Kolmården – Virå railway line

Kolmården – Virå
Virå steam locomotive
Route length:	17.7 km
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Maximum slope :	33.33  ‰
Top speed:	25 km / h
Legend 18th Virå 16 Virlångshult Krågvasken 13 Stavsjö Såg to the power plant Vattgluggen 10 Stavsjö bruk 7.5 Skjutgropen 7th Stavsjö Järna – Åby railway line 4.6 Lengthways 4.3 to Nöden at Lövsjön Bränntorp 0.0 Kolmården

The Kolmården – Virå (also known as Nunnebanan ) railway line was a narrow-gauge railway line in Sweden . It had a track width of 600 millimeters.

history

The reason for the construction of the railway line was major forest damage in the years 1898 to 1902 in the region around Björkvik and Kila in Södermanland County . The trees on an area of ​​around 3,000 hectares had to be cut and removed. The nearest loading port at Bråviken was over two Swedish miles (about 21 km) away. The nunnery ( Swedish Nunnefjärilen - Lymantria monacha) fell into the damaged wood , giving the railway the popular name Nunnebanan .

Aktiebolaget Stafsjö järnväg

The owner of the land in Stafsjö and Virå, Fredrik Enhörning, therefore suggested the construction of a railway from the loading point Sandvikens lastageplats in Kolmården on Bråviken via Stafsjö Bruk to Övre Virå. He applied for a concession for the line, it should be an electric narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 600 mm. The license was granted on November 30, 1899.

In 1900 he founded a joint stock company with G. De Broen and OF Kugelberg called Aktiebolaget Stafsjö järnväg . The share capital was 157,000 crowns , the first chairman of the company was Fredrik Enhörning. For the construction of the line, the engineer Henry Browall calculated costs in the amount of 343,000 crowns.

As part of this plan, construction was to begin on July 1, 1900 and commissioning on January 1, 1902. Although originally only intended for timber transport, the operational purpose was changed to general freight and passenger transport. The planned electrical operation was rejected in the planning phase. Browall took over the construction management and the unofficial operation on the line could already be started in September 1901. On July 19, 1902, the line was ready and freight traffic was officially opened. The entire operation as a public transport railway was finally started on August 26, 1903. The final cost was 444,490 crowns.

The 17.7 kilometer long route was built with steel rails weighing 17 or 14.2 kilograms per meter , the maximum gradient was 33.33 ‰.

In 1914 a connection to Lövsjön was built to transport the wood from the area to the sawmill in Nöden . This line was dismantled in 1927 after a road was built between Stavsjö and Nöden.

On September 27, 1916, the line was extended with a connecting railway to the state railway station Stavsjö of the SJ on the Järna – Åby railway line .

vehicles

Steam locomotives

number	Surname	design type	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	Fabr.-No./ year of construction	Special
1	STAFSJÖ	Tank locomotive	1 'B 1'	Motala Verkstad , Motala	271 1901	retired in 1941
2	VIRÅ	Tank locomotive	1 'B 1'	Motala Verkstad, Motala	272 1901	1919 sold to A / S Björkåsen Gruber, Ballangen (Norway), 1965 to Östra Södermanlands Järnväg
3	KOLMÅRDEN	Tank locomotive	1 'C 1'	Orenstein & Koppel , Berlin	7767 1914	1940 to Munkedals Järnväg , there No. 5, retired in 1955
2 "		Tank locomotive	D.	Orenstein & Koppel, Berlin	9129 1920	1934 from Anneberg – Ormaryds Järnväg , AOJ, 1940 to Höganäs, there No. 12 (conversion to 760 mm), retired in 1955

In addition, two were bogie - passenger cars and 31 two-axle freight wagons procured. Two of these freight cars were later converted into so-called summer cars for passenger transport. To make passenger transport cheaper, a four-meter-long used truck (35 hp, 2.3 tons) was bought and converted into a railcar in the company's own workshop . This ran from 1926 until the cessation of passenger traffic in 1933. Additional wagons were procured for freight traffic as required, so that the stock in the last year of operation was 52 freight wagons.

In Virå station, the northern end of the line, there was a locomotive shed with a turntable, a freight magazine and a loading ramp. The railway company's workshop was located in Stavsjö bruk.

Shutdown

After the competition from road traffic increased at the beginning of the 1930s , passenger traffic was discontinued on February 1, 1933. Freight traffic continued for a few years, with the last freight train running on August 18, 1939. Then the line was dismantled.

The steam locomotive VIRÅ , two restored log cars and the passenger car No. 2, which found their home at the Östra Södermanlands Järnväg in Mariefred , have been preserved. The rails and switches were sold to various companies, some of which are in use on the museum railway between Risten and Lakvik . The covered bogie freight car No. 1 has also been preserved.

literature

• Svenska Järnvägsföreningens 50-år , 1926
• Svensk järnvägsstatistik, järnvägsdata
• Lennart Welander, Nunnebanan. Stafsjö Järnväg. Kolmårdens egen järnväg , 1978, Krokeks hembygdsförening and Östra Södermanlands Järnväg

Web links

• History of the railway line (swedish)
• Nunnebanan (Swedish)
• Newspaper clippings about the history of the railway

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stafsjö Fakta
2. ↑ Nunnebanan - for virkestransporter. kopparbo.se, archived from the original on February 3, 2016 ; Retrieved April 2, 2018 (Swedish). 
3. ↑ partly from locomotive statistics pospichal.net
4. ↑ ^{a b} newspaper reports
5. ↑ Additions from banvakt.se (swed.)
6. ↑ Nunnebanan