Halmstad – Bolmen railway line

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

Halmstad – Bolmen
Ryaberg station (1940s)
Route length:	64 km
Gauge :	1067 mm ( cape track )
Maximum slope :	17  ‰
Minimum radius :	300 m
Top speed:	35 km / h
Operating points and routes
Legend Vislanda – Bolmens Järnväg 64.006 Bolmen 59.369 Piksborg Fettjesund 54.112 Byholma 52.386 Mosshylte 50.213 Åsen 2.5 Unnen 44.166 Lidhult 40.150 Bökö 36.178 Älmås 33.219 Bygget 31.616 Froeboke 26,647 Ryaberg 22.825 Mahult 21,500 Mahults herrgård (1935 – around 1940, originally Nybygget ) 20,000 Breareds pump 18.178 Simlångsdalen 13,588 Skerkered 11.457 Marbäck 8.57 Skedala grusgrop 7.403 Skedala 5.116 Skedalahed 0 Halmstad Östra originally "Halmstad HB" or "Bolmen Halmstad" to Västkustbanan

The Halmstad – Bolmen ( Swedish Halmstad – Bolmens Järnväg, HBJ ) was a 64-kilometer Swedish railway line from Halmstad to Bolmen in the province of Halland County . It had a track width of 1067 mm.

history

In the late 1870s, the Halmstad Trade Association commissioned an investigation into a railway line from the terminus of the Vislanda – Bolmens Järnväg (ViBJ) in Bolmen to Halmstad. They commissioned the captain of the Vägoch vattenbyggnadskåren , Wilhelm Gagner, to draw up plans and cost estimates for a railway between Bolmen and Halmstad. Two alternative routes have been explored, one over Skeen and the other over Fettjesund. At that time, forest goods and people were only transported by ox carts and horse-drawn carts.

On August 28, 1885, a meeting was held in Halmstad to present the plans. Gagner's research produced a cost estimate of 1.499 million crowns . The meeting showed that interest in a route had increased and that many communities were willing to spend money. On October 28, 1885, Halmstad City Council decided to invest 200,000 crowns.

At a new meeting on November 27, 1885 in Halmstad it was decided to found a company, at the same time an interim board was appointed. The concession was granted by the head of the provincial government ( Swedish Landshövding ) Carl Nordenfalk, Freiherr DE Stjerncrona and the landowner and Reichstag member Ivar Lyttkens from Skedala as well as AL Apelstam, N. Lundell, CF von Sydow, AE Pihl, CG Löfström, G. Bengtsson and C. Leander Larsson applied for a route with a track width of 1067 mm and a length of 65.84 km, which would lead across the Fettjesund and the cost of which was estimated at 1.441 million crowns. This concession was granted on May 6, 1886.

Halmstad – Bolmens Järnvägsaktiebolag

On December 4, 1886, the Halmstad – Bolmens Järnvägsaktiebolag was constituted . The company's board of directors consisted of the chairman Carl Nordenfalk, Ivar Lyttkens, the businessman AE Pihl and businessman Anders L. Apelstam, CL Larsson from Älmån, the bank teller CG Löfström and the pastor L Wickelgren.

Carl Johan Jehander , the Swedish "Järnvägskungen" ( German  railway king ), received a contract as general contractor for the construction of the line . The order value was set at 1.29 million crowns. The survey of the route began on April 30, 1887, and on June 12, 1887 the groundbreaking ceremony took place at Skedala. In Halmstad, it was expected that the line would be connected to the Halmstad – Nässjö Järnvägsaktiebolag station , which had operated the Halmstad – Nässjö line opened in 1882 by the Halmstad – Jönköpings Järnvägsaktiebolag since 1885 .

Halmstad Östra station

The two companies could not agree on the terms for sharing the station, which is why HBJ decided to build its own station in Halmstad, Halmstad Östra. The concession conditions included the branch line from Åsen to Lake Unnen. The company was successful with an application to postpone the construction of this branch line to a later date.

On August 24, 1889, the last rail joints of the HBJ were screwed to those of the Vislanda – Bolmens Järnväg (ViBJ). Traffic on the Halmstad – Skedala section was opened to public transport as early as the summer of 1889. The clearance for the entire route between Halmstad and Bolmen took place on November 4, 1889.

The Svensk Järnvägsstatistik ( Swedish Swedish Railway Statistics 1890) recorded the cost of building the line in the amount of 1,719,976 crowns. The rails were made of steel and weighed 17.2 kg per meter , the incline was 17 ‰ and the minimum radius 300 meters. The maximum speed was set at 35 km / h.

