Here is the last of my four English posings about the interlocking museum at Letschin, this time with pictures of control panels of relay interlockings.
The first two pictures are from the former traffic bureau at Letschin with its original apparatus. Most of it consists of various telephone equipment, but also two computer screens and two small panels above each other. In the background, additional equipment like cranks for points and barriers, relay cabinets and sealed replacement keys:
Former traffic bureau, railway museum Letschin, 2020
The following image also shows the traffic director's workplace. The functions of the panels are hard to see—I'm not sure whether they are block instruments or barrier controls. In the background, one can see the Russian-made EZMG control panel of Letschin station:
Former traffic bureau, railway museum Letschin, 2020
A closeup of the EZMG panel; EZMG is short for "Elektritscheskaja zentralisazija malych stanzij Germanii", which is Russian for "Electrial centralizing of small stations in Germany". The track layout is very simple: Just a passing loop at the single track line:
EZMG panel from Letschin, railway museum Letschin, 2020
EZMG panel from traffic bureau Letschin, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Here is another EZMG panel. This one is from Neutrebbin, Letschin's neighbor station:
EZMG panel from Neutrebbin, railway museum Letschin, 2020
EZMG panel from Neutrebbin, railway museum Letschin, 2020
This EZMG panel was rebuilt for use on a model railway:
EZMG panel rebuilt for model railway, railway museum Letschin, 2020
EZMG panel rebuilt for model railway, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Finally, another EZMG panel from Sietzing station. On the table, three large relays are presented—one is a motor relay, the rest seem to be gravity relays:
EZMG panel from Sietzing, railway museum Letschin, 2020
EZMG panel from Sietzing, railway museum Letschin, 2020
These panels look like CTC panels, they did their work at Neutrebbin:
CTC panels controlling Schönfließ Dorf, Wriezen and Niederfinow, railway museum Letschin, 2020
CTC panel for Schönfließ Dorf, railway museum Letschin, 2020
CTC panel for Wriezen, railway museum Letschin, 2020
CTC panel for Niederfinow, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Here is something much larger: This is a GS 0 panel from the sigal box Kwm at Königs Wusterhausen, which was operated from 1951 until 2006. GS 0 was the first type of relay interlockings in the former GDR:
GS0 panel from signal box Kwm at Königs Wusterhausen, railway museum Letschin, 2020
GS0 panel from signal box Kwm at Königs Wusterhausen, railway museum Letschin, 2020
The following details shows the old-fashioned use of screws to fasten the panel elements:
Detail of the GS0 panel from Königs Wusterhausen, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Also this panel, from Lübbenau Süd, is from an GS 0 interlocking. This seems to be a pure command panel, for commands to signal box W2 and signal operation at signal box B1 itself. Points at B1 were apparently controlled from some other interlocking, maybe even a mechanical frame:
GS0 panel from Lübbenau Süd, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Here is a detail of the panel's right side:
Detail of GS0 panel from Lübbenau Süd, railway museum Letschin, 2020
DrS—short for "Drucktastenstellwerk Siemens", i.e., "Pushbutton interlocking Siemens"—was one of the most widely deployed types of relay interlockings in Germany. The original location of the following DrS panel is unknown. It was probably controlling the points and signals at the end of a marshalling yard and not the points below the hump: A hump panel would have been oriented the other way round; also, the points are not located for efficient humping, i.e., in a regular branching tree:
DrS panel, railway museum Letschin, 2020
As a final exhibit, the following pictures show an enormous DrS panel of an industrial railway, namely BASF's Ludwigshafen interlocking:
DrS panel BASF Ludwigshafen, railway museum Letschin, 2020
DrS panel BASF Ludwigshafen, railway museum Letschin, 2020
At the end of this posting, here is a collective picture of Letschin exhibits ...
View of quite a few exhibits, railway museum Letschin, 2020
... an unknown group of line block instruments now used for the model railway, ...
Line block instruments, railway museum Letschin, 2020
... and a few signals outside the museum building; the largest one is a colour light signal from before 1945:
Signals, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Finally, here are a few pictures of Letschin's still operational interlocking: The line is operated by signal-supported DTC, with key locks for all points. For Letschin's two sets of points, a small key interlocking is mounted outside right near the track:
Key interlocking, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Key interlocking, railway museum Letschin, 2020
Key interlocking, railway museum Letschin, 2020
And that's it—I hope you found this exhibition as interesting as I did; and maybe you and I find time to pay a personal visit to Letschin's interlocking museum. Many thanks, again, to Robert for this series of images and help with the texts!
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