Kirkenes – Bjørnevatn railway line

Kirkenes – Bjørnevatn
Overview map
Route length:	8 kilometers
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	formerly: 400 V  =
Legend 0.00 Unloading bridge Kirkenes Portvinbekken E6 5.01 Army supply camp (only in World War II) Tunnel (about 80 m) Chr anchor vei 7.50 Bjørnevatn Tappetunnel Loading facility

Kirkenes port, terminus of the railway

Bjoernevatntunnelen

The Kirkenes – Bjørnevatn railway line ( Norwegian : Sydvarangerbanen ) is a coal and steel railway in Norway . It connects the port of Kirkenes and the iron ore mine of Bjørnevatn in Sør-Varanger . It was an eight-kilometer, single-track island operation in standard gauge . After Sydvaranger Gruve went bankrupt, the mine and the railway line were closed.

history

First operating phase 1909–1997

The mining company AS Sydvaranger opened the line in 1909. From 1912 to 1955 it was operated in two different technical systems: the port and the feed line:

• The tracks in the port of Kirkenes were each equipped with two conductor rails in 1912 , with which the locomotives ran under a voltage of ± 440 V. This two-pole system was chosen because an electrical overhead line would have got in the way of the port cranes' work. The electrical equipment - including the locomotives - was supplied by the Siemens-Schuckert works . The first two locomotives with the Bo wheel arrangement were procured in 1910 and 1911 (mechanical part from Hanomag ) and were given the numbers 1 and 2. In 1918, SSW and Busch / Bautzen delivered another machine, which was operated under the number 3. The last locomotive on the port railway, No. 4, was delivered in 1940.
• During the First World War it was decided to electrify the supply line to the mine, which was done until 1920. As early as 1917, two larger Bo'Bo 'locomotives from SSW and Skabo jernbanevognfabrik were delivered for this purpose, also marked with the numbers 1 and 2, but used exclusively on the supply route. The power consumption via a rail turned out to be very problematic on the supply route, since with this technology contact with the sanding shoe was often not ensured under heavy snowfall . The contact wire voltage here was 700 V.

In the 1930s, a number of Bo locomotives were procured for the supply route, which, in addition to the central pantograph, had a smaller pantograph on both sides, 1110 mm off-center. This enabled a reduced voltage of 350 V to be drawn from the overhead contact line located on one side in the area of ​​loading facilities. In 1937 another two Bo'Bo 'locomotives followed for the supply route.

In World War II the port was bombed and the withdrawal of the German Wehrmacht destroyed from northern Norway. After the Second World War, the port facilities and the railway were restored. 1955 all electric locomotives by two locomotives of the genus EMD G12 replaced torn off the electrical installations 1963rd The fleet was later supplemented by a MaK G 1203 BB diesel locomotive .

Passengers were carried until the 1960s. Two passenger cars from the early days of the railway are parked in Bjørnevatn.

Bjørnevatn's iron ore mine was closed in 1997 and the railway was shut down.

Second operating phase 2009–2016

As the price of steel rose , the mining operations and the railway line were reactivated in 2009 by the new owner, the Australian Northern Iron Limited . The line was operational from March 2009 and operations began on September 2, 2009. A G 1000 BB from Vossloh was used . She commuted on the route with a train from self-unloading wagons . The locomotive was always at the north end of the train. The car at the southern tip of the train had a cabin for a route observer.

The line was the northernmost operating railway in the world until 2010 and was then replaced by the Obskaja – Karskaja railway in Russia.

Due to falling raw material prices, the mine and railway were shut down again in 2015 and one of the locomotives, the MAK G 1000 BB , Vossloh delivery number 5001852, was sold to the Norwegian construction company Taraldsvik AS , which, after installing the Norwegian train protection system in front of construction trains on the Norwegian section of the Luleå– railway line. Narvik (Ofotbanen) starts. In September 2016, 50 to 60 employees started to remove the remaining ore in view of a possible reopening in 2017. A collision between the remaining locomotive and an in-house excavator ended operations on November 25, 2016 because no reserve locomotive was available.

In summer 2019, a new mining company applied for a mining license. It is planned to resume mining operations in spring 2020.

Expansion plans

Second World War

During the German occupation of Norway there were plans to connect the Kirkenes – Bjørnevatn railway with the Norwegian rail network due to military considerations. A start was made to close the existing gap of around 2000 km with the polar orbit to the Nordlandsbane by pushing the head of the Nordlandsbane northwards. The work was stopped at the end of the war, without the systems ever being connected.

Extension to Russia

After 1992 it was considered the route to the Russian Nikel to extend the km only 40 remote from Kirkenes and its ice-free port to the recovered there nickel ore to export, without the congested ports of Murmansk (km 200) and Arkhangelsk use to have to.

Connection with Finland

In 2018 there were considerations to connect Kirkenes to the railway network via Rovaniemi. Realization would be possible after 2030.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ane Børrud: Sydvaranger Gruve he bankruptcy. frifagbevegelse.no, November 18, 2015, accessed August 2, 2016 (Norwegian). 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Nils Carl Aspenberg: Elektrolok i Norge . Ed .: Baneforlaget. Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-91448-42-6 , pp. 18-19 (Norwegian).
3. ↑ ^{a b} SSW reference and delivery lists, drawings and circuit diagrams
4. ^ Locomotives from Kiel
5. ↑ ^{a b c} IBSE telegram 237 (August 2010), p. 4
6. ↑ Northern Iron Limited ( Memento from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ Deviating from November 22, 2009: IBSE Telegram 237 (August 2010), p. 4.
8. ↑ Post wagon
9. ↑ Environmentalists stop ore pulling . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 8-9 / 2010, p. 420.
10. ↑ http://www.loks-aus-kiel.de/index.php?nav=1401098&lang=1&id=69917&action=portrait
11. ↑ Loks-aus-Kiel.de. Retrieved December 1, 2015 . 
12. ^ G 1000 from Kirkenes to Narvik . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 8-9 / 2016, p. 410.
13. ↑ Ida Karine Gullvik, Robin Mortensen: ETT ÅR ETTER BILLION BILLIONS ER SYDVARANGER GRUVE I GANG IGJEN. nrk.no, accessed December 1, 2016 (Norwegian). 
14. ↑ Togkrasj kan fore til stans for Sydvaranger Gruve. nrk.no, November 28, 2016, accessed December 1, 2016 (Norwegian). 
15. ^ Kirkenes Havn og Jernbanetilknytning. (PDF; 479 kB) Forbindelsen mellom Kirkenes and det russiske jernbanenettet. Municipality of Sør-Varanger, archived from the original on February 7, 2012 ; Retrieved January 21, 2016 (Norwegian). 
16. ^ Railroad to connect Kirkenes and Nickel. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015 ; accessed on December 1, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Finland / Norway: Examination of an arctic railway connection Rovaniemi - Kirkenes. WKZ, source Arctic Corridor, Ministry of Transport and Communications. In: Lokreport . March 9, 2018, accessed March 12, 2018 . 

Web links

Commons : Sydvarangerbanen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Sydvaranger jernbane. Pictures of the Kirkenes – Bjørnevatn railway line. In: jernbane.net. Retrieved January 21, 2016 (Norwegian). 
• Norge - Malmbane - Bjørnevatn - Kirkenes. In: tog-billeder.dk. July 6, 2007, accessed January 21, 2016 (Danish). 
• Klaus Meschede: The northernmost railway on earth - a visit to Kirkenes / Norway. (PDF) June 2, 2004, accessed January 21, 2016 .