The Halmstad – Bolmen line was the last section of the private narrow-gauge railways between Karlshamn in Blekinge and Halmstad on the west coast of Sweden. The Karlshamn – Vislanda line was inaugurated in 1874, the Vislanda – Bolmen line in 1878. In 1889, the entire line from Karlshamn to Halmstad was completed with the inauguration of the HBJ.

In 1899 Vislanda – Bolmens Järnvägsaktiebolag (ViBJ) went bankrupt. No bid was submitted in the subsequent auction. In 1902 the board of the HBJ proposed to buy the ViBJ for a sum of 768,299 crowns. Although the government backed this proposal, it was rejected by the Reichstag in 1904. This was mainly due to the strong resistance of the representatives of Kronobergs län. This problem was only resolved in 1907 when Karlshamn-Vislanda Järnvägsaktiebolag (KWJ) suggested merging the two railways. KWJ took over the assets and liabilities of ViBJ; two common shares of ViBJ were exchanged for one of KWJ. In July 1908, KWJ and ViBJ merged to form Karlshamn-Vislanda-Bolmens Järnvägsaktiebolag (KVBJ) . Halmstad – Bolmens Järnvägsaktiebolag missed this deal; the company made no further attempts to expand its route.

business

For operation and maintenance of the vehicles, an eight-hour roundhouse and a turntable with a diameter of eight meters were built in Halmstad south of the station building. For this purpose, a workshop for locomotives and wagons was built, which was used until 1927. Then Halmstad – Nässjö Järnvägsaktiebolag (HNJ) took over all repairs and maintenance of HBJ's rail vehicles.

In Bolmen, a two -tier locomotive shed was built at the southern end of the station in 1889 next to the shed built by Vislanda – Bolmens Järnvägsaktiebolag (ViBJ) in 1878 . HBJ used the ViBJ's 9 meter turntable.

Improvements were made over time: three bridges were rebuilt in 1905, and between 1910 and 1921 the rails were replaced with new ones weighing 24.8 kg per meter. Between 1920 and 1924 three stations were rebuilt. From 1916 to 1925 line improvements were made at the highest point of the railway at Nannarp.

vehicles

The following vehicles were procured for the route:

Steam locomotives, small locomotives, railcars and sidecars

number	Surname	design type	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	Construction year	Whereabouts
1	HALMSTAD	Tank locomotive	C t	Nydqvist och Holm , Trollhättan	251 1887	1947: SJ K3t 4050 , scrapped in 1954
2	NORTH FALK	Tank locomotive	C t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	252 1888	Scrapped in 1933
3	LIDHULT	Tank locomotive	C t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	253 1888	1947: SJ K3t 4051 , scrapped in 1956
4th	LÄRKAN	Steam railcar	A 1 t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	261 1889	with cabin for passengers and luggage, scrapped in 1933
5	HALLAND	Tank locomotive	C t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	405 1895	Scrapped in 1934
6th		Tank locomotive	1 'C t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	670 1902	1947: SJ S10t 4052 , scrapped in 1957
7th		Tank locomotive	1 'C 1' t	Henschel , Kassel	17826 1920	1947: SJ S3t 4053 , scrapped in 1966
11		Shunter	B.	Bjurström AB slip material , Västervik	76 1930	1947: SJ Zt 197 , scrapped in 1967
20th		Diesel railcars	(1A) '(A1)'	Hilding Carlsson , Umeå	1937	1947: SJ Yot 630 , scrapped in 1960
21st		Diesel railcars	(1A) '(A1)'	Hilding Carlsson, Umeå	1938	1947: SJ Yot 631 , scrapped in 1960
22nd		Diesel railcars	(1A) '(A1)'	Hilding Carlsson, Umeå	1944	1947: SJ Yot 632 , scrapped in 1964
23		Diesel railcars	(1A) '(A1)'	Hilding Carlsson, Umeå	1946	1947: SJ Yot 633 , scrapped in 1965
101		sidecar	2 '2'	Hilding Carlsson, Umeå	1939	1947: SJ UDFot 1648 , scrapped in 1965
103		sidecar	2 '2'	Hilding Carlsson, Umeå	1945	1947: SJ UCFo2t 1649 , scrapped in 1957

Locomotive no. 4 ( steam powered rail car) of Halmstad – Bolmens Järnväg on delivery

Seven two-axle passenger cars were purchased for passenger transport. The company procured two combined two-axle baggage mail trolleys for postal traffic. 56 two-axle freight cars were available for freight traffic.

A special feature was the locomotive No. 4 used on the railway line from 1889 to 1933 - the LÄRKAN tank locomotive , which was equipped with a cabin for passengers and luggage so that passengers could “ride in the locomotive” (see picture).

The fleet of vehicles was continuously expanded. In 1925, HBJ owned seven two-axle passenger cars, three bogie passenger cars and three two-axle luggage mail cars. The freight car park consisted of 116 two-axle freight cars and six bogie cars.

