorate Cologne
- 193631 G 8 class locomotives stationed for shunting and line services
- 194421 Belgian and French captured locomotives at the depot (April)
- 1957–1959Depot rebuilt; all Cologne diesel railcars subsequently stationed here
- 1975German Federal Railway ends stationing of steam locomotives in Cologne
- 1987Rhenish Industrial Railway Museum founded in Cologne
- 1991Nippes railway depot dissolved due to rationalisation
- 1992RIM moves into the former Cologne-Nippes railway depot as its base
- 1996Buildings, tracks and coaling facility listed as protected monuments
- 2001Museum takes over the listed track facilities from Deutsche Bahn
- 2013S-Bahn depot built on the site
- 2018New ICE depot (construction started Nov. 2015) opens in February
Map
Blue dots: other places nearby — tap to explore.
Address
Longericher Str. 214
50739 Köln
You might also like — related or nearby
Comments
- Loading comments…
Sources & links
- Official website
- Wikidata (retrieved 2026-06-23)
- Wikipedia (retrieved 2026-06-23, rev 252006721)
- Official website (retrieved 2026-06-24)
Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-06-27
How this page is made
This page draws on open sources — Wikipedia, Wikidata, official websites and the city’s open data. Every statement is checked against the sources linked here, and pages are refreshed regularly.
Spotted a mistake anyway? Tell us below — we read every submission.