Neukölln-Mittenwalder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG (NME)

Updated: August 2026 – A company name made of two place names, plus an “AG” at the end: the Neukölln-Mittenwalder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG wears its history in its title. Names like this don’t come from a marketing department’s drawing board, but from a line. This page shows what can be read off that, why some railways are both transport and infrastructure companies at once, and how to properly document their trains in the field.

What is the Neukölln-Mittenwalder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft?

The Neukölln-Mittenwalder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG, known for short as NME, is a railway company in the Berlin area with a focus on rail freight. The company name names two points: Berlin-Neukölln in the north-west and Mittenwalde in the southern surroundings.

That both places appear in the name is more than a location note: it’s the shortest possible description of a business purpose. Anyone building a railway between two points wants traffic between exactly those points – and aligns operations, stations and connections accordingly. Names like this are therefore a good starting point for research, because they make a company’s historical core visible straight away.

This naming pattern is a reliable pointer. Railways carrying two places in their title almost always grew up along exactly that connection – as a line built to open up industry, agriculture or raw materials. The Aktiengesellschaft legal form fits: light and local railways were often founded as public companies, because line construction could be financed through shareholders this way.

Two roles in one company: railway undertaking and infrastructure manager

In the German rail system, transport and infrastructure are separated. A railway undertaking (EVU) runs trains, a railway infrastructure manager (EIU) operates tracks, points and signalling technology. At large groups such as Deutsche Bahn, these are different companies. At small, historically grown railways, such as those represented as an association by the Netzwerk Privatbahnen, both roles frequently coincide – the company runs on its own line.

Task	Role as railway undertaking	Role as infrastructure manager
Running trains	yes – staff, vehicles, safety certificate	no
Maintaining tracks	no	yes – track bed, points, structures
Allocating paths	no, books them	yes – also to third-party companies
Connecting sidings	runs the service	provides the connection
Oversight	safety certificate	approval as an infrastructure operator

This dual role brings obligations that rarely stand out in day-to-day operation: the infrastructure side has to monitor the condition of the track bed, secure level crossings, maintain points and signals, and allocate paths without discrimination. All of that runs alongside train operations – and with the same, usually small, staff pool. Anyone who spots a road-rail vehicle or an inspection run on such a line is therefore often not looking at an outside company, but often the same operation in its second role.

For observation, this leads to something practical: outside trains can also run on a line belonging to a small company. Anyone seeing a locomotive with an unfamiliar keeper marking on a private railway line hasn’t necessarily made a mistake, but is looking at path usage by a third party. Comparably structured companies in the Berlin surroundings and central Germany include the Havelländische Eisenbahn, the Regiobahn Bitterfeld Berlin and the Mitteldeutsche Eisenbahn.

Field identification

The general method behind this is described in the guide Who’s actually running it? Identifying the operator; how to then report your observation in an evaluable way is shown in the guide to reporting sightings.

Siding work: the business on the last mile

By far the largest part of rail freight doesn’t end at a station, but at a works gate. It’s exactly this last section – from the interchange point to the customer’s own track – that shapes the everyday life of regional freight railways and explains their unusual operating picture.

Siding work means: few wagons, short distances, a lot of shunting. Such a diagram consists of runs of just a few kilometres, interrupted by long standing times during which loading and unloading happens. Running times follow the customer’s operating hours, not a fixed frequency – which is why there’s no timetable here in the usual sense.

Technically, that calls for different requirements than line service. What’s needed are locomotives with good visibility in both directions, high starting tractive effort, and the ability to run tight curves and sometimes poorly maintained track. Top speed plays virtually no role. Staff work differently too: shunting escorts, hand-operated points and radio communication are the norm.

For observation, an important pointer follows from this: what you see is often an operational run, not a scheduled freight train. Short train formations with two or three wagons, slow running and repeated stops aren’t a sign of improvisation, but the actual business model. Anyone documenting such runs should therefore note the number of wagons and the direction alongside the locomotive number and place – the nature of the service can be inferred from that later.

The distinction remains important: as soon as the train reaches the siding, it’s on private land. Documentation happens from outside, from publicly accessible locations – not on the works site.

Typical vehicles of regional freight railways

A fixed fleet list can’t be given reliably for a company of this size – it would be outdated by the next lease agreement. The reliable question is the service profile.

For transfers and shunting tasks, classic shunting locomotives are common, for example from the V 60 family. For siding and line runs, medium-weight diesel locomotives such as the Class 293 come into question, and for heavy trains occasionally six-axle machines such as the Class 232. What they have in common is that they’re available second-hand and can be maintained with manageable effort.

Common mix-ups

• Place names as the current area of operation – the name describes the historical core line, not today’s radius.
• AG as a size indicator – the legal form says nothing about the number of vehicles or employees.
• An outside locomotive on a private railway line – not an error, but path usage by another company.
• Abbreviations confused – three-letter codes are assigned more than once; always check the full company name.
• A works track mistaken for a station – loading points and sidings are private land, even where they look public.

Verdict

The NME is a lesson in naming: two places, one legal form, one abbreviation – and from that you can derive the origin of an entire railway without stating a single date. What’s actually running today, on the other hand, only the observation itself reveals.