Åsen – Unnen railway line

Carl Johan Jehander, the general contractor for the construction of the Halmstad – Bolmen railway line, owned a steam saw that was built in Lidhult in 1888. With the purchase agreement dated June 16, 1893, Jehander acquired around 0.59 hectares of land from Per Andersson and his wife Britta Christina Pettersdotter at Lake Unnen for 400 kroner in order to secure space for the construction of a train station.

Map Åsen – Unnen (1893)

The land for the branch line from Åsen to Unnen was expropriated in 1893 by the railway company for compensation. The branch line, completed in the same year, cost 24,000 crowns. The connection was 2.5 km long and was used by two trains a day to take over cargo and passengers from the steamers Vega or Freya at the port in Unnen . These operated across the lake to Södra Unnaryd .

In 1895 Jehander decided to move his sawmill on the Unnen when the railway line was completed. In this way, the Unnen sawmill got a good connection for the delivery of raw wood that was dragged across the lake, as well as for sawn timber that could be transported away by rail. In November 1896 he sold the sawmill to the timber merchant August Persson, who already owned several steam saws. The plant had around 50 employees and was located on a property in Loshult on the south-eastern bank of the Unnen near the train station. Owner August Persson moved with his family from Älmås to the new steam sawmill on November 5, 1897. On November 14, 1898, Persson moved the headquarters of the sawmill to Yttra Röshult.

With the outbreak of the First World War , the possibilities for exporting sawn timber changed rapidly, resulting in a massive deterioration in profitability for the entire sawing industry in Sweden. Persson then opened a trucking company in Ljungby in 1917 and sold the sawmill.

The timber transports on the route became less and less until they were stopped in 1939. This led to the decision to discontinue and dismantle the railway. Sawmill owner Frans Andersson appealed to the government, led by Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson , to let the railway go. In a cabinet meeting in 1940 it was decided to shut down the railway and instead leave the embankment to the sawmill owner to build a road for heavy trucks.

All traffic on the line ended in October 1941. After Statens Järnvägar had taken over Halmstad – Bolmens Jernvägsaktiebolag on July 1, 1947 , the railway site was sold on May 26, 1948 to the station master Anders Lindqvist from Oskarström .

nationalization

In May 1939, the Reichstag passed the measures for the unification of the Swedish railway network ( Swedish åtgärder för enhetliggörande av det svenska järnvägsnätet ), which resulted in the general nationalization of the railway . The Royal Railway Administration ( Swedish Kungliga Järnvägsstyrelsens ) was given the task of negotiating voluntarily with private railway companies to agree the state to buy these companies.

Negotiations with HBJ began in 1945 after the end of the Second World War . This resulted in the sale of HBJ and its integration from July 1, 1947 in Statens Järnvägar .

Shutdown

The bridge over the Fettjesund is now used for a cycle path

During the SJ period, the train was an important means of transport for society and industry for many years. The development of car traffic with trucks, buses and passenger cars ultimately led to a decline in the competitiveness of the narrow-gauge railway despite rationalization. This resulted in lower profitability and loss of business.

Therefore, in July 1966, all traffic between Halmstad and Bygget was suspended. In October 1966, the rest of the route between Bygget and Bolmen followed.

Web links

Commons : Halmstad – Bolmen railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Rolf Sten: HBJ, Halmstad – Bolmens Järnväg. Retrieved February 1, 2015 (Swedish). 
• Res med HBJ. Retrieved February 4, 2015 (Swedish). 
• YouTube video: Halmstad Bolmens järnväg 1947

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Halmstad – Halmstad Ö – Åsen – Bolmen. Bandel 580, SJ district 30 bs. In: banvakt.se. Retrieved February 1, 2015 (Swedish). 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Unnens station. Retrieved February 1, 2015 (Swedish). 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Tidningen Motorvagnen. Images of train stations and vehicles. In: smok.nu. Svenska Motorvagnsklubben, accessed February 8, 2015 (Swedish). 
4. ^ Nydqvist & Holm AB - Bofors-Nohab AB, Trollhättan, Sverige. In: svenska-lok.se. Retrieved February 5, 2015 (Swedish). 
5. ↑ HBJ 11 / Bjurström. In: svenska-lok.se. Retrieved February 5, 2015 (Swedish). 
6. ↑ Hamstad - Bolmens Järnväg (HBJ). In: pospichal.net. Retrieved February 5, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Unnens sågverk. In: odensjohistoria.se. Retrieved February 4, 2015 (Swedish). 
8. ↑ Ångbåtarna på sjön Unnen. In: odensjohistoria.se. Retrieved February 4, 2015 (Swedish).