| It would be perfectly understandable for anyone browsing this gallery to ask where on earth is Nossen? It seems hard to imagine that deep in the rolling countryside west of Dresden could be found this obscure junction with a full scale locomotive depot. Nossen lies on the secondary route which links Leipzig and Dresden via Doebeln. The direct mainline route was already an electrified route in DDR days. Passenger services were limited so freight must have been the prime reason for its existence. North from Nossen a branch struck across country to Riesa where it joined the mainline route.
Nossen had once been a much more important rail centre with a standard guage line south to join the Saxon main line at Freiberg and it also had a narrow guage link to the once extensive network radiating from Freital and Oschatz. The last narrow guage trains ran from Nossen in 1972, but fragments of narrow guage track could be traced and a former box van was still there in reasonable condition. The end was not far off by the time I visited in the spring of 1979. Only two engines were observed in steam, one of which departed tender first with a rake of 6-wheeled rebuilt coaches on a local train. Another unidentified loco was in use as a stationary boiler, a fate common at many depots in those days. All the images in this collection were taken on the same date, 18 April 1979. The ambience and layout had changed little from the days of the Saxon State Railways, and there were one or two surprises in the form of some unusual stored engines on sidings around the depot. I have never had any cause to go back to Nossen since the end of steam, but I would imagine that very little now remains of the once extensive facilities which existed in steam days. |
This may well have been only the second class 50 built, 50-1002, the "1" indicating a coal fired locomotive in the DR numbering scheme. It was stored in the open intact, and retained full footplating and large Wagner type smoke deflectors. In this condition the loco was a prime candidate for preservation and may well have been spared the cutter's torch 900x576 DR_50-1002_18-4-79.jpg |
Viewed from the station platform, this shows the clutter associated with a steam depot, and is also a general indication that the end could not be far off. An unidentified loco serves as a stationary boiler whilst 50-3554 in the middle distance is in steam 900x576 DR_50-3554-6a_18-4-79.jpg |
This view of 50-3554 and the roundhouse area was opened up when sister loco 50-3581-1 moved away 900x576 DR_50-3554-6b_18-4-79.jpg |
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The first of a number of views of light 2-10-0 50-3581 which manoevred off the depot and into the station in order to take a passenger train tender first in a westerly direction 900x576 DR_50-3581-1a_18-4-79.jpg |
Another view of 50-3581 as it prepares to move across into the station area with the typical roundhouse as background 900x574 DR_50-3581-1b_18-4-79.jpg |
The light 2-10-0 drifts slowly across to join the running lines, surrounded by manual semaphore signalling and all the clutter of the steam railway. Modellers would have drooled at the layout, with everything characteristic of the steam railway of pre-First World War set out and still operational 900x576 DR_50-3581-1c_18-4-79.jpg |
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The light 2-10-0 has been coupled onto its train and awaits departure time. The train consisted of 4 6-wheel rebuilt coaches, a paltry load indeed for a powerful engine, but these lcocomotives were true mixed-traffic engines and could be used on anything from branch line passenger work to heavy long distance fast freight services 900x576 DR_50-3581-1d_18-4-79.jpg |
My final shot of 50-3581 was taken from the road bridge at the west end of the station and shows the loco departing tender first with its lightweight train of 4 six-wheel coaches 900x576 DR_50-3581-1e_18-4-79.jpg |
By 1979 even the modern 50-35 class rebuilt light 2-10-0s were becoming surplus to requirements and this unidentified example had been stored at Nossen, although fully accessible. These days rolling stock left unattended like this would be covered in graffitti within hours but such things were unheard of in the GDR in 1979 900x576 DR_50-35class_18-4-79.jpg |
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There were a number of stored engines lying about on different parts of the layout including this unrebuilt class 50 light 2-10-0, which, judging by the cut-back footplating was one of those built during the early days of the war, before the introduction of the austerity class 52. The tender also looks to be of postwar GDR construction. 900x576 DR_50unidentified_19-4-79.jpg |
A second stored class 50 in largely original condition was also present but this one had received a Giesl oblong ejector at some point in its career. DR carried out modificiations such as this on a number of engines, which did not happen on DB in the west 900x579 DR_50unidentified_b_18-4-79.jpg |
Perhaps the biggest surprise was lurking round the back of the depot in the form on this Prussian G12 three cylinder 2-10-0 which became DR 58-1042. It was intact apart from coupling rods and motion and may well have been set aside as a preservation project 900x587 DR_58-1042-9_18-4-79.jpg |
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Another Prussian veteran stored at Nossen was this T14 class 2-8-2T, a type built for freight working from about 1914 onwards. These became DR class 93, and this one may also have been set aside for preservation 900x587 DR_93unidentified_18-4-79.jpg |
This narrow guage box van survived on a short length of track, a reminder that once Nossen had also been connected to the extensive 750 mm gauge network linked to Freital and Oschatz. Narrow guage trains had ceased to run in 1972, but this van had escaped the attentions of the scrapman and graffiti artists were an unknown species in the GDR in 1979 900x576 DR_NGboxcar_18-4-79.jpg |
