Facelifting for an old Lady
The old lady of the mechanical engineering trade probably never imagined that she would take to the air once again in the year of her 100th birthday. At the beginning of June, our locomobile floated on the ropes of a heavy-duty crane from its usual place in the pedestrian entrance to the campus on Pfälzer Straße to the parking lot next to it, where it is now in temporary storage.
Foto: Anna Friese
During civil engineering work between buildings 18 and 22, the adjacent trench slope was in danger of slipping due to the poor subsoil consisting of rubble, old cellar fragments and the like in the area of the locomobile. Therefore, it had to move.
The company Maler "Drei Schilde" GmbH Haldensleben has meanwhile completed the work of renovating the historic steam engine and covered it with a special coating. The old lady is to be rebuilt in the future at a new location with seating and greenery that invite visitors to linger.
Foto: Hannah Theile
As a technical monument, the locomobile is a reminder of the roots of the university and Magdeburg's mechanical engineering. It was built in 1923 by Wolf AG Magdeburg-Buckau. It weighs about 40 tons, equipped with a flame tube smoke boiler and a 2-cylinder compound engine, it has 230 hp and manages 190 rpm. The locomobile was in operation in Bad Düben from 1929 to 1975. After that, it returned to its "birthplace". On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Magdeburg's mechanical engineering industry, it was presented to the then Technical University.