Lokomotiv-Versuchsamt Grunewald


The Lokomotiv-Versuchsamt Grunewald or LVA was a facility established from 1920 to 1945 at Berlin-Grunewald in Germany that conducted trials on railway vehicles. The office used the facilities of the railway repair shop at Grunewald on the Berlin Stadtbahn southwest of Berlin's Westkreuz station.

History

After the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft was founded in 1925 the Railway Central Office that had existed since 1906 was renamed to the Reichsbahn Central Office. Amongst other things, they carried out numerous trials on steam locomotives and created the scientific basis for the performance measurement of railway vehicles. From 1920 they were supported by the Lokomotiv-Versuchsamt Grunewald, a locomotive trials office based at the main railway workshop at Grunewald. In 1936 there were 152 employees working for this research establishment.
In 1945 the work at Grunewald ended, due to the war, and was continued in East Germany at RAW Dessau as well as in Halle, and in West Germany initially at Göttingen, and later in Minden and München.
The Office had instrumentation vehicles, a rolling test bed with water brakes for locomotives and test rigs for various vehicle components.

Key personalities

The following employees are particularly closely associated with the establishment:
At the site today are a few Deutsche Bahn office buildings, several small firms and a golf course.

Gallery

Footnotes and references