Fire in German railway museum damages 24 locomotives, carriages

A fire at an engine shed in a southern German rail museum seriously damaged or destroyed 24 historic locomotives and carriages, the country's national railroad said Tuesday.

The fire, which broke out Monday evening and raged for several hours, brought down the roof of the shed on the outskirts of Nuremberg, Deutsche Bahn said. The Deutsche Bahn Museum itself, home to much of the railroad's collection of historic vehicles and located in the city center, was unaffected.

The company said the destroyed vehicles included a 70-year-old replica of Germany's first steam engine. Also affected were one of the last steam engines built by the former West German railroad, dating back to 1959, and a Berlin subway car from 1913, the AP reports.

Museum director Juergen Franzke said the railroad had specialists who could try to restore some of the vehicles, "but we don't yet know whether we can do anything with the partly melted steel of the locomotives."

There was no immediate word on the cause of the blaze. A.M.