The Werra Railway (Werra-Bahn) built a locomotive repair shop in Meiningen only five years after its opening on the 2nd November 1858. This repair shop was located across from the train station where the depot is to be found nowadays.

In 1902, the railway repair shop – having been an ancillary workshop of the railway administration Erfurt – was declared the main railway workshop. Due to lack of space for further extensions at this location, the construction of a new main railway workshop was carried out at the grounds of the Drachenberg's western slope between the Flutgraben and Leipziger Straße in direction to Helba. The project's first sod was turned on 1st October 1910. A bulk of approximately 245000 m³ had to be removed in order to establish a ground of 140 550 m². After three and a half years of construction, the new workshop was inaugurated on the 2nd March 1914.

The first stage of construction contained the current boiler shop, mechnical shops, erecting shop, spare parts storage, the old foundry, waggon shop, indoor pool, canteen and office building. By 1914, the staff had increased up to 800 members and increased even further up to 1600 in 1918. In order to cope with lifting heavy passenger and goods engines of the Royal Prussian State Railway in Erfurt, shops were equipped with cranes of 40 and 60 tons.

In 1920, the previously independent state railways were unified into the centralised Deutsche Reichsbahn, the main railway workshop was first titled Railway Repair Depot, and then Reichsbahn Repair Depot (Reichsausbesserungswerk Meiningen or RAW Meiningen) from 1924 onwards.

As early as 1916, further extensions of the Repair depot started to be continued after WWI. Between 1924 and 1926, the present locomotive erection hall was built with cranes of 80 tons capacity, and parts of the roundhouse and the new foundry were constructed. At the same time, the northern part of the erecting shop became the new boiler shop.

In 1925/26, ten express locomotives of the production series 01 and 02 as well as ten goods lokomotives of the series 43 and 44 were commissioned and allocated to RAW Meiningen for their routine overhauls. Therefore, responsibility was given to the repair depot for the overhauling of heavy standard locomotive production series for future decades.
Until 1927, also waggons had been refurbished at Meiningen which were, then, passed onto the Gotha Works. At this time, the works' staff exceeded 2000.

Although engines had been manufactured for the war industry during WWII, the works was spared from bombardements and reparations payments. It already resumed work on the 23th April 1945.

On the 1st Septmber 1945, RAW Meiningen was declared plublicly owned. It gained in importance for the Deutsche Reichsbahn after the WWII. On the 1st May 1947, the 1000th steam locomotive was overhauled and delivered to the sector of rail transportation.

On the 4th May 1551 approximately 3 p.m., the repair depot experienced its first explosion accident in which 30 people were severely injured, and 11 passed away. The boiler of a locomotive was teared out of the frame, destroyed the entire roof of the roundhouse and was – being under pressure – thrown to the Ernststraße where it hit the ground and finally came to rest in the backyard of the hospital.

Throughout the next years, the production volume has increased continuously. The RAW Meiningen established its reputation by building the so-called “Reko-Locomotives” and, therefore, shaped the renaissance of the steam locomotive in the GDR. The main goal was to enhance the machines' level of efficiency while improving working conditions for the whole locomotive team. Between 1958 and 1962, 58 locomotives of the production series 39 were reconstructed and obtained newly welded boilders with a combustion chamber, new cabs, Witte-sheet metals, standard tender (2'2'T34) and the new production series number 22.

The high point of those various technical improvements was the reconstruction of the BR 61 into the current 18 201 which still represents – with 175 kilometres per hour - the fastest operative steam locomotive in the world.

Until the late 1970s, the works' profile has been shaped by steam locomotive maintenance but it changed gradually with the withdrawel of steam locomotive as main-line locomotive.

The routine overhaul of goods waggons of the type Ucv and Uscv started in 1981. The maintenance at the hopper waggons brought some problems due to large quantities of dust complicating the labourers work.

For the first time in any Reichbahn Repair Depot, a production line of new locomotives was set up at Meiningen resulting in the total production of 202 fireless locomotives of the type FLC for industrial shunting duties between 1984 and 1988.

Due to investments in the fields of steelwork construction manufacturing and mechanical processing, new constructions were further developed, and since 1987, bogies were manufactured in annual series for electric rail motor sets.

Between 1993 and 1994, two high performance rotary snow ploughs of the type HB 1600 were manufactured for the Deutsche Bahn AG in cooperation with the company Beilhack from Rosenheim. These snow ploughs are self-propelled and designed for clearing ICE railway lines at a speed of 90 kilometres per hour.

Apart from the construction of one rotary plough HB 1200, two of the type GWK 12 were built for Russia, and six remote controlled snow ploughs of the type BA 850 went to the DBAG between 1993 and 1996.

Since 1998, Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works has been overhauled standard and narrow gauge locomotives for the Deutche Bahn AG, preservation and touristic railways at home and abroad. Furthermore, taks have been the modernisation of snow ploughs as well as rotary snow ploughs, and the construction of boilers for historical steam locomotives European-wide. Additionally, the refurbishing of historical railway carriages is of great importance to the steam locomotive works' range of products.

Since 2003, a new business area has been opened up with the overhaul of diesel locomotives of the production series V60. These locomotives receive a general inspection according to §32 EBO, and, as desired by customers, a re-engining with caterpillar engines.

A special highlight of the component production was the construction of the new boiler for the British locomotive of type A1 which was delivered in summer 2006. This project also helped the steam locomotive works open the way to the anglosphere. Without references from Great Britain, the currently constructed boiler for the locomotive 3801 from Australia would not be commissioned to the steam locomotive works.

Not only did the new construction projects of 2008 and 2009 cause sensation. In a construction period of less than 12 month, the steam locomotive works manufactured the locomotive 99 324 for the Mecklenburg “Molli” Spa Railway (Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn “Molli” GmbH) - 50 years after the last newly constructed steam locomotive had left a German works for normal operation. This project proved the realisation of steam locomotives' complete construction.

At the same time when the 99 324 was built, the second new construction project - the Saxon I K No. 54 - was also carried out. In cooperation with numerous companies in the Free State of Saxony, the first serial produced Saxon narrow gauge locomotive was delivered as one of its kind to the VSSB e.V.
In recent years, we have established a further business field concerning railway derricks of the Deutsche Bahn Netz AG. Having lifting capacities of 75 respectively 160 tons, these cranes set highest requirements on our workers' expertise. Nevertheless, the necessary coordination of our numerous partners is an important fact which should not be underrated.unterschätzen.