Its purpose was the preservation of a working branch line with all its installations as a living open-air museum.

On 2 July 1966, museum railway services began on the narrow gauge section of line from Bruchhausen-Vilsen to Heiligenberg operated by the Verkehrsbetriebe Grafschaft Hoya, about 35 km south of Bremen, using the steam locomotive Bruchhausen and one coach.

At weekends from May to September and in December, regular services are run on the Bruchhausen-Vilsen–Asendorf route - predominantly with steam trains.

Amongst them were seven steam locomotives (including the former DR 99 5633 and a Lenz-Typ i), five diesel locomotives (including the former DB Class V 29), six railbuses (including a Wismar railbus, a Wismar (Frankfurt version) and one from the Franzburger Kreisbahn, 28 passenger coaches, 6 luggage and mail vans and numerous goods wagons and works vehicles.

In the workshop attached to the museum, increasingly rare skills, such as the rivetting of steam locomotive boilers, are maintained.