Concept
The Wiesloch Feldbahn and Industrial Museum (Feldbahn- und Industriemuseum Wiesloch, FIW) is a narrow-gauge railway and industrial heritage open-air museum established in 2001, at Wiesloch, Germany. The museum is centred around the former locomotive shed of the Tonwaren-Industrie Wiesloch (TIW) brickworks, and houses industrial equipment from large excavators to small machine tools, plus large and small locomotives. It is north of Wiesloch-Walldorf station, lying between the River Leimbach and mainline Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway to the west, and the Bundesstraße 3 and REWE supermarket Group's south-west central warehouses to the east. The museum is based partly on the site of the former Tonwaren-Industrie Wiesloch brickworks which closed in 1989 and had been served by a 600-millimetre narrow-gauge railway network. During the 1960s the brickworks employed approximately 320 people and the narrow-gauge trains were used for transporting raw material from the Dämmel clay pit to the brickworks. Following the completion of clay mining the area was backfilled, burying the narrow-gauge locomotive shed and raising the area of the surrounding landscape. Further heavy development on the subsequent site of the museum would have required twelve-metre deep foundations, which would have been uneconomical, ultimately leading to the preservation of the site. The museum area covers two hectares, and is covered with mature trees, and this woodland area is kept for shade and enjoyment. The land is home to wild animals, including lizards, hares and occasionally deer. Two ex-Deutsche Bahn railway wagons serve as a workshop and club house, on their own length of standard gauge track. A plan for restoration of the locomotive shed and operation of narrow-gauge passenger trains were presented to the City of Wiesloch in 2000. The estimated costs for the plan were 100,000 DM (€50,000). Narrow gauge trains were additionally seen as an attraction for a planned garden festival (Landesgartenschau) proposed in Wiesloch/Walldorf at the time.
